It was some little while before midday that we grew conscious that the
sea had become very much less violent; and this despite the wind roaring
with scarce abated noise. And, presently, everything about the boat,
saving the wind, having grown indubitably calmer, and no great water
breaking over the canvas, the bo'sun beckoned me again to assist him lift
the after part of the cover. This we did, and put forth our heads to
inquire the reason of the unexpected quietness of the sea; not knowing
but that we had come suddenly under the lee of some unknown land. Yet,
for a space, we could see nothing, beyond the surrounding billows; for
the sea was still very furious, though no matter to cause us concern,
after that through which we had come.
Presently, however, the bo'sun, raising himself, saw something, and,
bending cried in my ear that there was a low bank which broke the force
of the sea; but he was full of wonder to know how that we had passed it
without shipwreck. And whilst he was still pondering the matter I raised
myself, and took a look on all sides of us, and so I discovered that
there lay another great bank upon our larboard side, and this I pointed
out to him. Immediately afterwards, we came upon a great mass of seaweed
swung up on the crest of a sea, and, presently, another. And so we
drifted on, and the seas grew less with astonishing rapidity, so that, in
a little, we stripped off the cover so far as the midship thwart; for the
rest of the men were sorely in need of the fresh air, after so long a
time below the canvas covering.
It was after we had eaten, that one of them made out that there was
another low bank astern upon which we were drifting. At that, the bo'sun
stood up and made an examination of it, being much exercised in his mind
to know how we might come clear of it with safety. Presently, however, we
had come so near to it that we discovered it to be composed of seaweed,
and so we let the boat drive upon it, making no doubt but that the other
banks, which we had seen, were of a similar nature.
In a little, we had driven in among the weed; yet, though our speed was
greatly slowed, we made some progress, and so in time came out upon the
other side, and now we found the sea to be near quiet, so that we hauled
in our sea anchor--which had collected a great mass of weed about it--and
removed the whaleback and canvas coverings, after which we stepped the
mast, and set a tiny storm-foresail upon the boat; for we wished to have
her under control, and could set no more than this, because of the
violence of the breeze.
Thus we drove on before the wind, the bo'sun steering, and avoiding all
such banks as showed ahead, and ever the sea grew calmer. Then, when it
was near on to evening, we discovered a huge stretch of the weed that
seemed to block all the sea ahead, and, at that, we hauled down the
foresail, and took to our oars, and began to pull, broadside on to it,
towards the West. Yet so strong was the breeze, that we were being driven
down rapidly upon it. And then, just before sunset, we opened out the
end of it, and drew in our oars, very thankful to set the little
foresail, and run off again before the wind.
And so, presently, the night came down upon us, and the bo'sun made us
take turn and turn about to keep a look-out; for the boat was going some
knots through the water, and we were among strange seas; but _he_ took no
sleep all that night, keeping always to the steering oar.
I have memory, during my time of watching, of passing odd floating
masses, which I make no doubt were weed, and once we drove right atop of
one; but drew clear without much trouble. And all the while, through the
dark to starboard, I could make out the dim outline of that enormous weed
extent lying low upon the sea, and seeming without end. And so,
presently, my time to watch being at an end, I returned to my slumber,
and when next I waked it was morning.
Now the morning discovered to me that there was no end to the weed upon
our starboard side; for it stretched away into the distance ahead of us
so far as we could see; while all about us the sea was full of floating
masses of the stuff. And then, suddenly, one of the men cried out that
there was a vessel in among the weed. At that, as may be imagined, we
were very greatly excited, and stood upon the thwarts that we might get
better view of her. Thus I saw her a great way in from the edge of the
weed, and I noted that her foremast was gone near to the deck, and she
had no main topmast; though, strangely enough, her mizzen stood unharmed.
And beyond this, I could make out but little, because of the distance;
though the sun, which was upon our larboard side, gave me some sight of
her hull, but not much, because of the weed in which she was deeply
embedded; yet it seemed to me that her sides were very weather-worn, and
in one place some glistening brown object, which may have been a fungus,
caught the rays of the sun, sending off a wet sheen.
There we stood, all of us, upon the thwarts, staring and exchanging
opinions, and were like to have overset the boat; but that the bo'sun
ordered us down. And after this we made our breakfast, and had much
discussion regarding the stranger, as we ate.
Later, towards midday, we were able to set our mizzen; for the storm had
greatly mollified, and so, presently, we hauled away to the West, to
escape a great bank of the weed which ran out from the main body. Upon
rounding this, we let the boat off again, and set the main lug, and thus
made very good speed before the wind. Yet though we ran all that
afternoon parallel with the weed to starboard, we came not to its end.
And three separate times we saw the hulks of rotting vessels, some of
them having the appearance of a previous age, so ancient did they seem.
Now, towards evening, the wind dropped to a very little breeze, so that
we made but slow way, and thus we had better chance to study the weed.
