Raised by her father’s brother and his wife, she is well-educated, indolent, pretty, and scornful of the men in her social class.

The object of the sea cruise, organized by her uncle, is to prevent Ardita from rendezvousing with her latest beau in Palm Beach, a man her family regards as a licentious bounder and she regards as man possessing “the courage of his own convictions.” When her uncle insists that she join a dinner party to meet the 26-year-old Toby Moreland, the son of an associate, she flippantly dismisses the offer and insists she be taken to Palm Beach.

An elaborate practical joke, organized by her uncle and Toby begins to unfold, the purpose of which is to tame the shrewish Ardita and woo her to matrimony.

Ignoring her, he and his six-man crew proceed to take possession of the ship: the yacht’s chief engineer, cook and a valet submit to the hijackers.

His narrative is that of a struggling musician, his service in the army, and his ambition to be wealthy: he plans to travel to India and become a rajah.

Carlyle and his men navigate to a remote island and conceal the ship in a secluded cove so as to evade revenue cutters searching for them.

[4] Fitzgerald’s early short fiction, as represented in Flappers and Philosophers (1920), frequently offers “authorial self-conscious” declarations.

[5] Literary critic John Kuehl cites the following “pseudo-philosophical passage” from “The Offshore Pirate” as an example: Most of us are content to exist and breed and fight for the right to do both, and the dominant idea, the foredoomed attempt to control one’s destiny, is reserved for the fortunate and unfortunate few.”[6]As Fitzgerald was still in his youth (23-years-of-age), Kuehl suggests that such sententious pronouncements would be less intrusive if issued by the storys’ protagonists.

[7] Kuehl adds that Fitzgerald “betrayed bad taste” in rating “The Offshore Pirate” superior to his “A Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” the latter termed “a classic novelette” by biographer Matthew J.

[8][9] In his annotated table of contents from Tales of the Jazz Age (1922), Fitzgerald demurred when a “well-known critic” hailed “A Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” writing: “Personally, I prefer ‘The Offshore Pirate.’”[10][11][12] The story was adapted to film as The Off-Shore Pirate in 1921, which starred Viola Dana as Ardita.