The coast guardsman
| Language | en |
|---|---|
| First published | 2026-01-29 |
| Rights | Public domain in the USA. |
| Gutenberg ID | #77810 |
Description
The coast guardsman by W. E. Carlton. This is a maritime adventure short story from the early 20th-century pulp era. It focuses on coast-guard work along Cape Cod, mixing station rivalries with a tense encounter with smugglers, and shows how a young surfman proves his courage and integrity. Aubrey Sears, a Number Two surfman at Santuck station, is branded a coward after his superior, Jansen, takes credit for a capture from the outlaw schooner Seabright and feeds a false version to the press. Urged by his sweetheart, Mamie Weston, and tipped by neighbor Amos Swift, Aubrey secretly checks fogbound Howesport harbor and confronts the Holway lobstermen landing at Swift’s Landing. A taunt spirals into a brutal brawl: Aubrey floors the towering “Bloody Nathan” Holway but is overwhelmed by Nathan’s sons. Captain Cole arrives with crew, reveals they have just found a metal tube of opium hidden among the lobsters, and exposes Jansen’s role in ending the harbor patrol to aid smuggling. Cole admits he never endorsed Jansen’s story, declares Aubrey has shown the grit he wanted to see, and vows to make him the next Number One, while Nathan and Jansen face the consequences. (This is an automatically generated summary.)