Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Colonists and Cutthroats -- A Great Bay is Named -- No Peace in the Valley of the Swans -- A Castaway and a Dreamer -- Pirates Along the Coast -- William Penn, Pirate -- A Light on the Coast -- Chapter 2. Patriots and Tories -- An Honest, Bold Man -- Our Natural Rights and Liberties -- "That sounds like a death warrant!" -- Henry Fisher Defends the Delaware Coast -- All's Well in Lewes -- Three Tories from Lewes -- The Midnight Ride of Caesar Rodney -- Winning the Revolution at Lewes -- The Narrow Escapes of Little John Learmonth -- Joseph Vaughan, Man of Iron -- Death Before Capture -- Sussex Justice -- Chapter 3. Shipwrecks and Wars -- The Wreck of the Faithful Steward -- The Wreck of the De Braak -- War Returns to the Cape -- The Luck of Jacob Jones -- The Rockets' Red Glare -- Chapter 4. Dark Secrets and Dark Corners -- Guns, Clubs and Votes -- Knife Fights and Lovers -- Betsy Takes Offense -- A Frightful Labyrinth -- The Milford Massacre -- Resourceful Residents of Sussex -- Slavery Divides Sussex -- The Railroad Arrives in Sussex -- Chapter 5. Civil War Divides Sussex -- North or South? -- This is a Bad War -- Holding the Line at Gettysburg -- Grandsons of Mother Africa -- "Dixie" -- Appomattox -- Chapter 6. Vacationers and Beachcombers -- The Father of the Nation's Summer Capital -- Making Coastal History -- Love on the Beach -- Keep A Hat On -- Chapter 7. Shipwrecks and Sun Worshippers -- A Dab of Color on the Beach -- The Great White Hurricane -- Quarantine Station -- Shipbuilding Takes A Step Backward -- Scandal on the Beach -- Shots Echo On the Coast -- Raising a Tabernacle at the Beach -- Chapter 8. Into a New Century -- Unlikely Savior -- Old Meets New -- Sussex Keeps Its Head -- Unwanted Visitors to the Beach -- The Fear Was On The Cattle -- Gifts of the du Ponts.

Chapter 9. Between the Wars -- Hell by Compass -- The General's Daughter's Biggest Battle -- Look at the Christmas I Could Have Had! -- It's Gone! -- Battling Depression -- Some Soils Become Soupy -- Red Hannah -- Artists Find a Homestead on the Coast -- Fire in the Hold! -- Chapter 10. World War II. Pearl Harbor Echoes on the Coast -- Enemy Raiders Return to the Coast -- The Luck of Jacob Jones Returns -- Blackness Descends on the Coast -- A Suspicious Shade of Green -- The Explainer Corps Defends the Coast -- The Bird that Saved Thanksgiving and Won the War -- Summer of '44 -- Welcome to the Harbor of Refuge -- We Had to Fight These Guys -- Chapter 11. Into the Modern World -- Had Enough! -- Invigorating Visits to the Coast -- Cold War In Lewes -- Disaster Without Warning -- Little Critters That Made It Big -- Bibliography.