Captain of the Tides: Gunner Morgan by Charles Morgan and Jacque Hillman (2020)

 

Charles “Gunner” Morgan was an American original. He served in the US Navy first as an enlisted man, and later as an officer. He became expert at firing the Navy’s big guns, an ability he put to work after helping to start the Spanish-American war. (It was his report of likely mine damage after his underwater dive to inspect the newly-sunken USS Maine at Havana that helped push the US into the conflict.) Later in life, as a resident in Key West, he put his many skills to work for Pan Am to help get the just-born airline off the ground, and he went on to serve for another ten years establishing bases around Pan Am’s routes. It’s a wonderful American story that has been overlooked for way too long.

Winner of the 2022 National Bronze Medal for Historical Fiction, awarded by the Military Writers Society of America.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733362673