LOG OF THE "DEMETER" Varna to Whitby
4 August.--Still fog, which the sunrise cannot pierce, I know there is sunrise because I am a sailor, why else I know not. I dared not go below, I dared not leave the helm, so here all night I stayed, and in the dimness of the night I saw it, Him! God, forgive me, but the mate was right to jump overboard. It was better to die like a man. To die like a sailor in blue water, no man can object. But I am captain, and I must not leave my ship. But I shall baffle this fiend or monster, for I shall tie my hands to the wheel when my strength begins to fail, and along with them I shall tie that which He, It, dare not touch. And then, come good wind or foul, I shall save my soul, and my honour as a captain. I am growing weaker, and the night is coming on. If He can look me in the face again, I may not have time to act. . . If we are wrecked, mayhap this bottle may be found, and those who find it may understand. If not. . .well, then all men shall know that I have been true to my trust. God and the Blessed Virgin and the Saints help a poor ignorant soul trying to do his duty. . .
“…in the dimness of the night I saw It—Him! God forgive me, but the mate was right to jump overboard.”
But why, though? The first mate described what he saw as “like a man, tall and thin, and ghastly pale”—this sounds more like a seasick stowaway than a creature of eldritch horror.
When Jonathan was staying at Castle Dracula, he was not ever inspired with terror by the Count’s appearance alone. He felt disgust, not terror, upon seeing the Count in his box: “It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood. He lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion. I shuddered as I bent over to touch him, and every sense in me revolted at the contact..”
I think long-term close contact with the Count’s psychic miasma, rather than his physical appearance, is the source of the terror. At first the crew was uneasy for no reason they could name, then they became anxious, paranoid, and terrified. When the men were alone on deck, with little to occupy their thoughts, the effect was intensified. Finally, extreme panic led them to leap overboard— it was the only way to put an end to their terror. The captain and first mate, being made of sterner stuff than the other men, were simply the last to succumb.
Posted by: Most Significant | August 04, 2022 at 04:10 PM
Another schooner in fog:
https://etugri87v3i.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/JHH5_109005.jpg
Posted by: Most Significant | August 04, 2022 at 04:14 PM
Gorgeous shot.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | August 04, 2022 at 04:14 PM