Flick of Sunshine: The Remarkable Shipwrecked, Marooned, Maritime Adventures, and Tragic Fate of an American Original - Hardcover

by Alexander Jackson Hill (Author), Frederic B. Hill (Author)

The true and remarkable life of Richard Willis (Will) Jackson, an intrepid seaman from one of the leading shipbuilding families in 19th century Maine, whose exploits and adventures in the oceans of the world would rival characters straight out of the lives and imaginations of Joseph Conrad and Jack London. Will Jackson survived a harrowing shipwreck in the Marshall Islands, being washed overboard rounding Cape Horn and running down Alaskan glaciers over a tragically shortened life that ended in a most bizarre and pedestrian incident on the eve of realizing his life's ambition: appointment as master of a ship. After nine months of sometimes perilous life among natives in the South Sea islands in 1884, captured in chapters of a book he helped write, Jackson served on a series of large ships and coastal schooners - all based in the post-Gold Rush boomtown of San Francisco - that took him up and down the west coast from Alaska to Mexico and to the four corners of the earth. His faithful letters to his family in Maine and a diary provide a colorful background for a compelling portrait of an extraordinary young man of character and independent spirit, intellect and curiosity, no small ambition and that most admirable of traits, an abiding sense of humor.

Author Biography

Frederic B. Hill was a reporter, correspondent and editorial writer for The Baltimore Sun, covering Europe and southern Africa. He served as foreign affairs director for Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Jr (R; MD) in 1985 and 1986, then conducted policy planning exercises (wargames) and conferences on national security issues for the Department of State from 1986 to 2006.