The Seven Seas, Winter 1953

The Seven Seas, Winter 1953, Vol. 1, No. 1 This magazine debut features "The Diver of the Rebecque" by Garland Roark, serialized adventure fiction set in French Oceania. The narrative follows Pierre Larose, a smuggling captain of the schooner *Rebecque*, and his half-Polynesian diver, Leonce Carondelet. Told by Jenkins, the ship's helmsman, the story depicts Larose's dangerous runs past French customs authorities, particularly the persistent M. Nicot, while transporting contraband copra and diamonds between islands. Tension animates the relationship between captain and diver—Larose holds Leonce in debt-bondage through purchased luxuries, while Leonce harbors the hidden pearls left him by a deceased priest and nurses resentment by taunting his master. Larose carries a blue handkerchief as a talisman. Complications arise when Larose becomes romantically entangled with Ninon Frilot, daughter of a powerful Papeete merchant, and when Nicot takes Leonce into custody. The issue also includes work by William McFee, Liam O'Flaherty, and James B. Connolly.