Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers
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THE BOY WITH THE U. S. LIFE-SAVERS
BOOKS BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER
U. S. Service Series
Illustrations from Photographs taken for U. S. Government. Large 12mo.Cloth. Price $1.50 each.
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. SURVEYTHE BOY WITH THE U. S. FORESTERSTHE BOY WITH THE U. S. CENSUSTHE BOY WITH THE U. S. FISHERIESTHE BOY WITH THE U. S. INDIANSTHE BOY WITH THE U. S. EXPLORERS
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
THE GLEAM THAT BRINGS HOPE.
Coast Guard patrol burning the Coston Light as signal to wrecked vesselthat help is at hand.
Courtesy of Outing Magazine.]
U. S. SERVICE SERIES.
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. LIFE-SAVERS
BY FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER
With Forty-eight Illustrations, nearly all from Photographs Loaned byBureaus of the U. S. Government
BOSTONLOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
Published, August, 1915
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
_All rights reserved_
THE BOY WITH THE U. S. LIFE-SAVERS
Norwood PressBERWICK & SMITH CO.NORWOOD, MASS.U. S. A.
PREFACE
Upon the hungry rock-bound shores of Maine, and over the treacherousquicksands of Cape Hatteras, the billows of the Atlantic roll; thetropical storms of the Gulf of Mexico whip a high surf over the coralreefs of Florida; upon the Pacific coast, six thousand miles of seafling all their fury on the land; yet no one fears. Serene in theknowledge that the United States Coast Guard and the Lighthouse Bureaunever sleep, vessels from every corner of the world converge to thegreat seaports of America.
The towers that stand sentinel all day, or flame their unceasingvigilance all night, hold out their message of welcome or of warning toevery ship that nears the coast, and not a point of danger isunprotected. Should an unreckoned-with disaster cast a vessel on thebreakers, there is not a mile of beach that the Coast Guard does notwatch.
Far in the northern Bering Sea, a Coast Guard cutter blazes the hiddentrail through Polar ice for the oncoming fleet of whalers, and carriesAmerican justice to where, as yet, no court has been; out in themid-Atlantic, when the Greenland icebergs follow their silent path ofghostly menace, a Coast Guard cutter watches and warns the great oceanliners of their peril; and when, in spite of all that skill andwatchfulness can do, the sea claims its toll of wreck, it is the CoastGuard cutter that is first upon the scene of rescue. To show the sternwork done by the U. S. Coast Guard, to depict the indomitable men whoovercome dangers greater than are known to any others who traffic on thesea, to point to the manly boyhood of America this arm of our country'snational defense, whose history is one long record of splendid heroism,is the aim and purpose of
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
A RESCUE BY MOONLIGHT 1
CHAPTER II
THE LIGHTS THAT NEVER SLEEP 28
CHAPTER III
HEROES OF THE UNDERGROUND 61
CHAPTER IV
SNATCHED FROM A FROZEN DEATH 96
CHAPTER V
SAVED BY THE BREECHES-BUOY 120
CHAPTER VI
A BLAZON OF FLAME AT SEA 156
CHAPTER VII
REINDEER TO THE RESCUE 187
CHAPTER VIII
THE BELCHING DEATH OF A VOLCANO 222
CHAPTER IX
DEFYING THE TEMPEST'S VIOLENCE 246
CHAPTER X
ADRIFT ON A DERELICT 274
CHAPTER XI
THE WRECKERS OF THE SPANISH MAIN 294
CHAPTER XII
THE GRAVEYARD OF THE DEEP 322