Aug. 22, 2025

Manuscript Found in a Bottle by Edgar Allan Poe

Manuscript Found in a Bottle by Edgar Allan Poe

Step aboard… if you dare. This is Manuscript Found in a Bottle, Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling nautical tale of shipwreck, spectral vessels, and the slow descent into madness at sea. First published in 1833, this eerie story launched Poe’s literary...

Step aboard… if you dare.

This is Manuscript Found in a Bottle, Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling nautical tale of shipwreck, spectral vessels, and the slow descent into madness at sea.

First published in 1833, this eerie story launched Poe’s literary career and set the tone for generations of gothic horror to come.

In this atmospheric reading, you’ll be swept into a nightmarish voyage filled with mystery, dread, and a creeping sense of doom.

🌊A tale of isolation, insanity, and the supernatural – all aboard a ghost ship no one can escape.
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One of my favorite memories of scaring myself as a

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child was getting a compilation book of Edgar Allan Poe's

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stories from my elementary school library. It brought me so

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much fear and so much excitement. I remember running home

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from school with that book in my backpack as the

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sky was dark and a storm was coming. I was

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in my childhood living room, but I wasn't alone. I

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had a pizza and the books of Poe. Every so

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often I'll bring you a tale of Poe, and I

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hope it gives you that scary fun sense, just the

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same as it does for me. When the clock strikes midnight,

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the story will begin. Manuscript found in a bottle by

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Edgar Allan Poe. Of my country and of my family,

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I have little to say. Ill usage and length of

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years have driven me from the one and estranged me

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from the other. Hereditary wealth afforded me an education of

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no common order, and a contemplative turn of mind enabled

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me to methodize the stores which early study very diligently

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garnered up. Beyond all things, the works of the German

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moralists gave me great delight, not from any ill advised

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admiration of their eloquent madness. But from the ease with

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which my habits of rigid thought enabled me to detect

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their falsenies, I have often been reproached with the aridity

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of my genius. A deficiency of imagination has been imputed

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to me as a crime, and the pyrrhism of my

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opinions has at all times rendered me notorious. Indeed, a

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strong relish for physical philosophy has I fear tinctured my

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mind with a very common error of this age. I

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mean the habit of referring occurrences even the least susceptible

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of such reference to the principles of that science. Upon

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the whole, No person could be less liable than myself

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to be led away from the severe precincts of truth

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by the ignis fatui of superstition. I have thought proper

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to premise thus much less the incredible tale I have

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to tell should be considered rather the raving of a

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crude imagination than the positive experience of a mind to

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which the reveries of fancy have been a dead letter

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and a nullity. After many years spent in foreign travel,

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I sailed in the year eighteen something or other from

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the port of Batavia, in the rich and populous island

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of Java, on a voyage to the archipelago of the

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Sunda Islands. I went as passenger, having no other inducement

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than a kind of nervous restlessness which haunted me like

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a fiend. Our vessel was a beautiful ship of about

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four hundred tons copper, fastened and built at Bombay of

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Malabar Teak. She was freighted with cotton, wool and oil

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from the Lashadive Islands. We had also on board choir

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jagori ghi, cocoa nuts, and a few cases of opium.

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The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel consecut quinley crank.

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We got under way with a mere breath of wind,

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and for many days stood along the eastern coast of Java,

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without any other incident to beguile the monotony of our

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course than the occasional meeting with some of the small

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grabs of the archipelago to which we were bound. One evening,

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leaning over taffrail, I observed a very singular, isolated cloud

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to the northwest. It was remarkable as well for its color,

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as from its being the first we had seen since

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our departure from Batavia. I watched it attentively until sunset,

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when it spread all at once to the eastward and westward,

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girding in the horizon with a narrow strip of vapor

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and looking like a long line of low beach. My

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notice was soon afterwards attracted by the dusker appearance of

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the moon and the peculiar character of the sea. The

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latter was undergoing a rapid change, and the water seemed

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more than usually transparent, although I could distinctly see the bottom.

