Pierce, Frank Richardson "A Ton of Gold."

A million dollars worth of gold being shipped to Seattle from Dawson at the height of the 1898 Alaska Gold Rush mysteriously disappears when the ship carrying it (the NORTHLANDER) is sabotaged and subsequently beached on shoals in the Inland Passage. Forty years go by without even a trace of the gold reappearing, and for much of that time, suspicion had placed the ship’s purser (he’s disappeared during the grounding) as the chief culprit. It’s only in 1938 when the stalwart old ship is being scrapped for metal to send to Japan (“when war breaks out in China and Japan needs iron and steel”) does Pierce’s narrator (and evidently continuing character) “No-Shirt” McGee solve the mystery (no, the purser wasn’t guilty; indeed, he was a murder victim) and recover the gold for its rightful owners. Besides being a good read as a mystery tale, Pierce’s story is of interest for his description of Northwest passenger ship life during the Gold Rush, and of the contrasts between steerage (full of those “that the North had defeated”) and 1st Class, carrying “the boys and girls [many of whom were decidedly of a shady character] who was in the money,” where champagne flowed like water.