The Fatal Frigate: Rivals in Love and War

# Catalog Note

Rivals in Love and War: A Romance of Ocean Mysteries a Century Ago by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, serialized in this 1897 issue, is a naval adventure romance set over a century prior. Admiral Mars Fenton and his ambitious son, Lieutenant Frank Fenton, scheme against Captain Lionel Lonsdale—an American-born officer commanding the frigate Ill Omen—to prevent his appointment to the new frigate Saturn and his courtship of the wealthy heiress Belle Vernon. When mutiny erupts aboard the Ill Omen, Lonsdale suppresses it with decisive force, killing a mutineer and shooting a treacherous officer. He then captures the French frigate Le Roi despite his undermanned, deteriorating vessel. The Fentons, deep in debt, plot to strip Lonsdale of his crew and officers while denying him command, counting on Belle Vernon's family rejecting him without naval advancement. Lonsdale visits Admiral Fenton to report his success.