Beadle's Dime Novels No. 99: Overboard

About this issue

This serialized maritime tale by Roger Starbuck follows fourteen-year-old Jessie Howard and her eighteen-year-old guardian Jack Winthrop in New Bedford, Massachusetts. When Jack accepts a position as fourth mate aboard the whaling ship Walrus, Jessie insists on accompanying him despite his objections. Early in the voyage across the Atlantic, old sailor Tom Blake falls from the top-gallant yard but is rescued by Jack's quick thinking—he fashions a bowline and secures Blake beneath the armpits, preventing a fatal fall to the deck. The narrative emphasizes shipboard life, nautical dangers, and the relationship between the protective but young guardian and his orphaned charge. Published by Bedale and Company, 1866.