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Yet heaving the lead, I found the ship in fifteen fathoms.

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The air now became intolerably hot, and was loaded with

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spiral exhalations, similar to those arising from heated iron. As

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night came on, every breath of wind died away, and

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a more entire calm. It is impossible to conceive the

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flame of a candle burned upon the poop without the

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least perceptible motion, and a long hair held between the

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finger and thumb hung without the possibility of detecting a vibration. However,

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as the captain said, he could perceive no indication of danger,

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and as we were drifting in bodily to shore, he

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ordered the sails to be furled, and the anchor let go.

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No watch was set, and the crew, consisting principally of malaise,

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stretched themselves deliberately upon deck, not without a full presentiment

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of evil. Indeed, every appearance warranted me in apprehending a simoum.

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I told the captain my fears, but he paid no

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attention to what I said, and left me without deigning

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to give a reply. My uneasiness, however, prevented me from sleeping,

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and about midnight, I went up upon deck. As I

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placed my foot upon the upper step of the companion ladder,

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I was startled with a loud, humming noise, like that

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occasioned by the rapid revolution of a mill wheel, And

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before I could ascertain its meaning, I found the ship

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quivering to its center. In the next instant, a wilderness

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of foam hurled us upon our beamends, and rushing over

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us fore and aft, swept the entire decks from stem

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to stern. The extreme fury of the blast proved in

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a great measure the salvation of the ship, Although completely

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water logged, yet as all her masts had gone by

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the board, she rose after a minute heavily from the sea.

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And staggering awhile beneath the immense pressure of the tempest.

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Finally righted, by what miracle I escaped destruction. It is

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impossible to say Stunned by the shock of the water,

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I found myself upon recovery, jammed in between the stern

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post and rudder. With great difficulty, I gained my feet, and,

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looking dizzily around, was at first struck with the idea

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of our being among breakers so terrific. Beyond the wildest

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imagination was the whirlpool of mountainous and foaming ocean within

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which we were engulfed. After a while I heard the

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voice of an old Swede who had shipped with us

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at the moment of our leaving port. I halloed to

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him with all my strength, and presently he came reeling aft.

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We soon discovered that we were the sole survivors of

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the accident. All on deck, with the exception of ourselves,

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had been swept overboard, and the captain and mates must

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have perished as they slept, for the cabins were deluged

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with water. Without assistance, we could expect to do little

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for the security of the ship, and our exertions were

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at first paralyzed by the momentary expectation of going down.

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Our cable had, of course parted like pack thread at

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the first breath of the hurricane, or we should have

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been instantaneously overwhelmed. We scudded with frightful velocity before the

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sea and the water made clear breeches over us. The

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framework of our stern was shattered excessively, and in almost

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every respect we had received considerable injury. But to our

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extreme joy, we found the pumps unchoked, and that we

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had made no great shifting of our ballast. The main

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fury of the simoom had already blown over, and we

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apprehended little danger from the violence of the wind. But

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we looked forward to its total cessation with dismay, well,

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believing that in our shattered condition we should inevitably perish

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in the tremendous swell which would ensue. But this very

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apprehension seemed by no means likely to be soon verified.

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For five entire days and nights, during which our only

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substance was a small quantity of jaggery procured with great

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difficulty from the forecastle, the hulk flew at a rate

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defying computation, before or rapidly succeeding flaws of wind, which,

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without equaling the first violence of the Simoom, were still

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more terrific than any tempest I had before encountered. Our

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course for the first four days was with trifling variations

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southeast and by south, and we must have run down

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the coast of New Holland. On the fifth day, the

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cold became extreme. Although the wind had hauled round a

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point more to the northward, the sun arose with a

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sickly yellow luster and clambered a very few degrees above

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the horizon, emitting no decisive light. There were no clouds

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whatever apparent. Yet the wind was upon the increase, and

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blew with a fitful and unsteady fury. About noon, as

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nearly as we could guess, our attention was again arrested

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by the appearance of the sun. It gave out no

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light properly so called, but a dull and sullen glow,

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unaccompanied by any ray. Just before sinking within the turgid sea,

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its central fires suddenly went out, as if hurriedly extinguished

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by some unaccountable power. It was a dim, silver like

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rim alone as it rushed down the unfathomable ocean. We

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waited in vain for the arrival of the sixth day.

