The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson.
Title: The Ghost Pirates.
Author: William Hope Hodgson.
Genre: Fiction, literature, horror, nautical fiction, ghost stories.
Country: U.K.
Language: English.
Publication Date: 1909.
Summary: Three weeks into their voyage, the crew of the Mortzestus fear she is haunted. There are too many shadows throughout the ship, too many men upon the deck, and strange shapes moving silently amongst the masts and rigging. A mist has fallen over the ship, causing it to flicker between dimensions, and there is no way out.
My rating: 8/10
My review:
♥ “‘We’d ’ave our grandmothers an’ all the rest of our petticoated relash’ns comin’ to sea, if ’twere always like this," he remarked, reflectively-indicating, with a sweep of his pipe and hand, the calmness of the sea and sky.
“I saw no reason for denying that, and he continued:-
“‘If this ole packet is ’aunted, as some on ’em seems to think, well all as I can say is, let me ’ave the luck to tumble across another of the same sort. Good grub, an’ duff fer Sundays, an’ a decent crowd of ’em aft, an’ everythin’ comfertable like, so as yer can feel yer knows where yer are. As fer ’er bein’ ’aunted, that’s all ’ellish nonsense. I’ve comed ’cross lots of ’em before as was said to be ’aunted, an’ so some on ’em was; but ’twasn’t with ghostesses. One packet I was in, they was that bad yer couldn’t sleep a wink in yer watch below, until yer’d ’ad every stitch out yer bunk an’ ’ad a reg’lar ’unt. Sometimes-’"
♥ “‘I wasn’t asleep, any more than you were,’ he said, bitterly. ‘And you know it. You’re just fooling me. The ship’s haunted.’
“‘What!’ I said, sharply.
“‘She’s haunted,’ he said, again. ‘She’s haunted.’
“‘Who says so?’ I inquired, in a tone of unbelief.
“‘I do ! And you know it. Everybody knows it; but they don’t more than half believe it…'"
♥ “‘You’re a young idiot!’ I said. ‘And I should advise you not to go gassing about like this, round the decks. Take my tip, and turn-in and get a sleep. You’re talking dotty. Tomorrow you’ll perhaps feel what an unholy ass you’ve made of yourself.’"
♥ “‘Am I a fool?’ he asked, contemptuously.
“There was an assenting silence."
♥ “‘I’ve seen it again!’ he said, gasping with sheer nervousness.
“‘What?’ I said.
“‘That thing,’ he answered. Then he leant across the wheel-box, and lowered his voice.
“‘It came over the lee rail-up out of the sea,’ he added, with an air of telling something unbelievable."
♥ “‘You’re quite sure it wasn’t thinking about Williams made you imagine you saw something?’ I said, more to gain a moment to think, than because I believed that it was the case.
“‘I thought you were going to listen to me, seriously!’ he said, bitterly. ‘If you won’t believe me; what about the chap the Second Mate saw? What about Tom? What about Williams? For goodness sake! don’t try to put me off like you did last time. I nearly went cracked with wanting to tell someone who would listen to me, and wouldn’t laugh. I could stand anything, but this being alone. There’s a good chap, don’t pretend you don’t understand. Tell me what it all means.'"
♥ “‘Is the ship haunted?’
“For an instant I hesitated.
“‘No,’ I said, at length. ‘I don’t think she is. I mean, not in that way.’
“‘What way, then?’
“‘Well, I’ve formed a bit of a theory, that seems wise one minute, and cracked the next. Of course, it’s as likely to be all wrong; but it’s the only thing that seems to me to fit in with all the beastly things we’ve had lately.’
“‘Go on!’ he said, with an impatient, nervous movement.
“‘Well, I’ve an idea that it’s nothing in the ship that’s likely to hurt us. I scarcely know how to put it; but, if I’m right in what I think, it’s the ship herself that’s the cause of everything.’
