I met Lucky Joe early in 1901 when I stowed away aboard the Elginshire out of Liverpool, England. Joe felt that all his luck came from divine intervention for which he was most grateful and quick to give the glory-and testament. We were both bound for San Francisco, where it was rumored the streets were paved with gold. Shanghaied off the wharf of San Francisco aboard a whaler, however, proved to be a horrendous near death experience side-tracking our prospecting adventure in Sonora, California.

He watched as the "Marguerite" went down stern first in turbulent waves with all hands aboard. Shanghaied on the Bering Sea whaler "Northern Light" in 1901, recounted through his short stories and poems the memory of the icy northern waters and the intrepid seamen who fought the treacherous sailing conditions and behemoths of the ocean on frigates, schooners, and barques. Hear the call to the Yukon to search for gold or choke on the ochre dust of an Arizona cattle ranch starved for water; more precious than gold. Relive the frenzy of the penny mining stocks of the 1920's or '30's and the...