The Lost Captain

This 1868 dime novel by Roger Starbuck follows a whaling voyage. The story opens in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where fourteen-year-old Jessie Howard and her eighteen-year-old guardian Jack, a rigger, share a domestic scene. Jack reveals he's accepted a position as fourth mate aboard the whaling ship Walrus under Captain Bluff. Despite his initial objections, Jessie insists on accompanying him, claiming she must be his "little mother" aboard ship. The captain's wife agrees to her company.

The voyage begins July 10th. Once at sea, a crisis erupts when elderly sailor Tom Blake falls from the main-top-gallant yard but is caught dangling by studding-sail halliards nearly one hundred feet above the deck. Jack attempts a rescue using a rope and bowline hitch, though the outcome remains unclear at the excerpt's end. The narrative combines maritime adventure with domestic sentiment between the young protagonists.