“‘What do you mean?’ he asked, in a puzzled voice. ‘Do you mean that the ship is haunted, after all?’
“‘No,’ I answered. ‘I’ve just told you I didn’t. Wait until I’ve finished what I was going to say.’
“‘All right!’ he said.
“‘About that thing you saw tonight,’ I went on. ‘You say it came over the lee rail, up on to the poop?’
“‘Yes,’ he answered.
“ ‘Well the thing I saw, came up out of the sea, and went back into the sea.’
“‘Jove!’ he said; and then:- ‘Yes, go on.’
“‘My idea is, that this ship is open to be boarded by those things,’ I explained. ‘What they are, of course I don’t know. They look like men-in lots of ways. But-well, the Lord knows what’s in the sea. Though we don’t want to go imagining silly things, of course. And then, again, you know, it seems fat-headed, calling anything silly. That’s how I keep going, in a sort of blessed circle. I don’t know a bit whether they’re flesh and blood, or whether they’re what we should call ghosts or spirits-’"
“‘They can’t be flesh and blood,’ Tammy interrupted. ‘Where would they live? Besides, that first one I saw, I thought I could see through it. And this last one-the Second Mate would have seen it. And they would drown-’
“‘Not necessarily,’ I said.
“‘Oh, but I’m sure they’re not,’ he insisted. It’s impossible-’
“‘So are ghosts-when you’re feeling sensible,’ I answered. ‘But I’m not saying they are flesh and blood; though, at the same time, I’m not going to say straight out they’re ghosts-not yet, at any rate.’
“‘Where do they come from?’ he asked, stupidly enough.
“‘Out of the sea,’ I told him. ‘You saw for yourself!’
“‘Then why don’t other vessels have them coming aboard?’ he said. ‘How do you account for that?’
“‘In a way-though sometimes it seems cracky-I think I can, according to my idea,’ I answered.
“‘How?’ he inquired, again.
“‘Why, I believe that this ship is open, as I’ve told you-exposed, unprotected, or whatever you like to call it. I should say it’s reasonable to think that all the things of the material world are barred, as it were, from the immaterial; but that in some cases the barrier may be broken down. That’s what may have happened to this ship. And if it has, she may be naked to the attacks of beings belonging to some other state of existence.’
“‘What’s made her like that?’ he asked, in a really awed sort of tone.
“‘The Lord knows!’ I answered. ‘Perhaps something to do with magnetic stresses; but you’d not understand, and I don’t, really. And, I suppose, inside of me, I don’t believe it’s anything of the kind, for a minute. I’m not built that way. And yet I don’t know! Perhaps, there may have been some rotten thing done aboard of her. Or, again, it’s a heap more likely to be something quite outside of anything I know.’
“‘If they’re immaterial then, they’re spirits?’ he questioned.
“‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘It’s so hard to say what I really think, you know. I’ve got a queer idea, that my head-piece likes to think good; but I don’t believe my tummy believes it.’
“‘Go on!’ he said.
“‘Well,’ I said. ‘Suppose the earth were inhabited by two kinds of life. We’re one, and they’re the other.’
“‘Go on!’ he said.
“‘Well,’ I said. ‘Don’t you see, in a normal state we may not be capable of appreciating the realness of the other? But they may be just as real and material to them, as we are to us. Do you see?’
“‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Go on!’
“ ‘Well,’ I said. ‘The earth may be just as real to them, as to us. I mean that it may have qualities as material to them, as it has to us; but neither of us could appreciate the other’s realness, or the quality of realness in the earth, which was real to the other. It’s so difficult to explain. Don’t you understand?’
“ ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Go on!’
“‘Well, if we were in what I might call a healthy atmosphere, they would be quite beyond our power to see or feel, or anything. And the same with them; but the more we’re like this, the more real and actual they could grow to us. See? That is, the more we should be-come able to appreciate their form of materialness. That’s all. I can’t make it any clearer.’
