W. R. Bethel
Heritage of the sea
"Heritage of the sea by W. R. Bethel" is a pulp short sea-adventure story written in the late 1920s. Set in the Prohibition era, it follows a rum-running captain on Long Island Sound whose seamanship and sense of honor are tested in a deadly fog after a collision at sea. On a blacked-out run through thick fog, a hard-nosed skipper guides his rum boat while his jittery backer, Joe Parento, urges retreat. When a tramp steamer rams a dark-laying Coast Guard cutter and flees, the captain snaps on lights, lowers boats, and rescues the survivors, even as Parento pulls a gun and wounds him in a panic to protect the cargo. The captain knocks Parento out, disarms him, and, while guarding his shipment, treats the rescued sailors decently with dry clothes and a drink. Weak from his wound, he lets the Coast Guard commander take the bridge to steer the rum-runner back toward Rum Row so the guardsmen can signal for pickup—leaving the tale on the note that, in fog that blinds the eye, honor still charts the course.