[ Abbott / American Merchant Ships and Sailors ]
Willis J. Abbott (1863 - 1934) was an American journalist and writer, primarily of naval histories.
This non-fiction work, a history of American merchant sailing, was first published in 1902 (New York: Dodd and Mead).
This work has only a single reference to Newfoundland dogs, which occurs in a discussion of the Minot Ledge, a rock outcropping, submerged at high tide, that was a threat to shipping headed into Boston. After a storm in 1851 washed away the lighthouse that had been built there to warn passing ships of the danger, a temporary "lightship" was anchored on the ledge until a new lighthouse could be built:
Then, for a time, a lightship tossed and tugged at its cables to warn shipping away from Minot's Ledge. Old Bostonians may still remember the gallant Newfoundland dog that lived on the ship, and, when excursion boats passed, would plunge into the sea and swim about, barking, until the excursionists would throw him tightly rolled newspapers, which he would gather in his jaws, and deliver to the lightship keepers to be dried for the day's reading.
This book is illustrated, but there is no picture of the Newfoundland dog.