“‘Then, after all, you really think they’re ghosts, or something of that sort?’ Tammy said.
“‘I suppose it does come to that,’ I answered. ‘I mean that, anyway, I don’t think they’re our ideas of flesh and blood. But, of course, it’s silly to say much; and, after all, you must remember that I may be all wrong.’"
♥ "So, as there was no one on the poop, I left the wheel, and stepped aft to the taffrail. It was thus that I came to see something altogether unthought of-a full-rigged ship, close-hauled on the port tack, a few hundred yards on our starboard quarter. Her sails were scarcely filled by the light breeze, and flapped as she lifted to the swell of the sea. She appeared to have very little way through the water, certainly not more than a knot an hour. Away aft, hanging from the gaff-end, was a string of flags. Evidently, she was signalling to us. All this, I saw in a flash, and I just stood and stared, astonished. I was astonished because I had not seen her earlier. In that light breeze, I knew that she must have been in sight for at least a couple of hours. Yet I could think of nothing rational to satisfy my wonder. There she was-of that much, I was certain. And yet, how had she come there without my seeing her, before?
“All at once, as I stood, staring, I heard the wheel behind me, spin rapidly. Instinctively, I jumped to get hold of the spokes; for I did not want the steering gear jammed. Then I turned again to have another look at the other ship; but, to my utter bewilderment, there was no sign of her-nothing but the calm ocean, spreading away to the distant horizon. I blinked my eyelids a bit, and pushed the hair off my forehead. Then, I stared again; but there was no vestige of her-nothing, you know; and absolutely nothing unusual, except a faint, tremulous quiver in the air. And the blank surface of the sea, reaching everywhere to the empty horizon.
“Had she foundered I asked myself, naturally enough; and, for the moment, I really wondered. I searched round the sea for wreckage; but there was nothing, not even an odd hencoop, or a piece of deck furniture; and so I threw away that idea, as impossible.
“Then, as I stood, I got another thought, or, perhaps, an intuition, and I asked myself, seriously, whether this disappearing ship might not be in some way connected with the other queer things. It occurred to me then, that the vessel I had seen was nothing real, and, perhaps, did not exist outside of my own brain. I considered the idea, gravely. It helped to explain the thing, and I could think of nothing else that would. Had she been real, I felt sure that others aboard us would have been bound to have seen her long before I had-I got a bit muddled there, with trying to think it out; and then, abruptly, the reality of the other ship, came back to me-every rope and sail and spar, you know. And I remembered how she had lifted to the heave of the sea, and how the sails had flapped in the light breeze. And the string of flags! She had been signalling. At that last, I found it just as impossible to believe that she had not been real.
“I had reached to this point of irresolution, and was standing with my back, partly turned to the wheel. I was holding it steady with my left hand, while I looked over the sea, to try to find something to help me to understand.
“All at once, as I stared, I seemed to see the ship again. She was more on the beam now, than on the quarter; but I thought little of that, in the astonishment of seeing her once more. It was only a glimpse I caught of her-dim and wavering, as though I looked at her through the convolutions of heated air. Then she grew indistinct, and vanished again; but I was convinced now that she was real, and had been in sight all the time, if I could have seen her. That curious, dim, wavering appearance had suggested something to me. I remembered the strange, wavy look of the air, a few days pre-viously, just before the mist had surrounded the ship. And in my mind, I connected the two. It was nothing about the other packet that was strange. The strangeness was with us. It was something that was about (or invested) our ship that prevented me-or indeed, any one else aboard-from seeing that other. It was evident that she had been able to see us, as was proved by her signalling. In an irrelevant sort of way, I wondered what the people aboard of her thought of our apparently intentional disregard of their signals.
“After that, I thought of the strangeness of it all. Even at that minute, they could see us, plainly; and yet, so far as we were concerned, the whole ocean seemed empty. It appeared to me, at that time, to be the weirdest thing that could happen to us.
