Lucky Joe

Talk about a WHALE of a nightmare! Getting shanghaied out of San Francisco in 1901 had to be the pits! Historical fiction description of Brummagem (Birmingham, England), the ships that sailed from her wharfs, and the rugged men (and boys) who manned them. Can they survive to tell the tale? 
                 
I met Lucky Joe early in 1901 when I stowed away aboard the Elginshire out of Birmingham, 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.