Jack London

South Sea Tales Illustrated Jack London

Vallejo, Joe (2020). "The Seed of McCoy". Vallejo. Retrieved 26 October 2020. Launched in 1891 as Pyrenees, this vessel acquired a solid reputation as a profitable carrier over the first nine years of her career. In November 1900, while on a passage from Tacoma, Washington to Leith, Scotland, her cargo of wheat caught fire due to spontaneous combustion. Her commander, Captain Robert Bryce, made for Pitcairn Island. Upon finding no suitable place to beach the vessel at Pitcairn, Bryce took on local pilot James 'Big Hunty' McCoy, great grandson of Bounty Mutineer William McCoy, and sailed another 300 miles to Manga Reva in the Tuamotu Islands. There Pyrenees was beached and abandoned on December 2. This incident was the subject of Jack London's popular short story The Seed of McCoy.