They were flamboyant, grasping, and incredibly brave.

They were seafarers who dared to challenge the storms of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn and burst into the Pacific. These amazing characters sailed where few others dared to go, in search of trade and profit.

China tea was worth big money in New York, Salem and Boston, but could only be bartered for silver, aphrodisiacs ... or furs. So foraging for bêche de mer ? sea cucumbers harvested from tropical lagoons, and then dried into a tonic for virility ? or enduring terrible conditions on icy beaches in a brutal quest to harvest seal furs, was considered just part of the deal.

For a brief period, less than half a century, these adventurers succeeded brilliantly, but then history overtook them. Their markets and their prey dried up. But, in the meantime, they had altered the landscape of the South Pacific, for better or worse.

And this is their story.