Beadle's Pocket Library No. 235

Jack Stump's Cruise: The Montpelier's Mutineers

This serial by Roger Starbuck depicts a whaling adventure aboard the ship Montpelier anchored off Kamschatka. Captain Howard commands the vessel with his seventeen-year-old niece Alice aboard, who wears a golden harpoon gifted by her uncle. First Mate Briggs warns of dangerous drifting ice, but the captain dismisses his concerns. When whales are spotted on the ice floe, all boats launch to hunt, leaving the ship with minimal crew. Jack Stump, an eccentric sailor with a distinctive pigtail and mismatched frame, privately warns Alice of a conspiracy among five crew members—four New Zealanders and a Portuguese steward—who recently recovered from convenient illness. Stump suspects they're plotting with Tom Lark, a mutineer imprisoned in the hold for refusing duty. The native sailor Driko makes cryptic threats, and Stump positions himself as Alice's protector while the hunting parties remain absent and vulnerable.