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

Unabridged
Author: Michael J. Tougias
Narrator: Joe Barrett
Genres: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Date: March 2006
Length: 10 hours
Ratings:
Formats:
  • CD

Overview

The actual radio messages from the doomed boat and the Coast Guard are included in this audiobook.

During the height of the blizzard of 1978, a tanker foundered on the shoals off the Massachusetts coast. The Coast Guard dispatched a patrol boat that was soon in trouble, too. A pilot-boat captain, Frank Quirk, heard of the Coast Guard’s plight on his radio. He gathered his crew of four, readied his forty-nine-foot steel boat, the Can Do, and entered the maelstrom of the blizzard soon to be known as the Storm of the Century.

Encountering one of the most monstrous seas ever recorded, Quirk struggled through the night to keep his boat from sinking, maintaining contact through his hand-held battery-powered radio. The Can Do stayed afloat past three a.m. Then there was silence.

Through dozens of interviews as well as recordings of the radio communications exchanged between Quirk and the Coast Guard—actual recordings included here in this audiobook—Michael J. Tougias provides us a devastating, true account of bravery and death at sea.

Reviews (1)

Not Sea Worthy

Written by Tom Watrous on March 31st, 2008

  • Book Rating: 2/5

I was very disappointed with this book. The narrative jumped all over the place, there was no suspense involved; it was a biography of a boat captain and his exploits, much of which was not much of an adventure and the author was intent on canonizing the man. Don't get me wrong, I respect the man for who he was and what he did; it was just boring...more like a collection of newspaper articles than anything that hung together as a story.