_ TO THE IDEAL AMERICAN SAILOR
As exemplified in the persons of my good friends,
Captain Ralph E. Peasley, of Jonesport, Maine,
Who skippered the first five-masted schooner ever built, brought her, on that first voyage, through the worst typhoon that ever blew, and upon arriving at the Yang Tse Kiang River for the first time in his adventurous career, decided he could not trust a Chinese pilot and established a record by sailing her up himself!
Captain I. N. Hibberd, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
Sometime master of the American clipper ship, Cyrus Wakefield, who, at the age of twenty-five, broke three world's records in one voyage: San Francisco to Liverpool and back, eight months and two days; Liverpool to San Francisco, one hundred days; from the equator to San Francisco, eleven days. The clipper ship is gone but the skipper remains, an undefeated champion.
Captain William P. Cantey, of San Francisco, California,
Sometime mate of the brig Galilee, who, with his naked hands, convinced in thirty-five minutes nine larger men than himself of the incontrovertible fact that you cannot keep a good man down.
TO THE AMERICAN SHIPOWNER
As exemplified in the persons of my good friends,
John H. Rossiter, Manager of W. R. Grace & Co., of San Francisco.
Edwin A. Christenson, President of the Sudden & Christenson S.S. Line, of San Francisco.
John R. Hanify, President of the John R. Hanify Company, of San Francisco.
TO THE PACIFIC COAST LUMBERMAN
As exemplified in the person of my good friend,
Augustus J. ("Gus") Russell, California Manager for the Portland Lumber Company, and my personal representative, without salary, in the wholesale lumber trade, ever since I abandoned lumber for literature.
TO FREIGHT, SHIP, AND MARINE INSURANCE BROKERS
As exemplified in the persons of my good friends,
Messrs. E. B. Smith, Oscar J. Beyfuss, and Allan Hayes.
This volume is dedicated, without charge for the advertising but with profound appreciation of the part they have made in making this book possible. With the author they must bear an equal burden of whatever of praise or censure shall entail. _