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That day to me has not yet arrived. To the

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Swede never did arrive. Thenceforward we were enshrouded in pitchy darkness,

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so that we could not have seen an object. At

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twenty paces from the ship. Eternal night continued to envelop us,

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all relieved by the phosphoric sea brilliancy to which we

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had been accustomed in the tropics. We observed too, that

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although the tempest continued to rage with unabated violence, there

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was no longer to be discovered the usual appearance of

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surf or foam which had hitherto attended us. All around

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was horror and thick gloom, and a black, sweltering desert

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of ebony. Superstitious terror crept by degrees into the spirit

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of the old Swede, and my own soul was wrapped

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up in silent wonder. We neglected all care of the

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ship as worse than useless, and securing ourselves as well

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as possible to the stump of the mizenmast looked out

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bitterly into the world of ocean. We had no means

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of calculating time, nor could we form any guess of

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our situation. We were, however, well aware of having made

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farther to the southward than any previous navigators, and felt

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extreme amazement at not meeting with the usual impediments of ice.

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In the meantime, every moment threatened to be our last,

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every mountainous billow hurried to overwhelm us. The swell surpassed

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anything I had imagined possible, and that we were not

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instantly buried is a miracle. My companion spoke of the

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lightness of our cargo and reminded me of the excellent

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qualities of our ship. But I could not help feeling

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the utter hopelessness of hope itself, and prepared myself gloomily

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for that death, which I thought nothing could differ beyond

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an hour. As with every knot of way the ship made,

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the swelling of the black stupendous seas became more dismally appalling.

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At times we gasped for breath at an elevation beyond

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the albatross. At times became dizzy with the velocity of

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our descent into some watery hell, where the air grew

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stagnant and no sound disturbed the slumbers of the kraken.

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We were at the bottom of one of these abysses,

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when a quick scream from my companion broke fearfully upon

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the night. See see, cried he, shrieking in my ears,

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Almighty God, see see. As he spoke, I became aware

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of a dull, sullen glare of red light which streamed

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down the sides of the vast chasm where there we lay,

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and threw a fitful brilliancy upon our deck. Casting my

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eyes upwards, I beheld a spectacle which froze the current

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of my blood. At a terrific height, directly above us,

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and upon the very verge of the precipitous descent, hovered

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a gigantic ship of nearly four thousand tons. Although upreared

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upon the summit of a wave of more than a

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hundred times her own altitude, her apparent size still exceeded

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that of any ship of the Line or East Indiaman

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in existence. Her huge hull was a deep, dingy black,

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unrelieved by any of the customary carvings of a ship.

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A single row of brass cannon protruded from her open

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ports and dashed off from their polished surfaces the fires

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of innumerable battle lanterns, which swung to and fro about

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her rigging. But what mainly inspired us with horror and

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astonishment was that she bore up under a press of sail,

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in the very teeth of that supernatural sea and of

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that ungovernable hurricane. When we first discovered her, her stupendous

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boughs were alone to be seen as she rose up,

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like a demon of the deep, slowly from the dim

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and horrible gulf beyond her. For a moment of intense terror,

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she paused upon the giddy pinnacle, as if in contemplation

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of her own sublimity, then trembled and tottered and came down.

