The Boy with the U. S. Life-Savers

The moonlit surf runs cold and dangerous on the Atlantic coast, and fifteen-year-old Eric Swift has answered his first distress call. Armed with nothing but rope and resolve, he charges into churning waves where a man drowns. This is the world of the United States Life-Saving Corps in the early 1900s, where boys barely older than children train alongside hardened veterans to drag the living from the dead. Eric's story follows his transformation from eager volunteer to seasoned lifesaver, his comradeship with the rugged men who patrol these lonely beaches, and his burning ambition to join the Coast Guard. Between hair-raising rescues, shipwrecks, swimmers caught in riptides, vessels driven onto shoals, Rolt-Wheeler weaves practical instruction in water safety and resuscitation techniques, making this as much a manual of maritime self-preservation as an adventure tale. For readers who grew up on Hatchet and My Friend Flicka, here is a lost classic of American少年 heroism, grit, and the silent courage of men who walk beaches at midnight, listening for cries that may never come.