William Hope Hodgson

“ It was our watch on deck from eight to twelve, midnight, and my look-out from eight to ten. For the first hour, I walked to and fro across the break of the fo'cas'le head, smoking my pipe and just listening to the quiet.... Ever hear the kind of silence you can get away out at sea? You need to be in one of the old-time windjammers, with all the lights dowsed, and the sea as calm and quiet as some queer plain of death. And then you want a pipe and the lonesomeness of the fo'cas'le head, with the caps'n to lean against while you listen and think. ”

“ He hove his oar up with a great splashing of water, into the air, and immediately something whirled and beat about in the yellow halo of light over the bows of the boat. There was a crash of breaking wood, and the boat-hook was broken. The lamp soused down into the sea, and was lost. Then in the darkness, there was a heavy splash, and a shout from the bow-oar:—"It's gone, Sir. It's loosed off the oar!"
"Vast pulling, all!" sung out the Skipper. Not that the order was necessary; for not a man was pulling. He had jumped up, and whipped a big revolver out of his coat pocket. ”

“ I never saw a vessel made like her; not even in an old picture of old-time ships.
Forrard of me, was her mast—a big lump of a stick it was too, for her size. And here was another amazing thing, the mast of her looked just solid stone.
"Funny, isn't she, Duprey?" said the Skipper's voice at my back, and I came round on him with a jump.
"Yes," I said. "I'm puzzled. Aren't you, Sir?"
"Well," he said, "I am. If we were like the shellbacks they talk of in books, we'd be crossing ourselves. But, personally, give me a good heavy Colt, or the hefty chunk of steel you're cuddling." ”

“ He covered his lapse, in a moment, by the warning:—
"Look out for bad air!" But I was already inside with the lamp, and holding my axe handily. There was no bad air; for right across from me, was a split clean through the ship's side, that I could have put my two arms through, just above the level of the scummy water.
The place I had broken into, was a cabin, of a kind; but seemed strange and dank, and too narrow to breathe in; and wherever I turned, I saw stone. The Third Mate and the Skipper gave simultaneous expressions of disgust at the wet dismalness of the place. ”

“ He stepped forrard smartly over the oars from thwart to thwart, till he reached the bows, where he shone his light down into the water.
"My word!" he said. "Lord in Heaven! Saw anyone ever the like!"
And I doubt whether any man ever did see what we saw then; for the water was thick and living for yards round the boat with the hugest eels I ever saw before or after.
"Give way, Men," said the Skipper, after a minute. "Yon's no explanation of the almighty queer sounds out yonder we're hearing this night. Give way, lads!" ”

“ I went a couple of paces in through the black gape of the doorway, and then stopped and held the lamp so as to get a view of the place. As I did so, I remember how the intense silence struck home on me. Every man of us must surely have been holding his breath; and there must have been some heavy quality, either in the water, or in the scum that floated on it, that kept it from rippling against the sides of the bulkheads, with the movements we had made. ”

“ He stood right up in the bows of the boat, shining his bulls'-eye from side to side, and flashing it down on the water.
"Give way, lads!" he said again. "They don't like the light, that'll keep them from the oars. Give way steady now. Mr. Andrews, keep her dead on for the noise out yonder."
We pulled for some minutes, during which I felt my oar plucked at twice; but a flash of the Captain's lamp seemed sufficient to make the brutes loose hold. ”

“ Ahoy there! Ahoy there!" his voice going out lost into the silence and darkness all around. But there came never a comprehensible answer, only all the time the infernal noise of a brook running out there on the sea, a thousand miles from any brook of earth; and away on the port bow, a vague shapeless shining.
I put the glasses to my eyes, and stared. The light was bigger and brighter, seen through the binoculars; but I could make nothing of it, only a dull, elongated shining, that moved vaguely in the darkness, apparently a hundred fathoms or so, away on the sea. ”

“ I took my axe short, and tapped the mast, and it rang dull, and solid, like a stone pillar, I struck it again, harder, and a sharp flake of stone flew past my cheek. The Skipper thrust his lantern close up to where I'd struck the mast.
"By George," he said, "she's absolute a stone ship—solid stone, afloat here out of Eternity, in the middle of the wide Atlantic.... Why! She must weigh a thousand tons more than she's buoyancy to carry. It's just impossible.... ”

