In the midst of the Blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope floundered on the shoals in Salem Sound, off the Massachusetts coast. The Coast Guard heard the mayday calls and immediately dispatched a patrol boat. Within an hour the Coast Guard boat was in as much trouble as the tanker, having lost its radar, depth finder and engine power in horrendous seas. Pilot boat captain Frank Quirk was monitoring the Coast Guard efforts by radio and when he heard the patrol boat was in jeopardy, he decided to act. Gathering his crew of four, he readied his forty-nine-foot steel boat, the Can Do, and entered the maelstrom of the blizzard. Throughout the night Quirk struggled to keep his boat from being driven to the depths of the sea as thirty-foot waves battered the Can Do, knocking out the navigational equipment and smashing the windows. Ten Hous Until Dawn is an astonishing character-driven story of heroism and an unforgettable portrait of the determination of the human spirit. Using dozens of interviews and audio tape that recorded every word exchanged between Quirk and the Coast Guard, Tougias has written a devastating true account of bravery and death at sea.