Beadle's Dime Library No. 103

# Museum Catalog Note

This 1890 serial, Merle, the Mutineer: or, The Brand of the Red Anchor, by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, is a maritime adventure romance set on the high seas. The opening depicts a nighttime attack on an anchored schooner by boats from a frigate led by Captain Arthur Grenville, a military officer. During the brutal combat, a sixteen-year-old youth named Merle intervenes to save the wounded Grenville's life. For this mercy, the schooner's crew attempts to hang Merle as a traitor, but the ship's captain—revealed to be named Freelance and a former friend of Grenville's—rescues the boy. Freelance pilots his vessel past the frigate under a gathering storm, confessing to Merle that he is an outlaw with a price on his head. He instructs Merle to protect Grenville should they meet again, and hints at hidden treasure. The crew, meanwhile, mutinies, demanding Merle's death, viewing him as a threat to their authority.