Captain George Wellington Streeter, who dressed almost as oddly as the life he lived:
"A battered stovepipe hat always perched precariously on his bald head, and a tobacco-stained, rusty-frock coat several sizes too large dangled from his lean shoulders" (154, Broomell and Harlow).
He led careers as a Mississippi River steamboat pilot, circus proprietor, and Civil War fighter. It was when he tried to trade in Honduras that he ran in to some trouble. To be precise, a storm caused his ship to crash into a sandbar only 200 yards off the shore of Lake Michigan. His ship was not going anywhere because it was not only stuck up on the sandbar but was also in terrible condition from the storm.From Broomell and Harlow's Streeterville Saga.