The Golden Harpoon

# The Golden Harpoon; Lost Among the Floes

This serial adventure by an unnamed author follows the whale-ship Montpelier anchored off Kamchatka in the Okhotsk Sea. Captain Howard commands the vessel; his seventeen-year-old niece Alice accompanies him, wearing a golden harpoon locket gifted by her uncle. She is attracted to Harry Marline, the boat-steerer and harpooner's aid. When whales are sighted near an ice-floe, the captain and crew launch boats to pursue them despite First Mate Briggs's warnings about dangerous undercurrents. The ship's keeper, the eccentric sailor Jack Stump, warns Alice of a conspiracy among five crew members—four New Zealanders and a Portuguese steward—who plan to free Tom Lark, a mutineer imprisoned in the brig. Stump pledges to protect Alice while her uncle is absent hunting whales.