The Tides of Barnegat
The Tides of Barnegat
F. Hopkinson Smith and John Bailey Lloyd
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''The Tides of Barnegat is a romance spanning a twenty year period from 1854 until 1874, with a highly melodramatic final chapter involving the newly organized U.S. Life-Saving Service in a tragic ship wreck... This scene of high drama comes as the resolution of a tightly constructed novel by a remarkable man.'' — from the Introduction by John Bailey Lloyd.
Out of print for more than half a century, the text and original illustrations are carefully reproduced here in a lovely reprint of this classic 1906 seashore novel by F. Hopkinson Smith. In a Victorian style capturing the gentle ebbing and the fierce moods of the ocean and personalities of the people living along its shores, Smith's novel is a rich portrait of its era along the coast.
It ''makes you yearn for the time when things such as honor and duty and responsibility and commitment were actually taken seriously,'' said one reviewer.
The novel follows two sisters, Jane and Lucy Cobden. Jane, the older by ten years, had vowed alongside her father's deathbed to raise and protect Lucy. When Lucy returns from boarding school in Philadelphia, Jane gives her younger sister all she desires with a caring hand, but does not find in Lucy the same forthright and dutiful character that she possesses. Misled by her love, Jane protects Lucy at the expense of her own life's happiness and a marriage to a man who loves her.
The fictional setting uses many landmarks and locations that suggest Barnegat Light and the mainland adjacent to Long Beach Island N.J., although Smith has altered the landscape to benefit the narrative.
An added introduction by Long Beach Island historian John Bailey Lloyd explains some of the peculiarities of the novel, as well as keying the reader in to what is below the surface of all the strident virtue — strength commingled with human weakness. Mr. Lloyd provides a fascinating look at the author, a remarkable man who was a marine engineer, builder of lighthouses, writer, and fine artist.
This is a complete quality reprinting of the original book, not a print-on-demand facsimile edition, including the 12 original illustrations by George Wright. The softcover edition cover features a commissioned original oil painting by Jersey Shore artist Marilyn Ganss.
Pages: 424
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John Bailey Lloyd
Dimensions: 7.75” x 5.25” x 1.25"
Review
Review
''The denouoement — as rousing finales used to be called in those days — is the gripping account of a nasty northeaster and a nightlong rescue operation to save a shoaling ship and its crew. It carries you along as relentlessly as 'The Perfect Storm' did, made more page-turning because you know the tale-ends of all the plot lines are being battered and the fates of the characters shaped by the winds and waves.'' — The SandPaper
Another Review
Another Review
It will ''catch you off guard and capture your interest….The Tides of Barnegat is a worthwhile read because it tells a grand story in true potboiler fashion. This makes it a book that card-carrying he-men shouldn't be afraid to pick up.'' — The Beachcomber
Blurb
Blurb
“These Barnegat tides are the sponges that wipe clean the slate of the beach. Each day a new record is made and each day it is wiped out: records from passing ships, an empty crate, broken spar or useless barrel.... Records, too, of many footprints — the lagging steps of happy lovers, the dimpled feet of joyous children; the tread of tramp, coast-guard or fisherman — all scoured clean when the merciful tide makes ebb.” — from the book
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More Info...
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The Doctor’s Gig
Spring Blossoms
Little Tod Fogarty
Ann Gossaway’s Red Cloak
Captain Nat’s Decision
A Game of Cards
The Eyes of an Old Portrait
An Arrival
The Spread of Fire
A Late Visitor
Morton Cobden’s Daughter
A Letter from Paris
Scootsy’s Epithet
High Water at Yardley
A Package of Letters
The Beginning of the Ebb
Breakers Ahead
The Swede’s Story
The Breaking of the Dawn
The Undertow
The Man in the Slouch Hat
The Claw of the Sea-Puss
Excerpt
Excerpt
From Chapter III - Little Tod Fogarty:
As he approached the old House of Refuge, black in the moonlight and looking twice its size in the stretch of endless beach, he noticed for the hundredth time how like a crouching woman it appeared, with its hipped roof hunched up like a shoulder close propped against the dune and its overhanging eaves but a draped hood shading its thoughtful brow; an illusion which vanished when its square form, with its wide door and long platform pointing to the sea, came into view.
From Chapter XIII - Scootsy¹s Epithet:
Other records are strewn along the beach; these the tide alone cannot efface - the bow of some hapless schooner it may be, wrenched from its hull, and sent whirling shoreword; the shattered mast and crosstrees of a stranded ship beaten to death in the breakers; or some battered capstan carried in the white teeth of the surf-dogs and dropped beyond the froth-line. To these with the help of the south wind, the tides extend their mercy, burying them deep with successive blankets of sand, hiding their bruised bodies, covering their nakedness and the marks of their sufferings. All through the restful summer and late autumn these battered derelicts lie buried, while above their graves the children play and watch the ships go by, or stretch themselves at length, their eyes on the circling gulls.
From Chapter IV - Ann Gossaway¹s Red Cloak:
When she sang she sang as a bird sings, as much to relieve its own overcharged little body, full to bursting with the music in its soul, as to gladden the surrounding woods with its melody because, too, she could not help it and because the notes lay nearest her bubbling heart and could find their only outlet through her lips.
