Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 122

About this issue

This Beadle & Adams dime novel by Ned Buntline (published February 23, 1881) presents an adventure serial set during the American Revolution. The narrative opens in New London with young Saul Sabberday, a peculiar youth appearing idiotic but occasionally displaying sharp intelligence, pleading with his widow mother to join his brothers in the war effort. His two brothers—Seth and Simeon—have already enlisted: one as an officer in Washington's Life Guard, the other aboard a privateer. The family, including Saul's kind sister Ruth, are Quakers. The second chapter shifts to the privateer Thunderbolt, where Captain Seth Sabberday commands a Baltimore clipper ship armed with carronades and pursuing British vessels. Spotting an approaching merchant ship, Seth devises a deception: his crew dons captured British uniforms and hoists English colors to approach the enemy vessel, the Terrible. The excerpt breaks during the ruse as Seth fraudulently identifies his ship as the British brig Spitfire.