Jack Tier or the Florida Reef

About “Jack Tier or the Florida Reef”

Set in 1846 amid arms smuggling to Mexico, Captain Stephen Spike ships gunpowder under cover of respectable trade to the Mexican government for use against the U.S. Young Rose Budd, in love with upright first mate Harry Mulford, is rescued by him from Spike's predation with the aid of seaman Jack Tier, who is revealed near the book's end to be a cross-dressing woman who has shipped as a man for twenty years while hunting the husband, Spike, who deserted her.