Born in Connecticut, Ned (Edgar) Wakeman worked as a seaman, ship’s officer, and eventually captain on various steamers, including the America, on which SLC sailed from San Francisco to Nicaragua in December 1866. SLC campaigned in 1872 to relieve Wakeman’s financial distress, and used him as a model for sea-captain types in Roughing It, “Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion,” and Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven. Wakeman’s memoir, The Log of an Ancient Mariner, was published in 1878.