Beadle's Dime Novels No. 94: The Mad Skipper

About this issue

This Beadle and Company dime novel by Roger Starbuck follows two desert deserters from a whaling vessel in 1866. Frank Harland, a boat-steerer, and Joe Platish, a Portuguese dwarf cabin-boy, flee San Carlos, Chiloe Island after being placed on short rations. Hiding in a cave overlooking the harbor, the men plan to swim to the yellow whale-ship Monongahela that evening. Joe spends his saved real—money intended for a ribbon for his sister—to buy provisions. A mysterious young American girl, whom Joe had encountered at a local hut, arrives to warn them that an old woman will betray them to the authorities. She leads them to safety in a doctor's study, where her father, a failed American physician, agrees to smuggle them aboard the Monongahela, which departs May 23rd for the United States.