Resources available at the Penobscot Marine Museum’s Stephen Phillips Memorial Library in regard to the Coast Guard and the old Life-Saving Service. I have not included call numbers.

Bennett, Robert F. Surfboats, Rockets, and Carronades. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976. Shanks, Ralph and Wick York. The U.S. Life-Saving Service: Heroes, Rescues and Architecture of the Early Coast Guard. Edited by Lisa Woo Shanks. Petaluma, CA: Costano Books, 1996. Noble, Dennis. That Others Might Live: The U.S. Life-Saving Service, 1878-1915. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1994. Wilkinson, William D. and Commander Timothy R. Dring. American Coastal Rescue Craft: A Design History of Coastal Rescue Craft Used by the United States Life-Saving Service and the United States Coast Guard. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2009. Bennett, Robert F. Sand Pounders: An Interpretive History of the U. S. Life-Saving Service, based on its Annual Reports for the Years 1870 through 1914. Washington DC: U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office, 1998. Burroughs, Polly. The Great Ice Ship Bear: Eighty- Nine Years In Polar Seas. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1970. Baarslag, Karl. Coast Guard to the Rescue. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1937. Bloomfield, Howard V. L. The Compact History of the United States Coast Guard. Illustrated by Gil Walker. New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1966. Capron, Walter C. The U. S. Coast Guard. New York: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965. David, Evan J. Our Coast Guard: High Adventure With the Watchers of Our Shores. New York/London: D. Appleton – Century Company, 1942. Evans, Stephen H. The United States Coast Guard 1790-1914: A Definitive History (With a Postscript: 1915-1950). Annapolis, Maryland: The United States Naval Institute, 1948. King, Irving H. The Coast Guard Under Sail: The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service 1789-1865. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989. King, Irving H. The Coast Guard Expands: 1865-1915 New Roles, New Frontiers. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1996. Smith, Horatio Davis. Early History of the United States Revenue Marine Service or (United Stares Revenue Cutter Service) 1789-1849. Edited by Elliot Snow. Washington, D.C.: A Coast Guard Bicentennial Publication, 1989. Noble, Dennis L. Historical Register U. S. Revenue Cutter Service Officers 1790-1914. Washington, D.C.: Coast Guard Historian’s Office, 1990. Schreiner, JR., Samuel A. Mayday! Mayday! The Most Exciting Missions of Rescue, Interdiction and Combat in the 200-Year Annals of the U.S. Coast Guard. New York: Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1990. Johnson, Robert Erwin. Guardians of the Sea: History of the United States Coast Guard 1915 to the Present. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987. Halberstadt, Hans. USCG Always Ready. Novato, California: Presidio Press, 1986. Bishop, Eleanor C. Prints in the Sand: The U.S. Coast Guard Beach Patrol During World War II. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1989. Canney, Donald L. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1995. Scheina, Robert L. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1982. Scheina, Robert L. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft 1946-1990. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990. Willoughby, Malcolm F. The Coast Guard’s TRs: First Naval District. Boston: Charles E. Lauriat Company, 1945. Johnson, Robert Erwin. Bering Sea Escort: Life Aboard a Coast Guard Cutter in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1992. Report of The Cruise of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear and the Overland Expedition for the Relief of the Whalers in the Arctic Ocean, from November 27, 1897, to September 13, 1898. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899. Middleton, E. W. Lifeboats of the World: A Pocket Encyclopedia of Sea Rescue. Poole, Dorset, England: Blanford Press, LTD., 1977. The Book of the Life-Boat with Numerous Original Illustrations. Edited by J.C. Dibden and John Ayling. London: Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1894. Report of the Ninth International Life-Boat Conference Held in Edinburgh from 4th June to 6th June, 1963. Royal National Life-Boat Institution, ND. Lamb, John Cameron. The Life-Boat and Its Work. London: Eilliam Clowes and Sons, Limited, 1911. Warner, Oliver. The Life-Boat Service: A History of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution 1824-1974. London: Cassell & Company, LTD., 1974. Ireland, John de Courcy. Wreck and Rescue on the East Coast of Ireland. Dublin: The Glendale Press, 1983. Wead, Frank. Gales, Ice and Men: A Biography of the Steam Barkentine Bear. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1937. Bixby, William. Track of the Bear 1873-1963. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1965. Rescue CG36500: The Story of the Lifeboat CG36500 and the famous rescue off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts of thirty-two men from a broken tanker in February, 1952. The Orleans Historical Society. Orleans, Mass.: Lower Cape Publishing, 1985. Stonehouse, Frederick. Shipwreck of the Mesquite: Death of a Coast Guard Cutter. Duluth, Minn.: Lake Superior Port Cities, 1991. Ransom, M. A. and Eloise Katherine Engle. Sea of the Bear: Journal of a voyage to Alaska and the Arctic, 1921. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1964.

Inagural post

It is my hope that this blog will be helpful to the sort of armchair adventurer that loves sea stories. Because I live in Maine, I will be focusing on New England. Our area has a wealth of resources that should interest readers of nautical fiction. I will explore the various libraries, archives and museums in the area, as well as particular authors and titles. I will also try to keep readers updated about upcoming boat shows, museum exhibits, book signings and library events that are pertinent. I also plan to discuss the maritime holdings within the many archives throughout the region. There is a list of links on the blog for some maritime museums of interest. There is a nautical reader's guide link to a site I created as a class project and there is a list of my favorite top ten fiction and nonfiction titles to get the conversation going (my list would be different at various stages of my reading life, so nothing is written in stone).