On pages 9 and 10, I incorrectly identify Bernie Webber's friend as Steve Holden.  He should be identified as  Milton Anderson.  Also, on pages 65 and 66 CG36850 should  read CG36383 -- the boat manned by Chief Bangs and crew.  On the back cover, promotional  notes say 30 lives were saved; it should read 32.

My sincere apologies for the errors.  Save for the promotional notes, I take full responsibility.  The embarrasing explanation is that "Steve Holden" was a "plugged" name I placed in the original query letter and proposal to publishers way back in 2002.  The sample chapters, which contained fictitious "plugged" names representing true characters, then served as the basis for my writing in 2008.  While it is common to use plugged names in author proposals to publishers, it is truly embarassing that I did not catch the plug when I began writing the piece for real six years later using the electronic files of the chapter proposals written six years earlier. 
 

Because Webber and his buddy were supposedly involved in potentially juvenile delinquent activity, I altered the name in the proposal so that Anderson was not libeled in any way in the proposal.  I had not confirmed what the activity was.  Ironically, when I began writing anew, I researched what Bernie and Anderson did -- breaking some street lights and rolling about in some hedges -- but completely missed the Steve Holden "placeholder."  There is no Steve Holden.  The name is a fictiious play on a fictious character.  Anderson ran away from Bernie's prep school -- similar to Holden Caulfield of "Catcher in the Rye" fleeing his prep school. 

The mistake on the boat number is a blown play on my part.  I ought to have caught it in my proofing of the book. 

The mistakes do not in any way change what happened in the story.  Bernie and his buddie did get in trouble.  It was Anderson not "Holden."  Chief Bangs and his crew did perform heroic deeds -- but in the CG 36383.  The use of Holden instead of Anderson was wholly unintentional and in error.

Again, my apologies to those impacted by the errors and to my readers.  


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This from a review from Dennis Noble.  All of my information was researched and attributed to reputable, published sources.  That said, Noble is an excellent historian who drives toward primary, original sources.  So I seriously respect his opinion and, given the chance, "re-report" this information. The Etheridge information was taken from the US Coast Guard Historian's page and a book about the Pea Island lifesavers.  I was aware of the reason for the weight in the keel but apparently did not convey that well. McCormack, I believe, was the recipient of medals from a state association -- not US.  He was nevertheless one of the most famous lifesavers.  I am grateful to Dennis Noble for noting these points of contention and for what was overall a very positive review.
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  Despite being a highly readable book, Frump has made some mistakes dealing with aspects of the complicated history of the U.S. Coast Guard. The U.S. Life-Saving Service did not merge with the U.S. Coast Guard (p. 14): the U.S. Coast Guard was formed by the merger of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life-Saving Service. There is no listing in the U.S. Life-Saving Service of a Charles McCormack who received five gold medals (pp. 14-15); Keeper Patrick Ethridge was not an African American Keeper of Pea Island, North Carolina who supposedly coined the phrase "you have to go out, but you do not have to come back." There was an African American keeper at Pea Island, but according to the U.S. Coast Guard there was a white keeper also named Ethridge that served at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, who is given credit for the comment (pp.18-19); and, finally, the main reason for the large amount of weight in the keel of the thirty-six foot motor lifeboat was to help right the boat, not to stabilize it (p.17). None of these mistakes, however, affects the main theme of the book.