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At this instant, I know not what sudden self possession

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came over my spirit. Staggering as far aft as I could,

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I awaited fearlessly the ruin that was to overwhelm our

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own vessel was at length, ceasing from her struggles and

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sinking with her head to the sea. The shock of

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the descending mass struck her consequently in that portion of

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her frame which was already under water, and the inevitable

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result was to hurl me in the irresistible violence upon

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the rigging of the Stranger. As I fell, the ship

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hove in stays and went about, and to the confusion

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ensuing I attributed my escape from the notice of the crew.

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With little difficulty. I made my way unperceived to the

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main hatchway, which was partially open, and soon found an

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opportunity of secreting myself in the hold. Why I did so,

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I can hardly tell. A nameless and indefinite sense of awe,

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which at first sight of the navigators of the ship

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had taken hold of my mind, was perhaps the principle

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of my concealment. I was unwilling to trust myself with

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a race of people who had offered to the cursory

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glance I had taken so many points of vague novelty,

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doubt and apprehension. I therefore thought proper to contrive a

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hiding place in the hold. This I did by removing

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a small portion of the shifting boards in such a

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manner as to afford me a convenient retreat between the

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huge timbers of the ship. I had scarcely completed my

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work when a footstep in the hold forced me to

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make use of it. A man passed by my place

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00:21:01.319 --> 00:21:06.319
of concealment with a feeble and unsteady gait. I could

241
00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:10.039
not see his face, but had an opportunity of observing

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00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:14.519
his general appearance. There was about it an evidence of

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great age and infirmity. His knees tottered beneath a load

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00:21:19.400 --> 00:21:24.000
of years, and his entire frame quivered under the burthen.

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He muttered to himself in a low, broken tone, some

246
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words of a language which I could not understand, and

247
00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:38.720
groped in a corner among a pile of singular looking

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00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:44.279
instruments and decayed charts of navigation. His manner was a

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00:21:44.319 --> 00:21:49.079
wild mixture of the peevishness of second childhood and the

250
00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:54.119
solemn dignity of a god. He at length went on deck,

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and I saw him no more. A feeling for which

252
00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:05.279
I have no name has taken possession of my soul,

253
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a sensation which will admit of no analysis, to which

254
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the lesson of by gone time are inadequate, and for

255
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which I fear futurity itself will offer me no key

256
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to a mind constituted like my own. The latter consideration

257
00:22:24.440 --> 00:22:28.799
is an evil I shall never I know that I

258
00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:33.279
shall never be satisfied with regard to the nature of

259
00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:38.359
my conceptions. Yet it is not wonderful that these conceptions

260
00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:42.839
are indefinite, since they have their own origin in sources

261
00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:47.839
so utterly novel. A new sense, a new entity, is

262
00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:52.319
added to my soul. It is long since I first

263
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trod the deck of this terrible ship, and the rays

264
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of my destiny are I think, gathering to a focus

265
00:23:01.960 --> 00:23:06.759
incomprehensible men wrapped up in meditations of a kind which

266
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I cannot divine. They pass me by unnoticed. Concealment is

267
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utter folly on my part, for the people will not see.

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It was but just now that I passed directly before

269
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the eyes of the mate. It was no long while

270
00:23:24.839 --> 00:23:29.079
ago that I ventured into the captain's own private cabin

271
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and took thence the materials with which I write and

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00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:38.359
have written. I shall, from time to time continue this journal.

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It is true that I may not find an opportunity

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of transmitting it to the world, but I will not

275
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fail to make the endeavor. At the last moment, I

276
00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:54.839
will enclose the message in a bottle and cast it

277
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within the sea. An incident has occurred which has given

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00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:05.799
me new room for meditation. Are such things the operations

279
00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:11.519
of ungoverned chance. I had ventured upon deck and thrown

280
00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:16.400
myself down without attracting any notice. Among a pile of

281
00:24:16.519 --> 00:24:20.519
ratlin stuff and old sails in the bottom of the yawl.

282
00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:26.799
While musing upon the singularity of my fate, I unwittingly

283
00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:30.079
daubed with a tar brush the edges of a neatly

284
00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:35.119
folded studding sail, which lay near me on a barrel.

