The things you'll learn if you read 'Sea Stories'

 This note is about a friend’s book: Alvin L. Sallee has, with Michael J. Leahy Jr., published Sea Stories: Galveston & Beyond.

Alvin and I met in Galveston when I was editor of The Daily News. He wrote a series of columns about the port. For Alvin, the columns were a license to learn. He went to the port, talked to about their work and reported what he learned. Many readers who had lived in Galveston all their lives told me they had learned things they’d never known.

I’ve always thought that newspapers should help you learn things — small things, overlooked things, important things — about the place you call home. 

The new book as an extension of that idea. It has short chapters about the history of the island and its port. It has tales of the cruise ships that sail from the port.

The two authors did most of the work, but there are other contributors. Bill Cherry, another friend, told the tale of the Selma, the old tanker that was scuttled after World War I. Did you know that Americans, faced with metal shortages, built tankers of concrete? You can see the wreck of the Selma from the ferry that runs between Galveston and Port Bolivar. But if you don’t know the inside story, you really ought to read Bill’s account.

As you can gather from earlier notes on this blog, I like books that aren’t designed for a mass market. I like those small things, overlooked things, important things.

This book is full of them.

One example: The USS Stewart is a destroyer escort that served in World War II and is now an exhibit at the island’s naval museum.  The book includes a story about how the Stewart, on convoy duty in April 1945, raced to a burning tanker that had been torpedoed.

It’s a story about men who saw a fire on the horizon and rushed to help, knowing German submarines were nearby. They fished half-frozen survivors out of the sea and brought fire hoses alongside the burning tanker, so close that the Stewart’s paint blistered. The sailors worried about the ammunition they had on board but stayed at it.

The actions of the Stewart’s crew didn’t turn the tide of the war. It was just a story about ordinary men who did their jobs. Thanks to this book, it’s a story I know.

• How to get a copy: Sea Stories: Galveston & Beyond is available on Amazon. Kindle versions are available by searching “Sallee Sea Stories.” Copies are also available through the Galveston Naval Museum’s online store.