Beadle's Dime Novels No. 131

About this issue

This Beadle and Company dime novel, The Wrecker's Daughter by Mrs. Orrin James, follows dual narratives set during a violent winter storm in 1855. In New York, merchant Wetmore anxiously learns that the clipper ship Flying Cloud—which he partially owns and carries valuable cargo—has wrecked near Barnegat Beach, New Jersey. The vessel also carries Oliver Gifford, seventeen-year-old son of Wetmore's old friend, sent from Ceylon for business training. Meanwhile, on the Jersey shore, a weathered wrecker named Tangee and her father—living in a salvage-built hut called the "Jolly Jack"—spot the distressed ship driving toward the coast through the tempest. Tangee, a dark-complexioned, fourteen-year-old girl of mysterious origins, proves keen-eyed and fearless in dangerous conditions. The narrative establishes contrasting perspectives on the impending shipwreck: commercial anxiety in the city and opportunistic anticipation on the shore.