The story takes place between The Buckaroo of the Badlands and Raider of the Copper Hill in the series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck making it part 3B.

The story was first published in the Danish Anders And & Co. #1998-52 and 1998–53; the first American publication was in Uncle Scrooge #318, in February 1999.

Scrooge exports some cattle from Montana to Indonesia but encounters a thief and meets his old friend Ratchet Gearloose from his Riverboat days.

Then he becomes part of a spectacular trip aboard the clipper ship Cutty Sark on August 26, 1883.

Real historical people Scrooge meets during this adventure include: In reality, the Sultan of Djojka at the time was Hamengkubuwono VII instead of Mangkunagara V, but the error was derived from the mistake in Don Rosa's source, an 1890s traveling story titled On The Subject of Java.