“ I passed the boat-hook aft to the Third Mate to look at.
"They're about as dangerous as they can be, Sir, I reckon," I told him.
"Makes you think of African centipedes, only these are big and strong enough to kill an elephant, I should think."
"Don't lean all on one side of the boat!" shouted the Third Mate, as the men stared over. "Get back to your places. Give way, there! . . . Keep a good look-out for any signs of the ship or the Captain, Duprey."
For nearly an hour, we pulled to and fro over the reef; but we never saw either the stone ship or the Old Man again. ”

“ Now, I want you to realize that what I am telling you is a plain and simple tale of fact. This is no fairy tale, and I've not done yet; and I think this yarn should prove to you that some mighty strange things do happen at sea, and always will while the world lasts. It's the home of all mysteries; for it's the one place that is really difficult for humans to investigate. Now just listen:—
The Mate had kept the bell going, from time to time, and so we came back pretty quickly, having as we came, a strange repetition of the echoey reduplication of our oar-sounds ”

“ The watch below turned out, and had theirs with the watch on deck, all sitting along the spar that lay under the port rail.
As the daylight grew, we kept a constant watch over the side; but even now we could see nothing; for the thin mist still hung low on the sea.
"Hear that?" said one of the men, suddenly. And, indeed, the sound must have been plain for a half a mile round.
"Ooaaze, ooaaze, arr, arrrr, oooaze—"
"By George!" said Tallett, one of the other watch; "that's a beastly sort of thing to hear." ”

“ And then I was among them.
"Turn that lamp up, you idiot," said the Captain's voice. "This is just where we want light!"
I glanced down, and realised that my lamp was almost out. I turned it up, and it flared, and began again to dwindle.
"Those damned boys never filled it," I said. "They deserve their necks breaking."
The men were literally tumbling over the side, and the Skipper was hurrying them.
"Down with you into the boat," he said to me. "Give me the lamp. I'll pass it down. Get a move on you!" ”

“ We rowed a dozen slow strokes, and with every stroke, I took a look over my shoulder. The Captain was leaning forward under the big lamp, with the bull's-eye in one hand and his revolver in the other. He kept flashing the beam of the lantern up into the night.
"Good Lord!" he said, suddenly. "Vast pulling."
We stopped, and I slewed round on the thwart, and stared. ”

“ Tap it with your axe, Duprey.... Ah!" he added, as I hit it with the back of my axe. "That's what we call stone at home, right enough. She's just as rum as anything I've seen while I've been fishing. We'll go on aft and have a peep into the deck-house. Keep your axes handy, men."
We walked slowly up to the curious little house, the deck rising to it with quite a slope. At the foreside of the little deck-house, the Captain pulled up, and shone his bull's-eye down at the deck. I saw that he was looking at what was plainly the stump of the after mast. ”

“ We were rowing easily, when suddenly the bow-oar muttered "G'lord!" Immediately afterwards, there was a loud splashing in the water on his side of the boat.
"What's wrong in the bows, there?" asked the Skipper, sharply.
"There's somethin' in the water, Sir, messing round my oar," said the man.
I stopped rowing, and looked round. All the men did the same. There was a further sound of splashing, and the water was driven right over the boat in showers. Then the bow-oar called out:— "There's somethin' got a holt of my oar, Sir!" ”

“ I said, and handed him back his glasses. "The lights have gone again, and I think the mist is thicker. There's still the sound of running water out there."
The Captain and the three Mates stood some time along the port rail of the fo'cas'le head, watching through their night-glasses, and listening. Twice the Mate hailed; but there came no reply.
There was some talk, among the officers; and I gathered that the Captain was thinking of investigating.
"Clear one of the life-boats, Mr. Gelt," he said, at last. "The glass is steady; there'll be no wind for hours yet. Pick out a half a dozen men. ”

“ Now, I want you to take good note of what I am going to say:—
When it was dark in the second dog watch, there was not a sail in sight; not even the far off smoke of a steamer, and no land nearer than Africa, about a thousand miles to the eastward of us. ”

“ He turned from me, and put his head over the rail.
"Pass up the painter, Jales," he said, to the bow-oar. Then to the Third Mate:—
"Bring 'em all up, Mister. If there's going to be anything rummy, we may as well make a picnic party of the lot.... Hitch that painter round the cleet yonder, Duprey," he added to me. "It looks good solid stone! . . . That's right. Come along."
He swung the thin beam of his lantern fore and aft, and then forrard again.
"Lord!" he said. "Look at that mast. It's stone. Give it a whack with the back of your axe, man ”