Jack Straw, Lighthouse Builder

The sea has claimed countless vessels, and someone has to stand between the ocean's darkness and the sailors who trust the coast. This is the story of Jack Straw, a determined young man who trades an ordinary summer for something far more dangerous: the chance to build a lighthouse on Cobra Reef, one of the most treacherous stretches off the Maine coast. Jack arrives at Hood Island ready to learn the craft of lighthouse construction, but nothing has prepared him for the brutal reality of working at sea. He must earn the respect of hardened builders while mastering the technical demands of anchoring a tower to deadly reef rock. The ocean tests his courage daily, and the stakes could not be higher: a failed lighthouse means more ships breaking apart in the night. This is adventure as the early 20th century imagined it: practical, physical, and full of hard-won wisdom about what it means to build something that matters.