Western Historical Manuscript Collection: The working title for this story was “The Crew of Skeletons.”
Pat Savage is introduced in this story. When he first sees her Monk remarks that she looks like she could be Doc's sister. We learn that Renny is very wealthy as a result of his engineering expertise. The treasure is valued at several millions.
Doc and his crew travel by rail. The line heading west is operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway via passenger train. This was during the golden age of rail service when majestic steam locomotives cross the continent. The actual train providing service between Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia during the time of the story was The Dominion.
Fell's Guide to Sunken Treasure Ships
records a tale that was similar to Dent's. In May of 1866 the General Grant left from Port Phillip Bay
at Melbourne, Australia. Shortly afterwards Lloyd's of London
listed the ship as missing. No word was
to be heard of the missing ship until after two years had gone by. In 1868 the Amherst arrived in
A few days after leaving Port Phillip the General Grant ran into a heavy storm near the Disappointment Islands. The hapless ship was helpless in the grip of the storm and driven toward the rocky cliffs. Instead of crashing into the rocky walls, the ship was pushed into a large cavern. The masts were broken off at the top and the ship became wedged in the cavern. The ship sank the next morning and most of the passengers drowned. The survivors were marooned on a nearby island for two years before being rescued.
Guy Endore: The Bantam cover for this story seems to have been inspired by the very successful Wolfman series of movies from the thirties. However, the first of these movies, The Wolf Man, was released in 1941. There is also a silent movie from 1925 titled Wolf Blood about a lumberjack who receives a blood transfusion from a wolf. As a result, the man begins to believe he is becoming a wolf.
Readers have got to wonder if Dent was influenced by some story he read in the pulps or elsewhere. The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore was published in March 1933 and became a very popular book. It may be only coincidence but it is an interesting coincidence.
Another more likely influence on Lester Dent and Brand of the Werewolf could come from his days playing at being a prospector and desert rat.
An exciting legend exists concerning the Lost Ship of the Desert complete with the fascinating tale of a ship that traveled up the Colorado River and was marooned in the Salton Sea area of the Colorado Desert. Different versions of the story exist with the lost ship being a Spanish galleon and even a tale of it being an ancient Viking dragon ship. The pedigree varies from Thomas Cavendish’s ship, the Content, or the ship of Spanish explorer Juan de Iturbe whose ship carried a treasure of jewels and black pearls.
January 1, 1934 – The Federal prison on Alcatraz Island opens.
January 1, 1934 - Fiorello H. La Guardia becomes the 99th Mayor of New York City.
January 1, 1934 – John F. O’Ryan becomes New York City Police Commissioner.
January 1, 1934 – Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie is published.
January 7, 1934 – The Flash Gordon Sunday newspaper strip begins.
January 7, 1934 – Evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong makes his first radio broadcast.
January 14, 1934 – First flight of the de Havilland Express.
Janaury 15, 1934 – A severe earthquake strikes Bihar in India.
January 26, 1934 – The Apollo Theater opens.
January 26, 1934 – Germany and Poland sign a ten-year nonaggression treaty.
January 29, 1934 – Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner (1918) Fritz Haber, inventor of the Haber Process, dies
