The Wrecker (novel)

Infobox Book |
name = The Wrecker


image_caption =
author = Robert Louis Stevenson Lloyd Osbourne
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = Scotland
language = English
genre = Novel
publisher = Cassell
release_date = 1892
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = NA

"The Wrecker" (1892) is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson in collaboration with his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. The story revolves around the abandoned wreck of the "Flying Scud" at Midway Island. Clues in a stamp collection are used to track down the missing crew and solve the mystery. It is only in the last chapter that different story elements become linked.Citation | title = Tales by Stevenson and Others | newspaper = The New York Times | pages = p. 19 | year = 1892 | date = Wednesday, July 17, 1892 | url = http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=940DE1D61E31E033A25754C1A9619C94639ED7CF ]

Stevenson described it as a ‘South Sea yarn’ concerning ‘a very strange and defective plan that was accepted with open eyes for what seemed countervailing opportunities offered’. Although the book sold well, reviews were mixed, with a "The New York Times" reviewer concluding that:

The different loosely connected stories reflected how Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne wrote the book. Each contributed different sections but agreeing to develop characters and descriptions of places they both knew well. The following are examples:

* The schooner "Equator" (1888-1953) inspired the story. Its remains are preserved in a shed at Marina Park at the Port of Everett, Washington.

* John 'Tin Jack' Buckland (grandson of William Thomas Buckland, the Wraysbury auctioneer; born 1864, Sydney; died 1897, Suwarrow Island), the handsome happy-go-lucky fellow cabin passenger of Lloyd Osbourne and Robert Louis Stevenson on the 1890 "Janet Nicholl" voyage, who inspired the ‘Remittance Man' character Tommy Hadden."Robert Louis Stevenson: A Critical Biography, 2 vols." John A. Steuart, (1924). Boston: Little, Brown & Co.] [http://books.google.com/books?id=KSwH6Fp103cC&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&&source=web&ots=8aeVd8tehC&sig=eCn_DmR-Wf5S5Rn8WDPHCKB9Nx4 "Treasured Islands: Cruising the South Seas With Robert Louis Stevenson."] Lowell D. Holmes, (2001). Sheridan House. ISBN 1574091301] James Cowan, (1937). [http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov12_02Rail-t1-body-d14.html R. L. S. and his Friends Some Stevenson Memories] . "New Zealand Railways Magazine", 12(2):59-61.]

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