285
00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:40.400
The studding sail is now bent upon the ship, and

286
00:24:40.440 --> 00:24:44.160
the thoughtless touches of the brush are spread out into

287
00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:51.640
the word discovery. I have made many observations lately upon

288
00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:55.799
the structure of the vessel. Although well armed, she is

289
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not I think a ship of war. Her rigging, build

290
00:25:01.799 --> 00:25:06.160
and general equipment all negative a supposition of this kind.

291
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What she is not, I can easily perceive what she is.

292
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I fear it is impossible to say. I know not

293
00:25:17.480 --> 00:25:21.599
how it is. But in scrutinizing her strange model and

294
00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:27.000
singular cast of spars, her huge size and overgrown suits

295
00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:34.240
of canvas, her severely simple bow and antiquated stern, there

296
00:25:34.279 --> 00:25:40.319
will occasionally flash across my mind a sensation of familiar things,

297
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And there is always mixed up with such indistinct shadows

298
00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:51.079
of recollection, an unaccountable memory of old foreign chronicles, and

299
00:25:51.279 --> 00:25:56.680
ages long ago. I have been looking at the timbers

300
00:25:56.720 --> 00:25:59.880
of the ship. She is built of a material to

301
00:26:00.200 --> 00:26:04.880
which I am a stranger. There is a peculiar character

302
00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:08.839
about the wood which strikes me as rendering it unfit

303
00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:12.559
for the purpose to which it has been applied. I

304
00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:17.960
mean its extreme porousness. Considered independently of the worm eaten

305
00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:23.480
condition which is consequence of navigation in these seas, and

306
00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:28.599
apart from the rottenness attendant upon age, it will appear

307
00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:34.160
perhaps an observation somewhat over curious. But this wood has

308
00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:40.480
every characteristic of Spanish oak, if Spanish oak were distended

309
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or swelled by any unnatural means. In reading the above sentence,

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00:26:48.200 --> 00:26:52.759
a curious opathem of an old, weather beaten Dutch navigator

311
00:26:53.400 --> 00:26:58.920
comes full upon my recollection. It is as sure he

312
00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:04.200
was wont to say, when any doubt was entertained of

313
00:27:04.279 --> 00:27:08.359
his veracity, as sure as there is a sea where

314
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the ship itself will grow in bulk like the living

315
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body of the seamen. About an hour ago I made

316
00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:20.160
bold to thrust myself among a group of the crew.

317
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They paid me no manner of attention, and although I

318
00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:29.240
stood in the very midst of them, all seemed utterly

319
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:34.160
unconscious of my presence, like the one I had at

320
00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:38.759
first seen in the hold. They all bore about them

321
00:27:39.119 --> 00:27:43.440
the marks of a hoary old age. Their knees trembled

322
00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:49.039
with infirmity, their shoulders were bent double with decreptitude. Their

323
00:27:49.079 --> 00:27:54.079
shriveled skins rattled in the wind. Their voices were low,

324
00:27:54.759 --> 00:28:01.359
tremulous and broken. Their eyes glistened with the room of years,

325
00:28:01.960 --> 00:28:07.480
and their gray hairs streamed terribly in the tempest. Around them.

326
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On every part of the deck lay scattered mathematical instruments

327
00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:19.640
of the most quaint and obsolete construction. I mentioned some

328
00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:24.680
time ago the bending of a studding sail. From that period,

329
00:28:24.839 --> 00:28:28.720
the ship, being thrown dead off the wind, was held

330
00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:33.359
her terrific course due south, with every rag of canvas

331
00:28:33.519 --> 00:28:37.480
packed upon her, from her trucks to her lower studding

332
00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:42.200
sail booms, and rolling every moment her top gallant yard

333
00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:46.559
arms into the most appalling hell of water, which it

334
00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:49.720
can enter into the mind of a man to imagine,