And now we saw that it was full of crabs; though for the most part so
very minute as to escape the casual glance; yet they were not all small,
for in a while I discovered a swaying among the weed, a little way in
from the edge, and immediately I saw the mandible of a very great crab
stir amid the weed. At that, hoping to obtain it for food, I pointed it
out to the bo'sun, suggesting that we should try and capture it. And so,
there being by now scarce any wind, he bade us get out a couple of the
oars, and back the boat up to the weed. This we did, after which he made
fast a piece of salt meat to a bit of spun yarn, and bent this on to the
boat hook. Then he made a running bowline, and slipped the loop on to the
shaft of the boat hook, after which he held out the boat hook, after the
fashion of a fishing rod, over the place where I had seen the crab.
Almost immediately, there swept up an enormous claw, and grasped the
meat, and at that, the bo'sun cried out to me to take an oar and slide
the bowline along the boat-hook, so that it should fall over the claw,
and this I did, and immediately some of us hauled upon the line,
taughtening it about the great claw. Then the bo'sun sung out to us to
haul the crab aboard, that we had it most securely; yet on the instant we
had reason to wish that we had been less successful; for the creature,
feeling the tug of our pull upon it, tossed the weed in all directions,
and thus we had full sight of it, and discovered it to be so great a crab
as is scarce conceivable--a very monster. And further, it was apparent to
us that the brute had no fear of us, nor intention to escape; but rather
made to come at us; whereat the bo'sun, perceiving our danger, cut the
line, and bade us put weight upon the oars, and so in a moment we were in
safety, and very determined to have no more meddlings with such
creatures.
Presently, the night came upon us, and, the wind remaining low, there
was everywhere about us a great stillness, most solemn after the
continuous roaring of the storm which had beset us in the previous days.
Yet now and again a little wind would rise and blow across the sea, and
where it met the weed, there would come a low, damp rustling, so that I
could hear the passage of it for no little time after the calm had come
once more all about us.
Now it is a strange thing that I, who had slept amid the noise of the
past days, should find sleeplessness amid so much calm; yet so it was,
and presently I took the steering oar, proposing that the rest should
sleep, and to this the bo'sun agreed, first warning me, however, most
particularly to have care that I kept the boat off the weed (for we had
still a little way on us), and, further, to call him should anything
unforeseen occur. And after that, almost immediately he fell asleep, as
indeed did the most of the men.
From the time that I relieved the bo'sun, until midnight, I sat upon the
gunnel of the boat, with the steering oar under my arm, and watched and
listened, most full of a sense of the strangeness of the seas into
which we had come. It is true that I had heard tell of seas choked up
with weed--seas that were full of stagnation, having no tides; but I
had not thought to come upon such an one in my wanderings; having,
indeed, set down such tales as being bred of imagination, and without
reality in fact.
Then, a little before the dawn, and when the sea was yet full of
darkness, I was greatly startled to hear a prodigious splash amid the
weed, mayhaps at a distance of some hundred yards from the boat. Then,
as I stood full of alertness, and knowing not what the next moment
might bring forth, there came to me across the immense waste of weed, a
long, mournful cry, and then again the silence. Yet, though I kept very
quiet, there came no further sound, and I was about to re-seat myself,
when, afar off in that strange wilderness, there flashed out a sudden
flame of fire.
Now upon seeing fire in the midst of so much lonesomeness, I was as one
amazed, and could do naught but stare. Then, my judgment returning to me,
I stooped and waked the bo'sun; for it seemed to me that this was a
matter for his attention. He, after staring at it awhile, declared that
he could see the shape of a vessel's hull beyond the flame; but,
immediately, he was in doubt, as, indeed, I had been all the while. And
then, even as we peered, the light vanished, and though we waited for the
space of some minutes; watching steadfastly, there came no further sight
of that strange illumination.
From now until the dawn, the bo'sun remained awake with me, and we talked
much upon that which we had seen; yet could come to no satisfactory
conclusion; for it seemed impossible to us that a place of so much
desolation could contain any living being. And then, just as the dawn was
upon us, there loomed up a fresh wonder--the hull of a great vessel maybe
a couple or three score fathoms in from the edge of the weed. Now the
wind was still very light, being no more than an occasional breath, so
that we went past her at a drift, thus the dawn had strengthened
sufficiently to give to us a clear sight of the stranger, before we had
gone more than a little past her. And now I perceived that she lay full
broadside on to us, and that her three masts were gone close down to the
deck. Her side was streaked in places with rust, and in others a green
scum overspread her; but it was no more than a glance that I gave at any
of those matters; for I had spied something which drew all my
attention--great leathery arms splayed all across her side, some of them
crooked inboard over the rail, and then, low down, seen just above the
weed, the huge, brown, glistening bulk of so great a monster as ever I
had conceived. The bo'sun saw it in the same instant and cried out in a
hoarse whisper that it was a mighty devilfish, and then, even as he
spoke, two of the arms flickered up into the cold light of the dawn, as
though the creature had been asleep, and we had waked it. At that, the
bo'sun seized an oar, and I did likewise, and, so swiftly as we dared,
for fear of making any unneedful noise, we pulled the boat to a safer
distance. From there and until the vessel had become indistinct by reason
of the space we put between us, we watched that great creature clutched
to the old hull, as it might be a limpet to a rock.
