THE RED ROVER

James Fenimore Cooper. (1789-1851)

The story starts in Newport, Rhode Island in 1759.   A mysterious dark ship has been anchored in the outer harbor for several weeks and it has been the subject of popular speculation as regards its purpose and intentions.  James Wilder, a visiting ship captain and his two friends, Dick Fid and Scipio,  are in town and are curious about the ship as well.  Wilder meets a young lawyer all dressed in green and strikes up an acquaintance.  They amble up to an old abandoned mill and ascend a ladder to the second floor in order to view the dark ship through a spyglass.  The lawyer leaves Wilder staring through the lens while he quietly descends and takes the ladder with him.  Fid and Scipio rescue James and the three return to town, slightly irritated.

Apparently unemployed and looking for work, Wilder visits the ship and talks to the captain, who turns out to be the prankster lawyer.  After a certain amount of haggling, Wilder signs on as lieutenant along with his two friends.  It is tacitly assumed that the ship is the notorious "Red Rover", a pirate preying on ship traffic in the south Atlantic and Caribbean areas.  Back in town, the new lieutenant becomes familiar with the de Lacy family who are about to embark on the "Royal Caroline", a passenger ship about to leave for South Carolina.  Gertrude, a relation of Admiral de Lacey and her governess, Wyllys, and Bob Bunt, an old sailor, in spite of advice to the contrary, go aboard and discover that the captain has broken a leg and that Wilder has taken his place.  The Caroline gets under way but soon discovers that the dark ship (which Wilder knows is the Red Rover) is blocking their way.  Wilder executes some clever maneuvers but finally re-anchors so as to avoid a collision.  But with a change in wind direction, they're able to sail around the impediment and reach the open sea.

Wilder notices that the Red Rover is following them at a distance, but is helpless to do anything about it, as the weather is turning foul.  A veritable hurricane develops during which the Caroline is dismasted and most of her crew drowned.  The remnants appropriate the pinnace (a sort of lifeboat) and sail off, leaving Wilder and the two ladies behind.  The only chance the three have, in the sinking ship, is to climb into the larger launch and hope that it will float after the larger vessel is engulfed.  The Caroline fills with water, dives into the depths bow first and precipitates the launch into the air.  It lands upright and the survivors swoon in relief.  The Red Rover is lurking about, however, and picks them up before their small boat is endangered by the heavy seas.

A week passes and the Red Rover is sailing near the Bahamas, drifting along with the Gulf Stream.  The crew is restless, wanting loot, but a potential mutiny is averted with the help of Fid and Scipio.  They continue sailing down into the Caribbean.  Wyllys learns that the lieutenant (Wilder)  has had some connection with the "Ark of Flynnhaven", a Royal Navy ship lost some years ago and that the Captain's real name is Heidigger, although he as well as his ship is known as the Red Rover, even though the latter's actual name is "Dolphin".  A sail is spotted by the look-out and in short time it's identified as a vessel belonging to the British Royal Navy.  It is the "Dart", Captain Bignall commanding.  It has more cannon than the Dolphin and it's doubtful whether it is a suitable candidate for looting by the pirate.  Argument ensues over the question until Heidigger, adapting the disguise of an upper class Commander of the Royal Navy, visits Captain Bignall and convinces him that the Dolphin is just another naval vessel.  Returning to his own ship, Heidigger suspects that Wilder is a spy, and is responsible for the presence of the Dart.  But after fretting over resolving the dilemma, he decides to let Wilder and the ladies go free and they are ferried over to the Dart.  

A naval battle between the two ships results in which the Dart is partially destroyed by cannon fire and Captain Bignall is killed.  The Dolphin contingent boards and is about to hang the survivors from the yardarm when the chaplain of the vessel appears and various disclosures are announced.  Wilder is actually the great-nephew of the late admiral de Lacey, Wyllys is his mother and Heidigger is a de Lacy also, although it wasn't clear as to the actual relationship.  Heidigger is moved and swears to give up piracy.  He returns to the Dolphin with his cabin boy and blows up the ship, although one sailor thought he saw a small boat receding into the distance after the explosion.  Twenty years later, back in Newport, the de Lacey family (Wilder married Gertrude) is visited by an old man in a wheel chair who blesses them all and expires.  They find out from his companion that he was a hero in the Revolutionary War and that he had been a pirate in his earlier life.

This was another exciting sea story by Cooper, with vivid descriptions of storms and battles.  Cooper was one of those authors of whom it has been said, "he never settled for one word when twelve would do".  But if the reader can deal with his prolixity, he would discover an ingenious plot and a ship-load of interesting characters.  Cooper worked as a common sailor and as a midshipman in his early life, but only after he was summarily ejected from Yale for the egregious use of explosives and locking a donkey up in one of the lecture halls.  He was a strong advocate of people's rights and spent most of his life writing and pontificating for a Democratic society based on Constitutional mandates.