Complete Works of William Hope Hodgson
Page 32
For that which was, and now is flown Into the Blank where life is hurled
Where all is not, nor is again!”
THE GHOST PIRATES
Published in 1909, Hodgson wrote in his preface that he saw The Ghost Pirates as the final novel in a loose trilogy with The Boats of the “Glen Carrig” and The House on the Borderland, linked by the theme of ‘cosmic horror’ and the possibility that the apparently supernatural events only serve to emphasise the incompleteness of humanity’s scientific knowledge in an unimaginably vast cosmos. All three novels were very well received on original publication, being praised for the originality with which they dealt with supernatural horror.
The novel is presented as the transcribed testimony of Jessop, who we ultimately discover is the only survivor of the final voyage of the Mortzestus, having been rescued from drowning by the crew of the passing Sangier. It begins with Jessop’s recounting how he came to be aboard the ill-fated Mortzestus and the rumours surrounding the vessel. Jessop relates a series of unusual events observed by those aboard, which rapidly increase in both frequency and severity. In the telling of his tale, Jessop offers only a sparse interpretation of the events, spending most of the time relating the story in an almost journalistic fashion. He also describes his confusion and uncertainty about what he believes he has seen, at times fearing for his own sanity. The nature of the supernatural threat is thus left ambiguous, although Jessop offers the theory that the eponymous pirates may be either ghosts or beings from another dimension.
The seafaring jargon, coupled with the phonetically rendered dialects of some of the crew, make the text at times somewhat opaque, while at the same time lending it an air of authenticity and credibility. Through the use of compactly written prose and simple, almost offhand foreshadowing, Hodgson gradually increases the suspense and sense of dread. Added to this is the fact that the beings invading the ship are not described in any detail, nor are their origin or motive revealed. The combination of these devices allows Hodgson to amplify the feeling of impending doom pervading the novel.
Cover of the first edition
CONTENTS
Author’s Preface
The Hell O! O! Chaunty
I. The Figure Out of the Sea
II. What Tammy the ‘Prentice Saw
III. The Man up the Main
IV. The Fooling with the Sail
V. The End of Williams
VI. Another Man to the Wheel
VII. The Coming of the Mist and That Which It Ushered
VIII. After the Coming of the Mist
IX. The Man Who Cried for Help
X. Hands That Plucked
XI. The Search for Stubbins
XII. The Council
XIII. The Shadow in the Sea
XIV. The Ghost Ships
XV. The Great Ghost Ship
XVI. The Ghost Pirates
APPENDIX. The Silent Ship
The Royal Magazine, the periodical in which Hodgson’s first story ‘The Goddess of Death’ (1904) was published. After writing ‘The Ghost Pirates’, Hodgson turned increasingly to short fiction as a more reliable source of regular income.
To Mary Whalley
“Olden memories that shine against death’s night —
Quiet stars of sweet enchantments,
That are seen In Life’s lost distances…”
Author’s Preface
This book forms the last of three. The first published was “The Boats of the ‘Glen Carrig’”; the second, “The House on the Borderland”; this, the third, completes what, perhaps, may be termed a trilogy; for, though very different in scope, each of the three books deals with certain conceptions that have an elemental kinship. With this book, the author believes that he closes the door, so far as he is concerned, on a particular phase of constructive thought.
The Hell O! O! Chaunty
Chaunty Man .. Man the capstan, bullies!
Men ...... Ha!-o-o! Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Capstan-bars, you tarry souls!
Men ...... Ha!-o-o! Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Take a turn!
Men ...... Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Stand by to fleet!
Men ...... Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Stand by to surge!
Men ...... Ha!-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Ha! — o-o-o-o!
Men ...... TRAMP!
And away we go!
Chaunty Man .. Hark to the tramp of the
bearded shellbacks!
Men ...... Hush!
O hear ’em tramp!
Chaunty Man .. Tramping, stamping —
treading, vamping,
While the cable
comes in ramping.
Men ...... Hark!
O hear ’em stamp!
Chaunty Man .. Surge when it rides!
Surge when it rides!
Round-o-o-o
handsome as it slacks!
Men ...... Ha!-o-o-o-o!
hear ’em ramp!
Ha!-oo-o-o!
hear ’em stamp!
Ha!-o-o-o-o-oo!
Ha!-o-o-o-o-o-o!
Chorus .... They’re shouting now; oh! hear ‘em
A-bellow as they stamp: —
Ha!-o-o-o! Ha!-o-o-o!
Ha!-o-o-o!
A-shouting as they tramp!
Chaunty Man .. O hark to the haunting chorus
of the capstan and the bars!
Chaunty-o-o-o
and rattle crash —
Bash against the stars!
Men ...... Ha-a!-o-o-o!
Tramp and go!
Ha-a!-o-o-o!
Ha-a!-o-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Hear the pawls a-ranting: with
the bearded men a-chaunting;
While the brazen dome above ‘em
Bellows back the ‘bars.’
Men ...... Hear and hark!
O hear ‘em!
Ha-a!-o-o!
Ha-a!-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Hurling songs towards the
heavens — !
