Item #405 QRD? SNOHOMISH (Where are you bound? Where are you from? Snohomish). Conrad BURNS.
QRD? SNOHOMISH (Where are you bound? Where are you from? Snohomish)
QRD? SNOHOMISH (Where are you bound? Where are you from? Snohomish)

QRD? SNOHOMISH (Where are you bound? Where are you from? Snohomish)

New York: Pageant Press, 1954. First Edition. Hardcover. Thin 8vo. Pp. 137. Illustrated with a few plates of b&w photos. Bound in red cloth. Appears as once owned by a crew member, as ages are written next to a few crew-member names. Else Fine. Dust jacket price-clipped and a bit edgeworn. Fine / Very Good-. Item #405

A peculiar story of a preposterous gambit: A 10,000 mile, 91-day tug from Seattle down the West Coast of North America through the Panama Canal, thence to Buenos Aires in 1947. The cargo? Six new steel tugboats positioned on a WWII surplus cut-down LST, towed by the 1908 "Snohomish" and administered by a Canadian crew, mostly out of Victoria, BC, and mostly familiar with log-towing. The tug? A 1908 anachronism, retired from US Navy/Coast Guard duty.

The narrative of the mission is conveyed in a charming fashion by the 20-year-old wireless operator "Sparks". Other than radio malfunction, the major burden of the trip is grounding on a reef in San Marcos Bay, Brazil. We are familiar with the tradition of the epistolary novel. This may be the first and last of the wireless narrative tradition. "QRD?" That's radio-shorthand for "Where are you bound? Where are you from?" The dust jacket is now preserved in a removable, archival sleeve.

Price: $40.00

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