Under the Jolly Roger

By L.A. Meyer

After escaping from the girls' school in Boston, Jacky Faber was able to get passage on a whaler, assisting the captain's wife, thus able to earn some money. Making her way back to London, she visited her fiance's home, trying to discover why he had never answered her letters. She is very rudely received by his mother and finds out from one of the servants that Jame never got any of the letters; his mother hid them from him. The servant also told Jacky she could find Jame at the races. As a lark, Jacky dressed up like a jockey, intending to surprise Jame. But to her surprise, she found Jame escorting a very pretty girl and, in her usual impetuous manner, Jacky rushed off before he could explain, throwing her engagement ring at him. He stopped to search for the ring and Jacky had vanished.
Running away from the track, dressed at a male jockey, Jacky was taken by a press gang and gagged and bound before she had a chance to let the them know she was not a man but a girl. She wasn't ungagged or unbound until on board the Navy ship. The captain, being a lecherous, evil cuss, decided to keep her on board and turn her into his fancy piece. Fortunately, the captain was far from well, and it was many days before he called for Jacky to attend him in his cabin. Lucky for her he had a heart attack and died before he could commit his dastardly deed.
Since Jacky was officially a midshipman from her previous time in the British navy and since the navy has rules about the officers fraternizing with the lower ranks, the captain promoted Jacky to lieutenant so he wouldn't be breaking any navy rules when he raped her. All the other higher officers were off the ship and with the captain dead, that made Jacky the highest ranking officer on board and she made the most of it. Winning the crew over to her side was a bit tricky but she managed to pull it off, especially when, under her direction, they capture some richly loaded smuggling vessels and that means cash in the sailors pockets.
They head in to Britain to turn in their treasure and get their fair share of the spoils but Jacky kept one of the smuggling vessels for herself and doesn't inform the authorities about it. She also managed to talk them into giving her a license to become a privateer and she set sail again, with an Irish crew and the captured ship, preying on the smugglers trying to slip through the British blockade of France. Too bad for Jacky that the authorities found out about the captured ship she didn't turn in and they declared her to be a pirate. And if they get their hands on her she is sure to be executed.

Another chapter in the Jacky Farber saga, with Jacky trying to fulfill her dream of owning her own shipping company, although, as per usual, she goes about it the wrong way and gets herself in terrible trouble again. This was a pretty good story, although there was too much details about sailing. Some of the plot contrivances were more than a little jarring, like the fiance's mother hanging on to all of Jacky's letters instead of just disposing of them. And Jacky putting on her boy clothes to see Jame at the races and then jumping to the conclusion that Jame had thrown her over for another girl and then running off without giving Jame a chance to explain and, of course, ending up in the clutches of a press gang. All that to get her back on board a navy ship. Still, Jacky is a spunky and engaging character, holding her own in a man's world, proving herself capable time and again. It's fun to read about such a feminist rebel, even though it is just fiction. I enjoyed it for the most part and will probably read the next installment, IN THE BELLY OF THE BLOODHOUND, where Jacky goes back to the girls' school and somehow all the schoolgirls end up shanghaied and, of course, Jacky will be in the thick of it to save the day.