The sailing ship General Grant struck cliffs on Auckland Island, south of New Zealand, in May 1866. Only fifteen of the eighty-three people aboard reached shore, where they endured a harsh subantarctic environment. Ten survivors remained alive until rescue eighteen months later.

The wreck entered Australasian ballads and poems about castaways, lost gold and endurance at the edge of the known world. Its unresolved treasure legends also encouraged writers to mix documented survival with romance and speculative adventure.