Seashore Sentinel: The Old Lifesaving Station On Cape Cod

by Richard G. Ryder

Written by the grandson of a Former Surfman at Old Harbor Station! 128 pages, with stories of shipwrecks, heroic rescues by the men of the US Lifesaving Service and Coast Guard. A well documented history of an 1898 era Life Saving Station, now located in the Cape Cod National Seashore and open for visitors. " "Seashore Sentinel" is beautifully illustrated with old and new photographs as well as drawings, vintage postcards and maps." (The Cape Cod Chronicle, July 16th, 2009)

Genres: Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lifesaving Station on Cape Cod is built in the Duluth style, just like the one on Plum Island. It was fascinating for me to see the pictures and imagine what Plum might have looked like in the same era. Equally fascinating were the rescue stories and activities; a bit more drama on the ocean than Lake Michigan! The writer begins the book with a brief education on the US Revenue Cutter and US Life Saving Service to set the stage, mixes in a couple of shipwrecks, adds a visual description of the station and goes onto include entries from the Annual Reports of the US Life Saving Service, complete with pictures of days gone by. This is a great reference for preservationists to use when restoring stations built in that era, like the Plum Island Station.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting history of one lifesaving station of Cape Cod. Although much of the book reads like a summarized log book the information contained therein is still of great interest to those who delight in the history of the US Lifesaving Service and thereby the Coast Guard. The station in question is preserved by the National Park Service just outside of Provincetown, Massachusetts on the Cape Cod National Seashore.

This book was gifted to me by the author himself, a signed copy.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and informative information about the Life Saving Service.