The grandfather of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump started the family empire during the gold rush, but it's recently been revealed that he nearly died in an Alaskan shipwreck.

Friedrich Trump was only 16 when he left the sleepy German village of Kallstadt and took a boat to the United States in 1885, settling in New York City where his sister lived.

Straight off the boat he met a German-speaking barber who took him on as an apprentice, toiling away for six hapless years while he lived in a tiny box apartment.

At the turn of the decade, however, he heard news of the Klondike gold rush set to hit the North West and Canada.

The 22-year-old changed his name to a more catchy 'Fred Trump' and headed to Seattle, Washington where he opened and then sold a restaurant.

Friedrich Trump (pictured above in 1887) was only 16 when he left the sleepy German village of Kallstadt and took a boat to the United States in 1885, settling in New York City where his sister lived.

He was born in the sleepy German village of Kallstadt. Today, it has a population of just 1,200 people and local history books say he tried to return aged 32 but was turned away

According to The New York Times, with money from his mother, he was able to purchase the first Trump real estate property near Monte Cristo, Washington - 'a mining boom town.'

Trump built hotels for gold prospectors as he was staking claim to property in the area.

At age 27, Trump had opened new restaurants and thrived as prospectors traveled through Seattle to the Klondike and Alaska in 1896.

He had followed the miners with a pal, Ernest Levin, whom he started a business with in a tent on the lawless route that all travelers had to take to reach the mine - White Pass, which was also known as the 'Dead Horse Trail.'

A narrow, steep, overcrowded dirt track, it was incredibly difficult for horses to navigate. Around 3,000 horses died from starvation, injuries, getting stuck in mud, or falling over cliffs, according to the University of Washington's Klondike Gold Rush resource page.

Fred Trump (above in 1918) made his wealth from a chain of hotels and restaurants in the Wild West during the Gold Rush of the 1890s

Putting the heaps of dead animals to use, and offering some respite for the exhausted travelers, Trump and Levin cooked horse meat for passing businessmen as they came to survey the mines.

Eventually, they moved the business to a two-story building in Bennett Town and named it New Arctic Restaurant and Hotel and the White Horse.

According to Gwenda Blair's 'The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a Presidential Candidate,' Trump's hotel had prostitutes as well served round-the-clock food and liquor.

The hotel was extremely successful for the businessmen.

'Customers depended on him for food, liquor and women,' Blair, wrote in the book - describing Friedrich as 'hard living and hard drinking'.

'In the larder was salmon and an extraordinary variety of meats, including duck, ptarmigan, grouse, goose, and swan, as well as caribou, moose, goat, sheep, rabbit, and squirrel,' Blair wrote in the book.

'Incredibly, the New Arctic served fresh fruit: red currants, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, even cranberries.

'A small oasis of luxury, the Arctic’s menu was a vast improvement over what the two restaurateurs had been able to offer on the trail.'

This is an advertisment for Fred Trump's hotel and restaurant near the mines in Bennett, Canada

However, in a New York Times article published Monday, Donald Trump denied the claims about his grandfather allowing prostitution at his hotels.

Daily Mail has reached out to request further comment.

The billionaire's grandfather joined other prospectors in 1898 to buy a schooner.

The newspaper in Devils Lake, North Dakota reported that it was 'one of the most complete outfits ever taken out of Seattle.'

The men had 12 riverboats, mining tools, food, equipment and more on the boat.

The group of 30 men included 10 miners who were said to be experiences, an assayer, a doctor and Capt. L.M. Larson, who was a self-proclaimed experienced sailor, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.

The 56-ton sealing schooner Elsie was purchased for $3,500 by 30 men who also spent about $15,000 for three years of supplies.

Fred Trump barely survived a shipwreck in 1898 when the schooner he was in ran aground on Chirikof Island in the Gulf of Alaska

One of the passengers aboard the schooner told the North Dakota newspaper that the Elsie departed from Seattle on April 4, 1898 and was heading towards Kotzebue because of reports that Natives on rivers were trading gold.

The group sailed toward the Yukon River, but ran aground in the Gulf of Alaska on Chirikof Island.

It was later discovered that the captain had 'no knowledge whatever of navigation' and that caused the troubles that happened to the group of men, the newspaper in North Dakota reported at the time.

The schooner was grounded in roughly three feet of water about 300 yards from land after it hit the rocks of Chirikof Island.

'They set up tents in which to live and had no lack of provisions, as they saved about half of the stock with which they started, the remainder being spoiled by the salt water,' the North Dakota paper said.

They were able to survive off provisions on the ship for a month, and Trump started to write a farewell letter to his family in Germany.

About four years after the shipwreck, Trump returned back home to Kallstadt to marry his neighbor, Elizabeth Christ (pictured together above), and settle down with his wealth. He was refused repatriation in Germany and they returned back to the U.S.

In 1905, his son Fred Jr, Donald's father, was born as the family continued to prosper. Above left to right: Fred Jr, Frederick, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Christ, and John in 1918

'We have hope that the United States government will now …,' he wrote before it ended abruptly.

Luckily, Trump and the others on the schooner were rescued by a barkentine that was passing by.

According to the Alaska Dispatch News, the schooner Elsie is the only one listed in history books as running aground on April 25, 1898.

In addition, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on July 17,1898 about a story on the shipwreck and listed the 30 people on the manifest, including 'F. Trump.'

About four years after the shipwreck, Trump returned back home to Kallstadt to marry his neighbor sweetheart, Elizabeth Christ, and settle down with his wealth, according to German history books.

However, having dodged conscription and years of taxes, he was refused repatriation in Germany.

By the time he died in Queens at the age of 49, during a Spanish flu epidemic, Fred Sr had built up a fortune worth $31,642.54 - worth around $542,000 today - according to his will, which was published by Ancestry.com

The local history books record how Bavaria, the rulers of the town at the time, would not let him settle back in the town because he had forfeited citizenship by emigrating.

And so the newlyweds returned to New York City to start a family.

In 1905, his son Fred Jr, Donald's father, was born.

By the time he died in Queens at the age of 49, during a Spanish flu epidemic, Fred Sr had built up a fortune worth $31,642.54 - worth around $542,000 today - according to his will, which was published by Ancestry.com.

He left his small fortune to his wife Elizabeth, who used it to go into business with her eldest son Fred Jr, who was just 15 at the time.

The pair created the Trump empire, which is now headed by Fred Jr's maverick, entrepreneurial son, Donald.