Jim Salmon's dream was to sail around the world. His father crewed on the arctic schooner Bowdoin with Captain Donald MacMillan in the 1920s. His ancestors commanded Navy ships in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, and many a Nantucket whaler in between, including the ill-fated whaleship Essex, the inspiration for Melville's Moby Dick.

Jim lives with his wife in Conway, New Hampshire where he serves on various non-profit boards, and has worked as a part-time high school teacher and part-time schooner captain. His Friendship Sloop Kumatage is moored in Falmouth Harbor, Maine.