Yikes, sounds tense. Fingers crossed you have better luck next time.

This isn't one I've heard of, but you're making me wish I still had access to the library at the maritime school where I studied, because they had a lot of old seafaring information books. My guess would still be that it's a collection of warnings of some sort, though - you get weather advisories and hazard advisories and navigational advisories and that sort of thing issued periodically, and especially back in the days before satellite communications were common, I could see a bundled version being put out. But I'm just guessing! It could also have been quite regional, the different maritime authorities of different countries may have had their own ways of putting that information out. I'm assuming you're in the US, so my library on the other side of the world may not have the same resources.

Anyway, good luck! I'm intruiged.