Presently, when it was broad day, some of the men began to rouse up, and
in a little we broke our fast, which was not displeasing to me, who had
spent the night watching. And so through the day we sailed with a very
light wind upon our larboard quarter. And all the while we kept the
great waste of weed upon our starboard side, and apart from the mainland
of the weed, as it were, there were scattered about an uncountable
number of weed islets and banks, and there were thin patches of it that
appeared scarce above the water, and through these later we let the boat
sail; for they had not sufficient density to impede our progress more
than a little.
And then, when the day was far spent, we came in sight of another
wreck amid the weeds. She lay in from the edge perhaps so much as the
half of a mile, and she had all three of her lower masts in, and her
lower yards squared. But what took our eyes more than aught else was a
great superstructure which had been built upward from her rails,
almost half-way to her main tops, and this, as we were able to
perceive, was supported by ropes let down from the yards; but of what
material the superstructure was composed, I have no knowledge; for it
was so over-grown with some form of green stuff--as was so much of the
hull as showed above the weed--as to defy our guesses. And because of
this growth, it was borne upon us that the ship must have been lost to
the world a very great age ago. At this suggestion, I grew full of
solemn thought; for it seemed to me that we had come upon the cemetery
of the oceans.
Now, in a little while after we had passed this ancient craft, the night
came down upon us, and we prepared for sleep, and because the boat was
making some little way through the water, the bo'sun gave out that each
of us should stand our turn at the steering-oar, and that he was to be
called should any fresh matter transpire. And so we settled down for the
night, and owing to my previous sleeplessness, I was full weary, so that
I knew nothing until the one whom I was to relieve shook me into
wakefulness. So soon as I was fully waked, I perceived that a low moon
hung above the horizon, and shed a very ghostly light across the great
weed world to starboard. For the rest, the night was exceeding quiet, so
that no sound came to me in all that ocean, save the rippling of the
water upon our bends as the boat forged slowly along. And so I settled
down to pass the time ere I should be allowed to sleep; but first I asked
the man whom I had relieved, how long a time had passed since moon-rise;
to which he replied that it was no more than the half of an hour, and
after that I questioned whether he had seen aught strange amid the weed
during his time at the oar; but he had seen nothing, except that once he
had fancied a light had shown in the midst of the waste; yet it could
have been naught save a humor of the imagination; though apart from this,
he had heard a strange crying a little after midnight, and twice there
had been great splashes among the weed. And after that he fell asleep,
being impatient at my questioning.
Now it so chanced that my watch had come just before the dawn; for which
I was full of thankfulness, being in that frame of mind when the dark
breeds strange and unwholesome fancies. Yet, though I was so near to the
dawn, I was not to escape free of the eerie influence of that place; for,
as I sat, running my gaze to and fro over its grey immensity, it came to
me that there were strange movements among the weed, and I seemed to see
vaguely, as one may see things in dreams, dim white faces peer out at me
here and there; yet my common sense assured me that I was but deceived by
the uncertain light and the sleep in my eyes; yet for all that, it put my
nerves on the quiver.
A little later, there came to my ears the noise of a very great splash
amid the weed; but though I stared with intentness, I could nowhere
discern aught as likely to be the cause thereof. And then, suddenly,
between me and the moon, there drove up from out of that great waste a
vast bulk, flinging huge masses of weed in all directions. It seemed to
be no more than a hundred fathoms distant, and, against the moon, I saw
the outline of it most clearly--a mighty devilfish. Then it had fallen
back once more with a prodigious splash, and so the quiet fell again,
finding me sore afraid, and no little bewildered that so monstrous a
creature could leap with such agility. And then (in my fright I had let
the boat come near to the edge of the weed) there came a subtle stir
opposite to our starboard bow, and something slid down into the water. I
swayed upon the oar to turn the boat's head outward, and with the same
movement leant forward and sideways to peer, bringing my face near to the
boat's rail. In the same instant, I found myself looking down into a
white demoniac face, human save that the mouth and nose had greatly the
appearance of a beak. The thing was gripping at the side of the boat with
two flickering hands--gripping the bare, smooth outer surface, in a way
that woke in my mind a sudden memory of the great devilfish which had
clung to the side of the wreck we had passed in the previous dawn. I saw
the face come up towards me, and one misshapen hand fluttered almost to
my throat, and there came a sudden, hateful reek in my nostrils--foul and
abominable. Then, I came into possession of my faculties, and drew back
with great haste and a wild cry of fear. And then I had the steering-oar
by the middle, and was smiting downward with the loom over the side of
the boat; but the thing was gone from my sight. I remember shouting out
to the bo'sun and to the men to awake, and then the bo'sun had me by the
shoulder, was calling in my ear to know what dire thing had come about.
At that, I cried out that I did not know, and, presently, being somewhat
calmer, I told them of the thing that I had seen; but even as I told of
it, there seemed to be no truth in it, so that they were all at a loss to
know whether I had fallen asleep, or that I had indeed seen a devil.
And presently the dawn was upon us.