Gold Rush Privateer

Captain Thomas James continues his voyage around the world this time delivering the speedy steam and sail packet Pacific Mail to his rival William Aspinwall. Why does our lucky privateersman not simply chop off Aspinwall's head and be done with it? Why because Our Tom cut many a lucrative deal with Quartermaster-General Jessup during the recent Mexican War, screwing Jessup to the wall. Now in '48 Jessup has gotten even by finagling Tom's California mail-steamer contract over to Jessup's buddy Aspinwall. If Tom wants to retain his Gulf Coast and Oregon contracts why he'd best knuckle his forehead politely and kowtow to Jessup... abject groveling will do handsomely. If it weren't for the fact that all Tom's relatives depend upon this Federal largesse, he'd be quite happy to tell the general exactly where to stuff it. But alas, he must play the game until his mentor and patron saint all rolled into one, Zachary Taylor, becomes President of the United States. Yes sir, grovel and submit is how you win all the chips in America's biggest poker game, the presidential election campaign.So here we are in the Pacific Northwest with a conclave of whales to harpoon, furs to barter from the Indians, and supplies to deliver to Aunt Lucinda's pioneers in the Oregon Territory. This being 1848 why Tom's bad luck will turn good just as soon as he sails into San Francisco Bay. He'll learn that a Morman has discovered gold dust at Sutter's mill on the American River only a hop, skip, and jump above the Sacramento. Yep, the cry of "Gold... Gold in them thar hills..." will ring out across land and sea. Such news will attract fortune hunters and criminals like sharks to blood. And who could be better at shark catching than a scurvy crew of hard-hearted privateersmen?Meanwhile, exciting events Back East are beginning to bubble like a tempest in a teapot. At the same time the Far East will suffer from a devastating freeze in the middle of springtime. If T. J. wants to salvage his budding trade empire he'd best leave California and tend to business elsewhere. To help him along a gaggle of abandoned wives and sweethearts will descend upon lover boy to help him mend his errant ways. Poor Thomas James... he's doomed! He'll need to spend his gold profligately and kiss a few dainty feet most abjectly if he intends to weather these storms. But stormy seas are a privateersman's lot in life... are they not?