Kindle Edition Download to your Nook (eBook) Download from Smashwords (eBook) Amazon Barnes & Noble.com Rose Point Publishing Category:  Biography Publisher: Rose Point Publishing ISBN-10:  1475134932 Type: Fiction Pages: 180 Copyright: August, 2012 ISBN-13: 9781475134933 Price: $3.95 (eBook) Joe was a stowaway like myself and a couple years younger when we left Brummagen, England, for the New World. Getting shanghaied on a whaler was NOT in our plans to hunt for gold! I met Lucky Joe when I stowed away aboard the Elginshire out of Birmingham, England, in 1901. 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, almost proved to be our undoing and the end of the adventure. Did we make it back to land to search the California hills for gold?  Excerpt Joe stood on the back of the whale laughing, steadying himself with a bite of the line like he was riding on the back of a horse at the circus. I grinned at that, but the horror of it came back to me--of his danger--as Mr. Gonzalo yelled back at him, "No, by Joe! Jump you young lubber! He's going down!"

A Whale of a Tale
This book is a very different read. The language is that of sailors in the early nineteen hundreds, and the story of an era long gone, with the main theme being about keeping the faith regardless of what life throws at you.

Lucky Joe follows the adventures of Jimmie, a would-be thug that becomes a stowaway with Lucky Joe, a chance encounter that changes his life for the better. Lucky Joe is fearless, with a faith in God that gets the both of them through many life-threatening crises, and changes the lives of almost everyone they meet. The majority of the novel takes place at sea, with a small part being their adventures in the mountains beyond San Francisco, searching for gold.

This book will appeal to anyone looking for an authentic read about whaling, sailoring, and mining, originally written at the turn of the previous century. It will also appeal to anyone for an uplifting story about faith and overcoming adversity. Readers with an understanding of the dialect of sailors during this period will have an easier read, but it won't deter the average reader from enjoying it.