William Clark Russell was a 19th American writer of nautical novels. After eight years at sea he became a journalist before becoming a writer. His novels include The Sea Queen, Marooned, The Golden Hope, John Holdsworth, The Wreck of the "Grosvenor, and The Frozen Pirate. Paul Rodney is ship wrecked in the Straights of Magellan and barely escapes death. Rodney finds a ship of frozen corpses embedded in the ice of the Antarctic. When one of the seemingly dead men is revived Rodney has to survive being with one of the most bloodthirsty pirates ever to sail the seas.