Beadle's New Dime Novels: The Privateer

About this issue

The Privateer; or, The Pride of the Nansemond by Lieut. Robert Phillipse, U.S.N. (1864) is a Revolutionary War adventure narrative published by Beadle and Adams. Set in Virginia during the fourth year of the war for Independence, the story follows Captain Alberto Nansemond and the crew of the Dolphin, a small Baltimore-built privateer operating from the Nansemond River. The Dolphin captures enemy vessels and brings them to the settlement called the "Cove." The narrative opens with the vessel returning with a prize—a six-hundred-ton British warship mounting four long-range guns. Much of the excerpt consists of Samuel Josephus Adolphus Mason, an enslaved man and crew member, recounting the capture to celebrating settlers. His account describes infiltrating the British vessel by boat, intoxicating guards with brandy, and forcing the captain's surrender. The text combines maritime action with comic dialect characterization.