A collection from Steeger Books‘ Argosy Library that I got recently is The Black Tide, The Complete Adventures of Bellow Bill Williams, Vol. 1 by Ralph R. Perry.
It reprints the first six stories of a popular character from The Argosy in the 1930s: “Bellow Bill” Williams. I was intrigued by the series as it was touted as a series that Lester Dent read and influenced his Doc Savage stories.
I couldn’t find much info on Ralph Perry (1895-?) other than the short autobiography reprinted in the book, which originally appeared in Argosy in 1930. He had been a sailor in the Navy during World War I, leaving to try his hand at other things. He started to write, was an editor, and had written a hundred works by the time of the bio. Though I wonder if all these works were published, as Galactic Central doesn’t list that many before 1930. Galactic Central lists works from 1924 to 1941 in Adventure, Short Stories, Argosy, and others.
Perry wrote adventure stories, many with a nautical theme, but also some westerns. I have no idea why there are no stories listed after 1941, but I wonder if he re-entered the Navy with World War II and was killed in action. Would anyone would be able to track him down? I’m not aware of any write-ups on him.
“Bellow Bill” Williams seems to be his only serial character. He appeared from 1929 to at least 1935. But I don’t know for sure as I don’t have a complete list of stories. In addition to the six in this volume, I know of definitely five more stories, but I am positive there are more.
We meet Bellow Bill in the first story. He is a big man, six-foot-three, 225 pounds. Hair is curly and coppery gold in color, and dark blue eyes. And he has tattoos. His arms are covered with them. Ropes are tattooed on his wrists, with stars, butterflies, and serpents running up his arms. A dragon is on his chest, a full rigged ship on his back, and a snake around his waist finishes that off. He chews tobacco. And his nickname is due to his bellowing voice. He is a skipper of a ship in the South Seas, mainly in the Marquesas Islands area, going after pearls, but he gets pulled into other adventures.
While Bill is a big and strong character, he is not dumb and works out plans for his actions. And he has a core of ethics, doing the right thing. Several times he passes over a fortune to do the right thing or just continue having adventures.
There are no consistent secondary characters. In the first story, he is joined by Kory, a loyal former cannibal from Fiji, whose face is covered in tattoos. He appears in the next few stories as Bill’s first mate and pearl diver, but is barely mentioned in the stories and hardly involved in the action. In a couple, he is not even mentioned. Frankly he’s a problematic character for modern audience, so maybe it’s a good thing he was minimized.
As noted, we get his first six stories, all serialized in Argosy from November 30, 1929, to March 14, 1931. The first story was broken up over two issues, the rest appeared in single issues. None of Perry’s works were cover featured, and that includes Bellow Bill. If he was so popular, it is strange that they didn’t even note a Bellow Bill story in an issue. So I’m not sure the source of the cover artwork for this volume. We do get the interior artwork with each story.
The first story is “The Big Kick” (Argosy, Nov. 30 & Dec. 7, 1929). Strangely, this one is set in 1918 (not stated in the story) during WWI, and finds Bill as a chief mate on a cargo steamer heading to Ireland. He plans on getting involved in the war, when the war gets him involved with a German U-boat that sinks the ship. Taking a personal vendetta against the captain, he and Kory would, after several twists and turns, succeed in defeating and sinking that U-boat and capturing its commander.
The next story, “Virgin Diamonds” (Argosy, Dec. 21, 1929), finds Bill as a skipper of his own schooner in the South Seas (the setting for the rest of the stories). He picks up a pirate who had killed the skipper and sailors of another ship, and who offers him a source of diamonds. On a dangerous island of cannibals. Fun.
In “Devil Pearls” (Argosy, March 29, 1930), Bill is pulled into another adventure when a hated enemy “One Eyed” Kerrigan gives him the location of a previously unknown pearl bed with unusually large pearls. The race is on between Bill and another pearler that also gets into the mystery of why these pearls exist.
Then we get “The High Place” (Argosy, May 17 1930), where Bill gets pulled into a rivalry between two plantation owners on an island, that also involved possible cannibals. There is also a love interest between the children of the two owners as well.
A new, undiscovered pearl bed bring Bill and three other schooners together in “Man’s Way” (Argosy, Oct. 25, 1930). There is a deadly rivalry between several of them, along with a young girl raised by a father who has lost his way a bit.
The final story, “The Black Tide” (Argosy, March 14, 1931), is set in 1930 (as I believe the others are). And we learn that the first story was set in 1918. Mainly because Bill is contacted by the former British naval lieutenant he helps in that story, who is now the British commissioner of an island in the South Pacific and needs Bill’s help with a potential uprising of cannibals. In the middle of all this is a pearl trader, his daughter, and the man who loves her.
Overall, I enjoyed all these stories. To be honest, I don’t think I would have gone after them without the connection to Dent and Doc. I prefer more fantastical stories, but as good, rousing adventure stories, these are great. I don’t know how many more volumes we’ll get, but I will be looking forward to them.
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