“And then a fresh thought came to me. How long had we been like that? I puzzled for a few moments. It was now that I recollected that we had sighted several vessels on the morning of the day when the mist appeared; and since then, we had seen nothing. This, to say the least, should have struck me as queer; for some of the other packets were homeward bound along with us, and steering the same course. Consequently, with the weather being fine, and the wind next to nothing, they should have been in sight all the time. This reasoning seemed to me to show, unmistakably, some connection between the coming of the mist, and our inability to see. So that it is possible we had been in that extraordinary state of blindness for nearly three days.
“In my mind, the last glimpse of that ship on the quarter, came back to me. And, I remember, a curious thought got me, that I had looked at her from out of some other dimension. For a while, you know, I really believe the mystery of the idea, and that it might be the actual truth, took me; instead of my realising just all that it might mean. It seemed so exactly to express all the half-defined thoughts that had come, since seeing that other packet on the quarter."
♥ “‘You’ve forgotten, Tammy,’ I said. ‘Even if I could get the Old Man to believe I’d got at the truth of the matter, he couldn’t do any-thing. Don’t you see, if I’m right, we couldn’t even see the land, if we made it. We’re like blind men….’
..“‘You mean that this strange atmosphere-or whatever it is-we’re in, would not allow us to see another ship?’ he asked, a bit awestruck.
“‘Yes,’ I said. ‘But the point I wanted you to see, is that if we can’t see another vessel, even when she’s quite close, then, in the same way, we shouldn’t be able to see land. To all intents and purposes we’re blind. Just you think of it! We’re out in the middle of the briny, doing a sort of eternal blind man’s hop. The Old Man couldn’t put into port, even if he wanted to. He’d run us bang on shore, without our ever seeing it.’
“‘What are we going to do, then?’ he asked, in a despairing sort of way. ‘Do you mean to say we can’t do anything? Surely something can be done! It’s terrible!’
“For perhaps a minute, we walked up and down, in the light from the different lanterns. Then he spoke again.
“‘We might be run down, then,’ he said, ‘and never even see the other vessel?’
“‘It’s possible,’ I replied. ‘Though, from what I saw, it’s evident that we’re quite visible; so that it would be easy for them to see us, and steer clear of us, even though we couldn’t see them.’
“‘And we might run into something, and never see it?’ he asked me, following up the train of thought.
“‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Only there’s nothing to stop the other ship from getting out of our way.’
“‘But if it wasn’t a vessel?’ he persisted. ‘It might be an iceberg, or a rock, or even a derelict.’
“‘In that case,’ I said, putting it a bit flippantly, naturally, ‘we’d probably damage it.’
“He made no answer to this, and for a few moments, we were quiet."
♥ “Then they lifted Jacobs onto the hatch, and when he had gone, Jock. When Jock was lifted, a sort of sudden shiver ran through the crowd. He had been a favourite in a quiet way, and I know I felt, all at once, just a bit queer. I was standing by the rail, upon the after bollard, and Tammy was next to me; while Plummer stood a little behind. As the Second Mate tilted the hatch for the last time, a little, hoarse chorus broke from the men:-
“‘S’long, Jock! So long, Jock!’
“And then, at the sudden plunge, they rushed to the side to see the last of him as he went downwards. Even the Second Mate was not able to resist this universal feeling, and he, too, peered over. From where I had been standing, I had been able to see the body take the water, and now, for a brief couple of seconds, I saw the white of the canvas, blurred by the blue of the water, dwindle and dwindle in the extreme depth. Abruptly, as I stared, it disappeared-too abruptly, it seemed to me.
“‘Gone!’ I heard several voices say, and then our watch began to go slowly forrard, while one or two of the other, started to replace the hatch.
“Tammy pointed, and nudged me.
“‘See, Jessop,’ he said. ‘What is it?’
“‘What?’ I asked.