Men ...... Ha-a!-o-o!
Ha-a!-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Hush! O hear ‘em!
Hark! O hear ‘em!
Hurling oaths among their spars!
Men ...... Hark! O hear ‘em!
Hush! O hear ‘em!
Chaunty Man .. Tramping round between the
bars!
Chorus .... They’re shouting now; oh! hear
A-bellow as they stamp: —
Ha-a!-o-o-o! Ha-a!-o-o-o!
Ha-a!-o-o-o!
A-shouting as they tramp!
Chaunty Man .. O do you hear the
capstan-chaunty!
Thunder round the pawls!
Men ...... Click a-clack,
a-clatter
Surge!
And scatter bawls!
Chaunty Man .. Click-a-clack, my bonny boys,
while it comes in handsome!
Men ...... Ha-a!-o-o!
Hear ’em clack!
Chaunty Man .. Ha-a!-o-o! Click-a-clack!
Men ...... Hush! O hear ’em pant!
Hark! O hear ’em rant!
Chaunty Man .. Click, a-clitter, clicker-clack.
Men ...... Ha-a!-o-o!
Tramp and go!
Chaunty Man .. Surge! And keep away the slack!
Men ...... Ha-a!-o-o!
Away the slack:
Ha-a!-o-o!
Click-a-clack
Chaunty Man .. Bustle now each jolly Jack.
Surging easy! Surging e-a-s-y!!
Men ...... Ha-a!-o-o!
Surging easy
Chaunty Man .. Click-a-clatter —
Surge; and steady!
Man the stopper there!
All ready?
Men ...... Ha-a!-o-o!
Ha-a!-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Click-a-clack, my bouncing boys:
Men ...... Ha-a!-o-o!
Tramp and go!
Chaunty Man .. Lift
the pawls, and come back
easy.
Men ...... Ha-a!-o-o!
Steady-o-o-o-o!
Chaunty Man .. Vast the chaunty!
Vast the capstan!
Drop the pawls! Be-l-a-y!
Chorus .... Ha-a!-o-o! Unship the bars!
Ha-a!-o-o! Tramp and go!
Ha-a!-o-o! Shoulder bars!
Ha-a!-o-o! And away we blow!
Ha-a!-o-o-o!
Ha-a!-o-o-o-o!
Ha-a!-o-o-o-o-o!
I. The Figure Out of the Sea
He began without any circumlocution.
I joined the Mortzestus in ‘Frisco. I heard before I signed on, that there were some funny yarns floating round about her; but I was pretty nearly on the beach, and too jolly anxious to get away, to worry about trifles. Besides, by all accounts, she was right enough so far as grub and treatment went. When I asked fellows to give it a name, they generally could not. All they could tell me, was that she was unlucky, and made thundering long passages, and had no more than a fair share of dirty weather. Also, that she had twice had the sticks blown out of her, and her cargo shifted. Besides all these, a heap of other things that might happen to any packet, and would not be comfortable to run into. Still, they were the ordinary things, and I was willing enough to risk them, to get home. All the same, if I had been given the chance, I should have shipped in some other vessel as a matter of preference.
When I took my bag down, I found that they had signed on the rest of the crowd. You see, the “home lot” cleared out when they got into ‘Frisco, that is, all except one young fellow, a cockney, who had stuck by the ship in port. He told me afterwards, when I got to know him, that he intended to draw a pay-day out of her, whether any one else did, or not.
The first night I was in her, I found that it was common talk among the other fellows, that there was something queer about the ship. They spoke of her as if it were an accepted fact that she was haunted; yet they all treated the matter as a joke; all, that is, except the young cockney — Williams — who, instead of laughing at their jests on the subject, seemed to take the whole matter seriously.
This made me rather curious. I began to wonder whether there was, after all, some truth underlying the vague stories I had heard; and I took the first opportunity to ask him whether he had any reasons for believing that there was anything in the yarns about the ship.
At first he was inclined to be a bit offish; but, presently, he came round, and told me that he did not know of any particular incident which could be called unusual in the sense in which I meant. Yet that, at the same time, there were lots of little things which, if you put them together, made you think a bit. For instance, she always made such long passages and had so much dirty weather — nothing but that and calms and head winds. Then, other things happened; sails that he knew, himself, had been properly stowed, were always blowing adrift at night. And then he said a thing that surprised me.
“There’s too many bloomin’ shadders about this ‘ere packet; they gets onter yer nerves like nothin’ as ever I seen before in me nat’ral.”
He blurted it all out in a heap, and I turned round and looked at him.
“Too many shadows!” I said. “What on earth do you mean?” But he refused to explain himself or tell me anything further — just shook his head, stupidly, when I questioned him. He seemed to have taken a sudden, sulky fit. I felt certain that he was acting dense, purposely. I believe the truth of the matter is that he was, in a way, ashamed of having let himself go like he had, in speaking out his thoughts about “shadders.” That type of man may think things at times; but he doesn’t often put them into words. Anyhow, I saw it was no use asking any further questions; so I let the matter drop there. Yet, for several days afterwards, I caught myself wondering, at times, what the fellow had meant by “shadders.”
