The story of Howard Blackburn, Yankee seaman from Gloucester is one of the most incredible every published. This heroric figure was a late-nineteenth-century mariner whose indestructibility and nautical skill enabled him to survive five blizzard-swept days and nights in the North Atlantic in a dory. Undaunted, he went on to sail the Atlantic twice alone.

On our trip to Boston in Oct 2012, we visited Abbot Hall in Marblehead. This is the city hall and also a Maritime Museum where the original painting of "The Spirit of 76" hangs. We met a tour guide there, a local resident, who told us the story of Harold Blackburn. I searched the Internet when I returned and could find no available copy. Then, to my utter amazement, I found it only two weeks after the Boston trip right at my local DI!