When Humphrey Van Weyden finds himself struggling in the freezing waters of San Francisco Bay he thinks the worst that can happen to him is drowning. After he is rescued by the Ghost and its captain. Wolf Larsen, Humphrey discovers that there are fates far worse than death. On Larsen`s hell-ship the dilettante hero is forced to slave as cabin boy and humble seaman. Over the seven months` voyage to the sealing grounds off Siberia he engages in an epic duel with his ruthlessly Nietzschean skipper, a conflict which must end with the death of one of them.

In Humphrey`s story London recalls his own adventures on a sealing vessel at the age of 17. And in the vivid dialogues between Larsen and Van Weyden he gives the clearest definition of his savage philosophy of life. John Sutherland`s notes to The Sea-Wolf include a history of pelagic seal hunting, and an account of the many cinematic versions of this most filmed of Jack London`s novels.