The Wrecker's Daughter

This issue contains The Wrecker's Daughter: A Romance of the Barnegat Beach by Mrs. Orrin James, set in winter 1853. Mr. Wetmore, a New York merchant, learns that the clipper ship Flying Cloud—which he partially owns and carries valuable cargo—has beached near Barnegat, New Jersey during a violent nor'easter. Compounding his worry, a letter from his longtime friend Gifford (living in Ceylon) reveals that Gifford's seventeen-year-old son Oliver is aboard the vessel, traveling to America for schooling and business training. Wetmore spends an anxious night at his Manhattan mansion while his young daughter Katie prays for the ship's crew. The narrative then shifts to the Jersey shore, where hardy wreckers emerge from their cottages to watch the turbulent sea, opportunistically awaiting salvage from the disaster.