335
00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:53.480
I have just left the deck, where I find it

336
00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:57.799
impossible to maintain a footing. Although the crew seem to

337
00:28:57.880 --> 00:29:02.839
experience little inconvenience, it appears to me a miracle of

338
00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:07.039
miracles that our enormous bulk is not buried up once

339
00:29:07.319 --> 00:29:12.880
and forever. We are surely doomed to hover continually upon

340
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the brink of eternity without taking a final plunge into

341
00:29:18.160 --> 00:29:23.279
the abyss from billows a thousand times more stupendous than

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00:29:23.319 --> 00:29:26.640
any I have ever seen. We glide away with the

343
00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:32.039
facility of the arrowy seagull, and the colossal waters rear

344
00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:36.640
their heads above us, like demons of the deep, but

345
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like demons confined to simple threats and forbidden to destroy.

346
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I am led to attribute these frequent escapes to the

347
00:29:47.359 --> 00:29:51.799
only natural cause which can account for such effect. I

348
00:29:51.880 --> 00:29:55.400
must suppose the ship to be within the influence of

349
00:29:55.480 --> 00:30:01.039
some strong current or impetuous undertow. I have seen the

350
00:30:01.119 --> 00:30:05.680
captain face to face, and in his own cabin, but

351
00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:10.640
as I expected, he paid me no attention. Although in

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00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:14.799
his appearance there is to a casual observer nothing which

353
00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:20.359
might bespeak him more or less than man. Still a

354
00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:26.000
feeling of irrepressible reverence and awe mingled with the sensation

355
00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:30.960
of wonder with which I regarded him. In stature, he

356
00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:35.200
is nearly my own height, that is about five feet

357
00:30:35.400 --> 00:30:39.640
eight inches. He is of a well knit and compact

358
00:30:39.720 --> 00:30:45.680
frame of body, neither robust nor remarkably otherwise. But it

359
00:30:45.880 --> 00:30:50.400
is the singularity of the expression which reigns upon the face.

360
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It is the intense, the wonderful, the thrilling evidence of

361
00:30:55.839 --> 00:31:00.640
old age, so utter, so extreme, which excites within my

362
00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:07.799
spirit a sense, a sentiment ineffable. His forehead, although little wrinkled,

363
00:31:08.279 --> 00:31:11.079
seemed to bear upon it the stamp of a myriad

364
00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:14.960
of years. His gray hairs are records of the past,

365
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:19.799
and his grayer eyes are sybils of the future. The

366
00:31:19.880 --> 00:31:24.920
cabin floor was thickly strewn with strange, iron clasped folios

367
00:31:25.400 --> 00:31:30.680
and moldering instruments of science and obsolete, long forgotten charts.

368
00:31:31.599 --> 00:31:35.440
His head was bowed upon his hands, and he poured

369
00:31:35.559 --> 00:31:40.039
with a fiery, unquiet eye over a paper which I

370
00:31:40.160 --> 00:31:44.359
took to be a commission, and which, at all events

371
00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:50.240
bore the signature of a monarch. He muttered to himself,

372
00:31:50.880 --> 00:31:54.079
as did the first seamen, whom I saw in the hold,

373
00:31:54.680 --> 00:31:59.680
some low, peevish syllables of a foreign tongue. And although

374
00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:03.000
the speaker was close at my elbow, yet his voice

375
00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:06.200
seemed to reach my ears. From the distance of a mile.

376
00:32:07.160 --> 00:32:09.960
The ship and all in it are imbued with the

377
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.839
spirit of eld. The crew glide to and fro like

378
00:32:14.920 --> 00:32:18.960
the ghosts of buried centuries. Their eyes have an eager

379
00:32:19.279 --> 00:32:23.960
and uneasy meaning. And when their figures fall athwart my

380
00:32:24.160 --> 00:32:27.880
path in the wild glare of the battle lanterns, I

381
00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:31.920
feel as I have never felt before, although I have

382
00:32:32.119 --> 00:32:36.920
been all my life a dealer in antiquities, and imbibed

383
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:42.240
the shadows of fallen columns at Balbec and Tadmore and Persepolis,

384
00:32:42.920 --> 00:32:48.039
until my very soul has become a ruin. When I

385
00:32:48.119 --> 00:32:53.160
look around me, I feel ashamed of my former apprehensions.

