Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers Read online

  Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  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