Description

On 4 May at 6.30PM John Wilbur will discuss the Coastal Picket Patrol of World War II and the novel that it inspired him to write. It is a story about one of the more peculiar aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II where the US Navy found itself critically short of ships to patrol the coastal waters for U-boats, and ultimately turned to a plan concocted by the Cruising Club of America to employ sailing yachts far out on the continental shelf. This actually happened, and the schooner Brilliant from Mystic Seaport participated in this operation and sailed out of St. Simon’s Island, Georgia for much of 1943. Around southern New England, the biggest base for these yachts was Greenport, Long Island and this is the group that is the focus of the novel. Alan Becker has just finished his Junior year at Trinity in Hartford when he tries to enlist in the Navy. Rejected by the Navy as physically unfit, but a chance meeting with his summer employer Henry Stanton leads him to join the Temporary component of the Coast Guard Reserve. He serves aboard Stanton’s 74-foot schooner Santaren, which has been accepted into the Reserve as well, and is now known as CGR-1971. Initially, Becker’s enlistment is for two months, but events compel him to extend his enlistment indefinitely. He serves the rest of the war in CGR-1971, assuming command in October 1942. What follows is an accurate account of what World War II was like for the men of the Picket Patrol and also what the war was like on the Home Front. The book is accurate with respect to world events, the activities of the Patrol, and even the weather which played such an overwhelming part in the lives of these men. It is a salty yarn with a lot of local history woven into it. The discussion is illustrated with photos of the patrol.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase (cash/check only). Registration required.