Written in the first person, this book tells the story of Norwegian Captain Jens Danielsen, who out-maneuvered the French blockade of Formosa in the late 1800s. Danielsen secured a loan to repair his merchant steamship the SS Waverly in order to transport arms to the Chinese to defend their coast from a French invasion. This is a short book and a quick read with plenty of tidbits of Chinese history.
The book was written by Captain Danielsen's nephew with letters from his uncle he translated from the original Norwegian. The original letters and their translation appear in the appendix. The author does a good job of writing in the voice of the period.
Uncle Jens must have been quite a guy!
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