We left ‘Frisco next day, with a fine, fair wind, that seemed a bit like putting the stopper on the yarns I had heard about the ship’s ill luck. And yet —
He hesitated a moment, and then went on again.
For the first couple of weeks out, nothing unusual happened, and the wind still held fair. I began to feel that I had been rather lucky, after all, in the packet into which I had been shunted. Most of the other fellows gave her a good name, and there was a pretty general opinion growing among the crowd, that it was all a silly yarn about her being haunted. And then, just when I was settling down to things, something happened that opened my eyes no end.
It was in the eight to twelve watch, and I was sitting on the steps, on the starboard side, leading up to the fo’cas’le head. The night was fine and there was a splendid moon. Away aft, I heard the timekeeper strike four bells, and the look-out, an old fellow named Jaskett, answered him. As he let go the bell lanyard, he caught sight of me, where I sat quietly, smoking. He leant over the rail, and looked down at me.
“That you, Jessop?” he asked.
“I believe it is,” I replied.
“We’d ‘ave our gran’mothers 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—” At that moment, the relief, one of the ordinary seamen, went up the other ladder on to the fo’cas’le head, and the old chap turned to ask him “Why the ‘ell” he’d not relieved him a bit smarter. The ordinary made some reply; but what it was, I did not catch; for, abruptly, away aft, my rather sleepy gaze had lighted on something altogether extraordinary and outrageous. It was nothing less than the form of a man stepping inboard over the starboard rail, a little abaft the main rigging. I stood up, and caught at the handrail, and stared.
Behind me, someone spoke. It was the look-out, who had come down off the fo’cas’le head, on his way aft to report the name of his relief to the second mate.
“What is it, mate?” he asked, curiously, seeing my intent attitude.
The thing, whatever it was, had disappeared into the shadows on the lee side of the deck.
“Nothing!” I replied, shortly; for I was too bewildered then, at what my eyes had just shown me, to say any more. I wanted to think.
The old shellback glanced at me; but only muttered something, and went on his way aft.
For a minute, perhaps, I stood there, watching; but could see nothing. Then I walked slowly aft, as far as the after end of the deck house. From there, I could see most of the main deck; but nothing showed, except, of course, the moving shadows of the ropes and spars and sails, as they swung to and fro in the moonlight.
The old chap who had just come off the look-out, had returned forrard again, and I was alone on that part of the deck. And then, all at once, as I stood peering into the shadows to leeward, I remembered what Williams had said about there being too many “shadders.” I had been puzzled to understand his real meaning, then. I had no difficulty now. There were too many shadows. Yet, shadows or no shadows, I realised that for my own peace of mind, I must settle, once and for all, whether the thing I had seemed to see stepping aboard out of the ocean, had been a reality, or simply a phantom, as you might say, of my imagination. My reason said it was nothing more than imagination, a rapid dream — I must have dozed; but something deeper than reason told me that this was not so. I put it to the test, a
nd went straight in amongst the shadows — There was nothing.
I grew bolder. My common sense told me I must have fancied it all. I walked over to the mainmast, and looked behind the pinrail that partly surrounded it, and down into the shadow of the pumps; but here again was nothing. Then I went in under the break of the poop. It was darker under there than out on deck. I looked up both sides of the deck, and saw that they were bare of anything such as I looked for. The assurance was comforting. I glanced at the poop ladders, and remembered that nothing could have gone up there, without the Second Mate or the Time-keeper seeing it. Then I leant my back up against the bulkshead, and thought the whole matter over, rapidly, sucking at my pipe, and keeping my glance about the deck. I concluded my think, and said “No!” out loud. Then something occurred to me, and I said “Unless—” and went over to the starboard bulwarks, and looked over and down into the sea; but there was nothing but sea; and so I turned and made my way forrard. My common sense had triumphed, and I was convinced that my imagination had been playing tricks with me.
I reached the door on the portside, leading into the fo’cas’le, and was about to enter, when something made me look behind. As I did so, I had a shaker. Away aft, a dim, shadowy form stood in the wake of a swaying belt of moonlight, that swept the deck a bit abaft the main-mast.
It was the same figure that I had just been attributing to my fancy. I will admit that I felt more than startled; I was quite a bit frightened. I was convinced now that it was no mere imaginary thing. It was a human figure. And yet, with the flicker of the moonlight and the shadows chasing over it, I was unable to say more than that. Then, as I stood there, irresolute and funky, I got the thought that someone was acting the goat; though for what reason or purpose, I never stopped to consider. I was glad of any suggestion that my common sense assured me was not impossible; and, for the moment, I felt quite relieved. That side to the question had not presented itself to me before. I began to pluck up courage. I accused myself of getting fanciful; otherwise I should have tumbled to it earlier. And then, funnily enough, in spite of all my reasoning, I was still afraid of going aft to discover who that was, standing on the lee side of the maindeck. Yet I felt that if I shirked it, I was only fit to be dumped overboard; and so I went, though not with any great speed, as you can imagine.