Bradford resident Capt. Richard J. Marcott will read from his newly published memoir, “A View from the Rigging,” at a book launch and signing party at 6 p.m. Nov. 28 at the Bradford Area Public Library.
Marcott’s memoir encapsulates a 32-year career that begins as a small-town Bradford High School graduate headed to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in the summer of 1953.
“My seagoing experience up to this point was limited to a row boat on Cuba Lake,” Marcott wrote in his introduction.
Marcott writes of indoctrination and sailing the Coast Guard’s tall ship Eagle as a cadet to Bermuda, Europe, the Panama Canal and Cuba, where the cadets met and drank with Ernest Hemingway before all hell broke loose at the home of the American ambassador.
Tales from Marcott’s at-sea career include fruitless searches, daring rescues and arresting the famous ocean explorer and filmmaker Jaques Cousteau.
His land assignments included commanding a tiny long-range aids to navigation station on an island off Okinawa, Japan, where he accidentally crashed U.S. Navy war games and describes the rural village life.
Fellow Bradford native and seagoing writer David Poyer, said of Marcott’s book, “If you’ve ever been to sea, you enjoy my friend Dick Marcott’s tales of Coast Guard duty. If you haven’t, this book might count as your first deployment.”
Former U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. James M. Loy, Ret., said, “In my experience, the very best way to learn something is to find a teacher who blends historical facts with the art of story-telling. Dick Marcott proves he’s the master of this approach.”
Light food will be served, and books will be available for purchase and signing. Books are also available at the Main Street Mercantile in Bradford.