386
00:32:54.039 --> 00:32:57.480
If I trembled at the blast which hitherto attended us,

387
00:32:57.960 --> 00:33:01.400
shall I not stand aghast at warring of the wind

388
00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:06.079
and ocean to convey any idea of which the words

389
00:33:06.119 --> 00:33:11.240
tornado and simoom are trivial and ineffective. All in the

390
00:33:11.279 --> 00:33:15.000
immediate vicinity of the ship is the blackness of eternal

391
00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:20.279
night and a chaos of foamless water. But about a

392
00:33:20.359 --> 00:33:24.960
league on either side of us may be seen indistinctly,

393
00:33:25.519 --> 00:33:32.400
and at intervals stupendous ramparts of ice towering away into

394
00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:36.279
the desolate sky and looking like the walls of the

395
00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:40.720
universe as I imagined, the ship proves to be in

396
00:33:40.839 --> 00:33:45.319
a current, if that appellation can properly be given to

397
00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:49.640
a tide which, howling and shrieking by the white ice,

398
00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:53.960
thunders on to the southward with a velocity like the

399
00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:59.240
headlong dashing of a cataract. To conceive the horror of

400
00:33:59.319 --> 00:34:05.880
my sensation is, I presume, utterly impossible. Yet a curiosity

401
00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:11.159
to penetrate the mysteries of these awful regions predominates even

402
00:34:11.239 --> 00:34:16.480
over my despair, and will reconcile me the most hideous

403
00:34:16.559 --> 00:34:20.719
aspect of death. It is evident that we are hurrying

404
00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:26.039
onwards to some exciting knowledge, some never to be imparted

405
00:34:26.199 --> 00:34:33.840
secret whose attainment is destruction. Perhaps this current leads us

406
00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:38.400
to the Southern Pole itself. It must be confessed that

407
00:34:38.440 --> 00:34:43.880
a supposition apparently so wild, has every probability in its favor.

408
00:34:45.119 --> 00:34:50.159
The crew pace the deck with unquiet and tremulous step,

409
00:34:50.639 --> 00:34:54.800
But there is upon their countenances an expression more of

410
00:34:54.840 --> 00:34:58.360
the eagerness of hope than of the apathy of despair.

411
00:34:59.679 --> 00:35:03.320
In the sid meantime, the wind is still in our poop,

412
00:35:03.760 --> 00:35:07.400
and as we carry a crowd of canvas. The ship

413
00:35:07.480 --> 00:35:12.800
is at times lifted bodily from out the sea. Oh, horror,

414
00:35:13.239 --> 00:35:17.480
upon horror, the ice open suddenly to the right and

415
00:35:17.639 --> 00:35:21.760
to the left, and we are whirling dizzily in immense

416
00:35:22.039 --> 00:35:27.559
concentric circles round and round the borders of a gigantic amphitheater,

417
00:35:28.519 --> 00:35:32.280
the summit of whose walls is lost in the darkness

418
00:35:32.440 --> 00:35:36.239
and the distance. But little time will be left me

419
00:35:36.440 --> 00:35:41.320
to ponder upon my destiny. The circles rapidly grow small.

420
00:35:42.360 --> 00:35:45.800
We are plunging madly within the grasp of the whirlpool,

421
00:35:46.440 --> 00:35:50.239
and amid a roaring and bellowing and shrieking of ocean

422
00:35:50.440 --> 00:35:56.199
and of tempest, the ship is quivering, Oh God, and

423
00:35:56.320 --> 00:36:08.159
going down,