I based many of the events, adventures, and misadventures in this book on actual events.
Scuttling ships at sea was an abhorrent crime that was fairly prevalent in the nineteenth century. Of the two incidents in this book, the scuttling of Toiler was based loosely on the sinking of William and Martha, carrying paving stones and potatoes from Castlehill in Caithness to West Hartlepool in March 1892. The loss of Teresa was based on the scuttling of Tryst in October 1891.
ToilerWilliam and MarthaTeresaTryst
Dundee was a whaling port from the 1750s to the beginning of the twentieth century. As with any other industry, whaling was open to various malpractices, including the theft of a whale. I based the theft in Scuttlers on a case in August 1829, when the Peterhead whaling ship Traveller an
