No Port in a Storm

This volume describes 18 factual adventures of lightships, and ranges over a variety of countries, including America, Denmark, Ireland, Canada, England, Holland, Scotland, Australia and Belgium. It gives accounts of life aboard lightships, and the many hazards and disasters that occurred. Lightships were invariably painted a gaudy red and spent more time at sea than any other ship, their crews compelled to scan the same water and stretch of coastline for the bulk of their working lives. Unlike lighthouse keepers comfortable within their towers, the life of the lightshipman in a hurricane was a sleepless nightmare of holding on, body braced against every combination of rolling and pitching, with tons of water burying the ship. Even under normal conditions, a lightship at anchor is like a cork in the water with the mooring cable checking her motion with a shudder that shook the whole ship.