In the midst of the Blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope
floundered on the shoals in Salem Sound off the Massachusetts coast. The
Coast Guard heard the Mayday calls and immediately dispatched a patrol
boat. Within an hour, the Coast Guard boat was in as much trouble as the
tanker, having lost its radar, depth finder, and engine power in
horrendous seas. Pilot boat Captain Frank Quirk was monitoring the Coast
Guard's efforts by radio, and when he heard that the patrol boat was in
jeopardy, he decided to act. Gathering his crew of four, he readied his
forty-nine-foot steel boat, the Can Do, and entered the maelstrom of
the blizzard.
Using dozens of interview and audiotapes that recorded every word
exchanged between Quirk and the Coast Guard, Tougias has written a
devastating, true account of bravery and death at sea, in Ten Hours
Until Dawn.