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For Mwondery, I'm Mike Corey, and this is Against the Odds.

Over the last four episodes, we've told the story of James Riley and his crew who wrecked off the coast of Western Africa.

The shipwreck sailors soon found themselves captured and enslaved by anomatic tribe.

To get their freedom, they would have to cross hundreds of miles through the Saharan Desert,

under extreme conditions and the constant threat of being attacked.

It wasn't until they met up with a merchant trader, City Hammett, who had his own incredible journey,

where the two men's fate would become intertwined.

It was one of our most epic journals of survival, and today I'm talking to Dean King,

the author of the book that inspired this series. It's called Skeletons on the Sahara,

a true story of survival.

In addition to all the fascinating research he did, he actually retraced the path of Captain Riley

and his crew through the Sahara Desert. He's written several nonfiction books,

and his articles on adventure and survival have appeared in the New York Times,

National Geographic Adventure, Outside, and Esquire.

Well, Dean, it's a absolute pleasure to have you here, and it sounds like you've had some incredible adventures in your life,

and also researching this story. So I'm so happy we could connect here.

And normally on Against the Odds, we try to find someone who was there for the adventure.

But this adventure happened in 1815. So it was a little while ago,

and you are literally the next best thing. You are the person who knows the most about this adventure.

And I want to start out how you even first found out about it.

So the story that I heard is you were in a yacht club library.

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