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Wrecks Rescues and Investigations: Selected Documents of the U.S. Coast Guard and Its Predecessors

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This book relates the history and beginnings of the US Coast Guard and the sinkings and rescues of ships such as The Monitor, the schooner Charles K. Buckley, the Ayrshire (1850), the Amerique, the J. H. Hartzell, the Stephen Harding, the W. J. Stairs, the Etrusco, the Ephraim Williams, the D. H. Ingraham, the Arago, the Calumet, the Priscilla, and the Mirlo, among others. There are also sections on the development of the Coston Light, the lifeboat, line-throwing devices, the Lyle gun (with instructions for cleaning and repairing this device!), the lifecar, the breeches buoy, and other lifesaving devices. The book is comprised of scanned original documents, transcribed documents, and diagrams and drawings to tell the stories of these harrowing attempts at rescues and the heroic people behind them. There are reproductions of official government documents as well as narratives from witnesses and rescuers. There is a section on World War II era shipwrecks and rescues as well. The Edmund Fitzgerald is the last ship documented in the book with the SAR Incident Report, the initial press release and excerpts from the report by the Marine Board of Investigation. This book is a fantastic historical, genealogical and military reference! And a fascinating book to read too!