“‘That queer shadow,’ he replied. ‘Look!’
“And then I saw what he meant. It was something big and shadowy, that appeared to be growing clearer. It occupied the exact place-so it seemed to me-in which Jock had disappeared.
“‘Look at it!’ said Tammy, again. ‘It’s getting bigger!’
“He was pretty excited, and so was I.
“I was peering down. The thing seemed to be rising out of the depths. It was taking shape. As I realised what the shape was, a queer, cold funk took me.
“‘See,’ said Tammy. ‘It’s just like the shadow of a ship!’
“And it was. The shadow of a ship rising out of the unexplored immensity beneath our keel."
..“As you can understand, I thought a lot about this shadow of a vessel. But, I am sure, for a time, my ideas must just have gone in an everlasting, blind circle. And then I got another thought; for I got thinking of the figures I had seen aloft in the early morning; and I began to imagine fresh things. You see, that first thing that had come up over the side, had come out of the sea. And it had gone back. And now there was this shadow vessel-thing-ghost-ship I called it. It was a damned good name, too. And the dark, noiseless men…. I thought a lot on these lines. Unconsciously, I put a question to myself, aloud:-
“‘Were they the crew?’"
♥ “‘Yes,’ I answered, and told him how the idea had come to me at my dinner, that the strange men-shadows which came aboard, might come from that indistinct vessel we had seen down in the sea.
“‘Good Lord!’ he exclaimed, as he got my meaning.
“And then for a little, he stood and thought.
“‘That’s where they live, you mean?’ he said, at last, and paused again.
“‘Well,’ I replied. ‘It can’t be the sort of existence we should call life.’"
♥ “‘You think, then, that that-vessel has been with us for some time, if we’d only known?’ he asked.
“‘All along,’ I replied. ‘I mean ever since these things started.’
“‘Supposing there are others,’ he said, suddenly.
“I looked at him.
“‘If there are,’ I said. ‘You can pray to God that they won’t stumble across us. It strikes me that whether they’re ghosts, or not ghosts, they’re blood-gutted pirates.’
“‘It seems horrible,’ he said, solemnly, ‘to be talking seriously like this, about-you know, about such things.’
“‘I’ve tried to stop thinking that way,’ I told him. ‘I’ve felt I should go cracked, if I didn’t. There’s damned queer things happen at sea, I know; but this isn’t one of them.’
“‘It seems so strange and unreal, one moment, doesn’t it?’ he said. ‘And the next, you know it’s really true, and you can’t under-stand why you didn’t always know. And yet they’d never believe, if you told them ashore about it.’"
“‘They’d believe, if they’d been in this packet in the middle watch this morning,’ I said.
“‘Besides,’ I went on. ‘They don’t, understand. We didn’t…. I shall always feel different now, when I read that some packet hasn’t been heard of.’"
♥ “It was while we were up at the foresail, that the sun went over the edge of the horizon. We had finished stowing the sail, out upon the yard, and I was waiting for the others to clear in, and let me get off the foot-rope. Thus it happened that having nothing to do for nearly a minute, I stood watching the sun set, and so saw something that otherwise I should, most probably, have missed. The sun had dipped nearly halfway below the horizon, and was showing like a great, red dome of dull fire. Abruptly, far away on the starboard bow, a faint mist drove up out of the sea. It spread across the face of the sun, so that its light shone now as though it came through a dim haze of smoke. Quickly, this mist or haze grew thicker; but, at the same time, separating and taking strange shapes, so that the red of the sun struck through ruddily between them. Then, as I watched, the weird mistiness collected and shaped and rose into three towers. These became more definite, and there was something elongated beneath them. The shaping and forming continued, and almost suddenly I saw that the thing had taken on the shape of a great ship. Directly afterwards, I saw that it was moving. It had been broadside on to the sun. Now it was swinging. The bows came round with a stately movement, until the three masts bore in a line. It was heading directly towards us. It grew larger; but yet less distinct. Astern of it, I saw now that the sun had sunk to a mere line of light. Then, in the gathering dusk it seemed to me that the ship was sinking back into the ocean. The sun went beneath the sea, and the thing I had seen, became merged, as it were, into the monotonous greyness of the coming night."
