Beadle's Dime Novels No. 131

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.