George H. (George Henry) Read

Born in 1843, George H. Read served in the United States Navy and later held the rank of pay inspector. He is most closely associated with The Last Cruise of the Saginaw (1912), a book recounting the loss of the USS Saginaw on Ocean Island and the hard struggle that followed.

Because his best-known work is tied so closely to an actual naval disaster, his writing has a clear documentary feel as well as the pace of an adventure narrative. That combination has helped keep the book of interest to readers of maritime history, naval history, and true survival stories.

Read died in 1924. Although not a widely known literary figure, he remains memorable for preserving an eyewitness-style account of an extraordinary episode from American naval history.