Ten Hours Until Dawn The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do

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.

Michael J. Tougias is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the award-winning author of fifteen books. His latest book, The Blizzard of ’78, was a Boston Globe bestseller. He is also the coauthor of King Philip’s War and There’s a Porcupine in My Outhouse (Best Nature Book of 2003---Independent Publishers Association). He lives in Franklin, Massachusetts.