♥ “I never heard the Old Man’s reply; for in the same moment, there came to me a chill of cold breath at my back. I turned sharply, and saw something peering over the taffrail. It had eyes that reflected the binnacle light, weirdly, with a frightful, tigerish gleam; but beyond that, I could see nothing with any distinctness. For the moment, I just stared. I seemed frozen. It was so close. Then movement came to me, and I jumped to the binnacle and snatched out the lamp. I twitched round, and shone the light towards it. The thing, whatever it was, had come more forward over the rail; but now, before the light, it recoiled with a queer, horrible litheness. It slid back, and down, and so out of sight. I have only a confused notion of a wet, glistening something, and two vile eyes."
♥ "..I lit my pipe and wandered about the main-deck. I did not feel particularly nervous, as there were now two lanterns in each rigging, and a couple standing upon each of the spare top-masts under the bulwarks.
“Yet, a little after five bells, it seemed to me that I saw a shadowy face peer over the rail, a little abaft the fore lanyards. I snatched up one of the lanterns from off the spar, and flashed the light towards it, whereupon there was nothing. Only, on my mind, more than my sight, I fancy, a queer knowledge remained of wet, peery eyes. Afterwards, when I thought about them, I felt extra beastly. I knew then how brutal they had been…. Inscrutable, you know. "
♥ “‘Look here, Tammy,’ I said, once more.
‘It’s no use your talking like you’ve been doing. Things are as they are, and it’s no one’s fault, and nobody can help it.'"
♥ And this is what we saw:- A little distance below the surface there lay a pale-coloured, slightly domed disk. It seemed only a few feet down. Below it, we saw quite clearly, after a few moments’ staring, the shadow of a royal-yard, and, deeper, the gear and standing-rigging of a great mast. Far down among the shadows, I thought, presently, that I could make out the immense, indefinite stretch of vast decks.
“ ‘My God!’ whispered Tammy, and shut up. But presently, he gave out a short exclamation, as though an idea had come to him; and got down off the spar, and ran forrard on to the fo’cas’le head. He came running back, after a short look into the sea, to tell me that there was the truck of another great mast coming up there, a bit off the bow, to within a few feet of the surface of the sea.
“In the meantime, you know, I had been staring like mad down through the water at the huge, shadowy mast just below me. I had traced out bit by bit, until now, I could clearly see the jackstay, running along the top of the royal mast; and, you know, the royal itself was set.
“But, you know, what was getting at me more than anything, was a feeling that there was movement down in the water there, among the rigging. I thought I could actually see, at times, things moving and glinting faintly and rapidly to and fro in the gear. And once, I was practically certain that something was on the royal-yard, moving in to the mast; as though, you know, it might have come up the leech of the sail. And this way, I got a beastly feeling that there were things swarming down there."
♥ "Anyway, the next instant, Tammy gave out an awful scream, and was head downwards over the rail, in a second. I had an idea then that he was jumping overboard. I collared him by the waist of his britchers, and one knee, and then I had him down on the deck, and sat plump on him; for he was struggling and shouting all the time, and I was so breath-less and shaken and gone to mush, I could not have trusted my hands to hold him. You see, I never thought then it was anything but some influence at work on him; and that he was trying to get loose to go over the side. But I know now that I saw the shadow-man that had him. Only, at the time, I was so mixed up, and with the one idea in my head, I was not really able to notice anything, properly. But, afterwards, I comprehended a bit (you can understand, can’t you?) what I had seen at the time without taking in.
“And even now looking back, I know that the shadow was only like a faint-seen greyness in the daylight, against the whiteness of the decks, clinging against Tammy."
