In 1882, Charles ’Gunner’ Morgan, 17, shipped out from New Orleans as a 3rd class apprentice seaman, Navy No. 817. Becoming a Navy team baseball player, he knew the ’greats’ in American baseball. In 1898, he led the dive team pulling bodies from the USS Maine disaster, reported to President Theodore Roosevelt (then assistant secretary of the Navy), and became ’The Man Who Started the Spanish-American War.’
Known also as ’The Man Behind the Gun’ for his shooting prowess, he was among the first enlisted men promoted to officer. He taught the Japanese how to fire the big guns in the Russo-Japanese War. He survived working in Thomas Edison’s Navy lab at Key West.
Yet, he found time for love. He met Vivian, the sugar king of Havana’s daughter, married and pregnant — both situations temporary. She became his soul’s safe harbor.
In later years, he helped build the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West. As Maritime Inspector, he surveyed and developed the South American airports creating Pan Am Airways.
An American patriot, he lived for the moment that the sunset’s green fire on the sea’s horizon promised the dawn to come. Always he returned to the sea.
Board the ships, climb the rigging, shoot the guns, when America came to rule the seas. Discover the 93 years that defined Gunner Morgan.
His grandson, Charles D. Morgan, discovered his grandfather’s old sea chest, and hidden in its base, stacks of documents and letters, that led the author on a lifetime journey to reveal his grandfather’s legacy to America.
’Captain of the Tides Gunner Morgan’ is that legacy, retold as an historical novel, a riveting story of a young Navy seaman whose heroism captured the loyalty of Americans.
Innehållsförteckning
Prologue 1
Chapter One:
Spaghetti, Baseball and the Sea. 5
Chapter Two: Troubled Waters 13
Chapter Three: Rivers Rising! 25
Chapter Four: Going to Sea 33
Chapter Five: Sink or Swim 45
Chapter Six: Fire! Fire! 57
Chapter Seven: Starting a War With Spain 67
Chapter Eight: Ready, Aim Fire! 79
Chapter Nine: Man Behind the Gun 97
Chapter Ten: Riding Fortune’s Seas 115
Chapter Eleven: Who Cares About Key West? 127
Chapter Twelve: Wedding Bells Toll 141
Chapter Thirteen: Death by Duel 155
Chapter Fourteen: Taking Pineapple to the Bank 167
Chapter Fifteen: Surviving Thomas Edison 181
Chapter Sixteen: Pan Am Airways Takes Off 197
Chapter Seventeen: Old Sea Dogs 217
Chapter Eighteen: Going Home 229
Epilogue: 233
Om författaren
Jacque Hillman, of Jackson, Tennessee, is senior editor and partner in The Hill Helen Group Publishers. A top writer and editor at The Jackson Sun for 23 years, now she edits and publishes books for authors nationwide. Jacque has co-authored ’Captain of the Tides Gunner Morgan, ’ an historical novel about US Navy hero, Charles ’Gunner’ Morgan, 1865-1959. A graduate of the Delta Leadership Institute Executive Academy of Delta Regional Authority, Jacque is a Sterling Award Winner: 20 Most Influential Women in West Tennessee. She received West Tennessee Healthcare Foundation’s Jackson Award for the Arts.
www.jacquehillman.com
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