This was the third-best selling book in the United States in 1895. It begins:

"Early in the spring of the year 1884, the three-masted schooner Castor, from San Francisco to Valparaiso, was struck by a tornado off the coast of Peru. The storm, which rose with frightful suddenness, was of short duration, but it left the Castor a helpless wreck. ...

"The Castor was an American merchant-vessel, commanded by Captain