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“The diary of Captain Thomas Rose Lake is a significant contribution to American maritime history.”
— Dr. Brooks Miles Barnes, co-editor of Seashore Chronicles: Three Centuries of the Virginia Barrier Islands. |
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Initially, my interest was simply that of an antiquarian, but as I became engrossed in the young captain's account, it became apparent that this tiny journal was unique. It was most uncommon for any active youth, relatively uneducated and exceedingly unsophisticated, to set down his daily activities so dutifully and thoroughly at sea and on shore. That it was written at all was a simple stroke of good fortune. In September of 1877, twenty-one year old Thomas became captain of the sloop, Golden Light. Undoubtedly excited and proud of his first command, the youth was moved to keep the journal. The result of his labor is a small, but impressive, socioeconomic document, not only of the eastern New Jersey shore, but of coastal communities everywhere and those thousands of people who wrested a marginal living from its land and waters — people whose lives illustrate the American condition with far greater accuracy than those of the educated and genteel inhabitants of the drawing rooms and the seats of governmental power. — James B. Kirk, II |
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From the Introduction to |
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