Born into a prominent military family, Thornton Jenkins Hains (1866–1953) was the son of General Peter Conover Hains and the grandson of Admiral Thornton A. Jenkins. Drawing inspiration from his grandfather's naval logbooks, Hains embarked on a career as a writer of sea novels and maritime adventure stories. He published twelve books under his own name between 1894 and 1908, including The Cruise of the Petrel (1901).
Hains's literary career was severely disrupted in 1908 by his involvement in the "Regatta Murder" of William Annis. Hains had informed his brother, Peter, of an affair between Annis and Peter's wife, and subsequently accompanied his brother to a yacht club where Peter shot Annis. Though tried as an accomplice, Hains was acquitted of manslaughter after pleading temporary insanity. Despite his acquittal, the highly publicized trial tarnished his reputation and effectively ended his access to high-class literary magazines.
Following the trial, Hains adopted the pen name Mayn Clew Garnett to continue publishing. Under this pseudonym, he wrote the short story "The White Ghost of Disaster" (1912), which gained widespread attention for its eerie similarities to the sinking of the RMS Titanic, as it was on newsstands when the disaster occurred. In the 1920s, he became a frequent contributor to pulp magazines like Sea Stories before his writing career concluded around 1930.
