Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 265

Catalog Note *Old Double Sword: or, Pilots and Pirates* by Captain Frederick Whittaker is a serialized adventure tale in this November 1883 issue of a Beadle & Adams weekly. The story follows Jack Ely, a Yale graduate joining a trading house in Yokohama, and his classmate Meeto Kurosama, a Japanese prince returning home. During a typhoon aboard the steamer *Golden Gate*, the pair encounters a mysterious lorcha—a Malay-rigged vessel crewed entirely by Japanese sailors—commanded by a figure known as "Old Double Sword," reportedly a Satsuma pirate. Ely attempts to extract information from both Kurosama and the first mate, learning the vessel's dangerous reputation while Kurosama maintains cryptic silence regarding "nayboon," an unexplained Japanese custom. The narrative establishes a maritime adventure framework with periods of racial and cultural observation as Ely prepares for his arrival in Japan, where he meets fellow passenger Flora Hastings, a missionary's daughter.