♥ "Suddenly, away aft, I heard shouting, and then on the deck overhead, came the loud thudding of some one pomping with a capstan-bar. Straightway, I turned and made a run for the port doorway, along with the four other men. We rushed out through the doorway on to the deck. It was getting dusk; but that did not hide from me a terrible and extraordinary sight. All along the port rail there was a queer, undulating greyness, that moved downwards inboard, and spread over the decks. As I looked, I found that I saw more clearly, in a most extraordinary way. And, suddenly, all the moving greyness resolved into hundreds of strange men. In the half-light, they looked unreal and impossible, as though there had come upon us the inhabitants of some fantastic dream-world. My God! I thought I was mad. They swarmed in upon us in a great wave of murderous, living shadows. From some of the men who must have been going aft for roll-call, there rose into the evening air a loud, awful shouting.
“‘Aloft!’ yelled someone; but, as I looked aloft, I saw that the horrible things were swarm-ing there in scores and scores.
“‘Jesus Christ-!’ shrieked a man’s voice, cut short, and my glance dropped from aloft, to find two of the men who had come out from the fo’cas’le with me, rolling upon the deck. They were two indistinguishable masses that writhed here and there across the planks. The brutes fairly covered them. From them, came muffled little shrieks and gasps; and there I stood, and with me were the other two men. A man darted past us into the fo’cas’le, with two grey men on his back, and I heard them kill him. The two men by me, ran suddenly across the fore hatch, and up the starboard ladder on to the fo’cas’le head. Yet, almost in the same instant, I saw several of the grey men disappear up the other ladder. From the fo’cas’le head above, I heard the two men commence to shout, and this died away into a loud scuffling. At that, I turned to see whether I could get away. I stared round, hopelessly; and then with two jumps, I was on the pigsty, and from there upon the top of the deckhouse. I threw myself flat, and waited, breathlessly.
“All at once, it seemed to me that it was darker than it had been the previous moment, and I raised my head, very cautiously. I saw that the ship was enveloped in great billows of mist, and then, not six feet from me, I made out some one lying, face downwards. It was Tammy. I felt safer now that we were hidden by the mist, and I crawled to him. He gave a quick gasp of terror when I touched him; but when he saw who it was, he started to sob like a little kid.
“‘Hush!’ I said. ‘For God’s sake be quiet!’ But I need not have troubled; for the shrieks of the men being killed, down on the decks all around us, drowned every other sound.
..“For a minute or so there was silence, and I made my way cautiously to the after end of the house, and peered over. Yet, because of the mist, I could see nothing. Then, abruptly, from behind me, came a single wail of sudden pain and terror from Tammy. It ended instantly in a sort of choke. I stood up in the mist and ran back to where I had left the kid; but he had gone. I stood dazed. I felt like shrieking out loud. Above me, I heard the flaps of the courses being tumbled off the yards. Down upon the decks, there were the noises of a multitude working in a weird, inhuman silence.
“For a minute or so there was silence, and I made my way cautiously to the after end of the house, and peered over. Yet, because of the mist, I could see nothing. Then, abruptly, from behind me, came a single wail of sudden pain and terror from Tammy. It ended instantly in a sort of choke. I stood up in the mist and ran back to where I had left the kid; but he had gone. I stood dazed. I felt like shrieking out loud. Above me, I heard the flaps of the courses being tumbled off the yards. Down upon the decks, there were the noises of a multitude working in a weird, inhuman silence. Then came the squeal and rattle of blocks and braces aloft. They were squaring the yards.
