The men and women of the Columbia Coast Mission ships, legendary figures in the history of the BC coast, are brought vividly to life in this readable, well-researched volume. From 1904 to the mid-1970s, the mission sent out ships in all kinds of weather, delivering medical care and non-sectarian spiritual support to logging camps, Native villages and white settlements in 20,000 square miles of rugged coastline. John Antle, who founded the mission, was a devout and practical Christian who measured his success in services to BC's outposts, rather than material wealth or number of converts. Immortalized in Margaret Craven's I Heard the Owl Call My Name, and in the hearts and memories of families all over the coast, the mission was a glad, bold organization that could be as rough-cut and unconventional as the individuals it served.

Michael Hadley, professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Victoria, is the author of Count Not the Dead: The Popular Image of the German Submarine, U-Boats Against Canada: German Submarines in Canadian Waters and Tin--Pots and Pirate Ships: Canadian Naval Forces and German Sea Raiders 1880-1918.

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