Alex MacLean was the inspiration for the title character, Wolf Larsen, in Jack London's bestselling novel, The Sea-Wolf. Originally from Cape Breton, MacLean sailed to the Pacific side of North America when he was just twenty-one and worked there for thirty-five years as a sailor and sealer. His achievements and escapades while in the Victoria fleet in the 1880s laid the foundation for his status as a folk hero.

Although MacLean is a colourful character both in his own right and as mythologized by London, his biography reveals more than the construction of a legend. Don MacGillivray...