“I remained standing. I watched the yards squared, and then I saw the sails fill suddenly. An instant later, the deck of the house upon which I stood, became canted forrard. The slope increased, so that I could scarcely stand, and I grabbed at one of the wire-winches. I wondered, in a stunned sort of way, what was happening. Almost directly afterwards, from the deck on the port side of the house, there came a sudden, loud, human scream; and immediately, from different parts of the decks there rose, afresh, some most horrible shouts of agony from odd men. This grew into an intense screaming that shook my heart up; and there came again a noise of desperate, brief fighting. Then a breath of cold wind seemed to play in the mist, and I could see down the slope of the deck. I looked below me, towards the bows. The jibboom was plunged right into the water, and, as I stared, the bows disappeared into the sea. The deck of the house became a wall to me, and I was swinging from the winch, which was now above my head. I watched the ocean lip over the edge of the fo’cas’le head, and rush down on to the main-deck, roaring into the empty fo’cas’le. And still all around me came the crying of the lost sailormen. I heard something strike the corner of the house above me, with a dull thud, and then I saw Plummer plunge down into the flood beneath. I remembered that he had been at the wheel. The next instant, the water had leapt to my feet; there came a drear chorus of bubbling screams, a roar of waters, and I was going swiftly down into the darkness. I let go of the winch, and struck out madly, trying to hold my breath. There was a loud singing in my ears. It grew louder. I opened my mouth. I felt I was dying. And then, thank God! I was at the surface, breathing. For the moment, I was blinded with the water, and my agony of breathlessness. Then, growing easier, I brushed the water from my eyes, and so, not three hundred yards away, I made out a large ship, floating almost motionless. At first, I could scarcely believe I saw aright. Then, as I realised that indeed there was yet a chance of living, I started to swim towards you.
“You know the rest-”
♥ “And you think-?” said the Captain, interrogatively, and stopped short.
“No,” replied Jessop. “I don’t think, I know. None of us think. It’s a gospel fact. People talk about queer things happening at sea; but this isn’t one of them. This is one of the real things. You’ve all seen queer things; perhaps more than I have. It depends. But they don’t go down in the log. These kinds of things never do. This one won’t; at least, not as it’s really happened.”
He nodded his head, slowly, and went on, addressing the Captain more particularly.
“I’ll bet,” he said, deliberately, “that you’ll enter it in the log-book, something like this:- ‘May 18th. Lat.-S. Long.-W. 2 p.m. Light winds from the South and East. Sighted a full-rigged ship on the starboard bow. Overhauled her in the first dog-watch. Signalled her; but received no response. During the second dog-watch she steadily refused to communicate. About eight bells, it was observed that she seemed to be settling by the head, and a minute later she foundered suddenly, bows foremost, with all her crew. Put out a boat and picked up one of the men, an A.B. by the name of Jessop. He was quite unable to give any explanation of the catastrophe.
“And you two,” he made a gesture at the First and Second Mates, “will probably sign your names to it, and so will I, and perhaps one of your A.B.’s. Then when we get home they’ll print a report of it in the newspapers, and people will talk about unseaworthy ships. Maybe some of the experts will talk rot about rivets and defective plates and so forth.”
He laughed, cynically. Then he went on.
“And, you know, when you come to think of it, there’s no one except our own selves will ever know how it happened-really. The shellbacks don’t count. They’re only ‘beastly, drunken brutes of common sailors’-Poor devils! No one would think of taking anything they said, as anything more than a damned cuffer. Besides, the beggars only tell these things when they’re half boozed. They wouldn’t then (for fear of being laughed at), only they’re not responsible-”
He broke off, and looked round at us. The Skipper and the two Mates nodded their heads, in silent assent.
♥ You see, we’d signalled her, and she’d not taken any notice, and that seemed queer, as we couldn’t have been more than three or four hundred yards off her port beam, and it was a fine evening; so that we could almost have had a tea-fight, if they’d seemed a pleasant crowd. As it was, we called them a set of sulky swine, and left it at that, though we still kept our hoist up.
♥ The Mate made no immediate reply; but pulled a plug of ship’s tobacco out from his hip pocket, and took a bite. He replaced it, expectorated, and then expressed his opinion that they were all a lot of blasted Dutch swine.