Incomparable Captain Cadell

In an age when exploration was at its peak, Francis Cadell’s career reads like the quintessential boy’s own adventure. Born and raised on the Leith waterfront into a large family of ambitious achievers, he was lured early to a life on the high seas. In 1836 at the age of fourteen, he sailed to China where he ran supplies and ammunition to the besieged city of Canton during the Opium Wars. He then made his way to the Americas where he paddled up the Amazon in a canoe and tried his luck on the Cal