This is the compelling true story of the relationship between one of America's foremost financiers and the old Irish seaman who changed his life.

   In 1849, Alfrederick Hatch, a delicate and slightly asthmatic youth, was dispatched to sea by his physician father to "either cure him or kill him." He signed on as an apprentice seaman on a Liverpool packet, in the company of the "roughest, dirtiest, swearingest, drinkingest men alive."

   Hatch probably would not have survived had he not been befriended by an illiterate, bewhiskered jack-tar named Jack Corbett, who became his guardian and mentor. The rich story of their sailing together is the centerpiece of this narrative.

   Thirty years later, Hatch had become a prosperous and powerful Wall Street banker, one of the principals in selling bonds to finance the Union's effort in the civil War, and President of the New York Stock Exchange. Jack re-entered his life to become a member of the Hatch household, where he was the guardian of Hatch's eleven children and remained to the end of his days.

   Rich in its description of mid 19th Century life aboard a square-rigged sailing vessel of the time, Hatch's memoir would make Patrick O'Brian smile, and bring tears to the eyes of some of the more sentimental among us.

   In his later hears, A.S. Hatch was a pivotal figure in establishing hostels and havens for seamen down on their luck. It is to these organizations that his great-grandson, Denny, is devoting the royalties from this book.

ISBN#: 0-9714548-2-5
$24.95 (Canada $35.99

The Quantuck Lane Press
Distributed by W.W. Norton & Company
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

All royalties after out-of-pocket expenses from Jack Corbett, Mariner will be donated by the Hatch family to The New York City Rescue Mission founded by Jerry McAuley and A. S. Hatch 130 years ago. See The New York City Rescue Mission on 9/11.