Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 181

*The Scarlet Schooner; or, The Nemesis of the Sea* Col. Prentiss Ingraham's serialized romance opens with a three-masted caravel battling a devastating hurricane off Cuba's coast. The defiant captain—reckless and fatalistic—remains at the wheel as his crew is decimated by monstrous waves. Though crew member Jose Morena perishes, the captain survives by leaping into the sea as the vessel splinters on rocks, one arm broken. The narrative shifts to Nita Sabinas, a sixteen-year-old Cuban planter's daughter staying at a ruined tower overlooking the bay. Beautiful and spirited, she sketches the landscape with her octoroon maid Alena while observing the distant hurricane approaching. Nita laments her betrothal to Don Basilio La Roque, arranged by her wealthy father Don Carlos Sabinas, wishing instead to marry for love—even a sailor, despite the dangers. The serial promises nautical adventure and romantic entanglement in its continuation.