Program

During the height of the blizzard of 1978, the pilot boat Can Do set out from Gloucester, MA with five men onboard, to assist a lost Coast Guard boat and an oil tanker in a Mayday situation. Using dramatic photography slides, Tougias tells the story of what happened on that awful night when the seas were producing monstrous waves of 40 feet and the wind was screaming at 115 miles per hour. His book on the subject, Ten Hours Until Dawn will be released as a middle reader book by Henry Holt Publishing in 2018. The American Library Association selected the Adult version as “One of the Top Books of the Year.” After telling the story, Tougias engages students in a discussion of his research and writing process for the book and offers tips for their own projects.