The Boy Commander

"The Boy Commander; or, The Maid of Perth" by Col. Prentiss Ingraham is a historical romance serial set in New York during the War of 1812. The narrative opens with eighteen-year-old Carl Manners witnessing Talbot Trevor—a dissolute young heir—insult his father's Revolutionary War loyalty. Manners responds violently, striking Trevor dead with a single blow. Arrested by Constable Dawes, Manners flees, seizes Trevor's horse, and escapes toward the harbor, aided by Agnes Benedict, the innkeeper's daughter. Pursuing by boat, Manners commandeers a fishing sloop from Ben Buntline and navigates through gunfire from constables and posse members toward open water. The narrative reveals Manners's family history: his English mother fled her aristocratic home to marry his American merchant father; recurring misfortunes including shipwreck and fire plagued the family; his father is dead. Manners had sought naval service to prove his patriotism against old accusations of his father's questionable loyalty during the Revolution, targeting a privateer being outfitted by the Trevor family.