The Ghost Pirates and Others Read online

  The Ghost Pirates

  and Others:

  The Best of

  William Hope Hodgson

  Edited by Jeremy Lassen

  Night Shade Books

  San Francisco

  Other books edited by Jeremy Lassen

  After Shocks: An Anthology of So-Cal Horror

  The Collected Fiction of William Hope Hodgson

  Z: Zombie Stories (as J. M. Lassen)

  The Ghost Pirates and Others: The Best of William Hope Hodgson

  © 2012 by Night Shade Books

  Cover art by Matthew Jaffe

  Interior layout and design by Amy Popovich

  Edited by Jeremy Lassen

  The Ghost Pirates is based on the 1909 Stanley Paul & Company edition, where it was originally published.

  “A Tropical Horror” is based on its publication in Out of the Storm: (Grant, 1975). It was originally published in Grand Magazine (April 1905).

  “Sea Horses” is based on its appearance in Men of the Deep Waters (Eveleigh Nash, 1914). It originally appeared in London Magazine, March 1913.

  “The Searcher of the End House” is based on its publication in Carnacki The Ghost-Finder (Eveleigh Nash, 1913). It was originally published in The Idler No. 92 (May 1910).

  “The Stone Ship” (AKA “The Mystery of the Ship in the Night”) is based on its publication in The Luck of the Strong (Eveleigh Nash, 1916). It was originally published as “The Mystery of the Ship in the Night” in Red Magazine No. 126 (July 1, 1914).

  “The Voice in the Night” is based on its publication in Men Of Deep Waters (Eveleigh Nash, 1914). It was originally published in Blue Book Magazine 6, No. 1 (November 1907).

  “Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani” (aka “Baumoff’s Explosive”) is based on its appearance in Out of the Storm (Donald M. Grant, 1975). It originally appeared in Nash’s Illustrated Weekly, Sep. 20, 1919.

  “The Mystery of the Derelict” is based on its publication in Men Of Deep Waters (Eveleigh Nash, 1914). It was originally published in Story-teller No. 4 (July 1907).

  “We Two and Bully Dunkan” (AKA “The Trimming of Captain Dunkan”) is based on its publication in The Luck of the Strong (Eveleigh Nash, 1916). It was originally published as “The Trimming of Captain Dunkan” in Red Magazine No. 128 (August 1, 1914).

  “The Shamraken Homeward-Bounder” (AKA “Homeward Bound”) is based on its publication in Men Of Deep Waters (Eveleigh Nash, 1914). It was originally published in Putnam’s Monthly 4, No. 1 (April 1908).

  “Demons of the Sea” (AKA The Crew of the Lancing) is based on its publication in Terrors of the Sea (Grant, 1996). It was initially published in Sea Stories Magazine 6, No. 5 (October 5, 1923).

  “Out of the Storm” is based on its publication in Out of the Storm (Grant, 1975). It was originally published in Putnam’s Monthly 5, No. 5 (February 1909).

  First Edition

  ISBN: 978-1-59780-441-7

  eISBN: 978-1-59780-442-4

  Night Shade Books

  www.nightshadebooks.com

  The editor would like to dedicate this volume to all the dreamers of the dark seas… the authors, editors, scholars and fans who have helped ensure that the works of William Hope Hodgson continue to find their way into the imaginations of new readers.

  Haunted Ships and Broken Men…

  The Life and Work of

  William Hope Hodgson

  William Hope Hodgson was one of the most influential fantasists of the 20th Century. Weird fiction masters such as H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith were very vocal in their appreciations of him. Later generations of fantasists, ranging from Fritz Leiber to C. S. Lewis also heaped praise upon his work, and that influence has continued to this day; writers as diverse as Greg Bear and China Miéville both point to Hodgson as an influence and as one of the important founding voices of fantastic fiction.

  Hodgson’s life was almost as unique as his fictional output. He served aboard merchant sailing ships for 8 years… he was of the last generation to serve aboard the merchant sailing fleets that populated so much of his fiction. He was also an amateur photographer of significant note, and took many photos chronicling life aboard ship. During his time at sea, which began when he was 13 years old, he became an accomplished pugilist and weight lifter.

  The abuse he received aboard ship, combined with the general poor quality of life afforded to merchant sailors of the era led Hodgson to leave the sea, and speak out often, and vehemently against the institutions that perpetuated and profited from brutal conditions sailors faced. In 1889, at the age of 22, Hodgson opened “W. H. Hodgson’s School of Physical Culture” in Blackburn, England. Hodgson was a body builder before there were body builders. Though short in stature, he was an incredible physical specimen. He took numerous photographs of his incredibly developed musculature and used them to promote his gym, and his lectures on the subject of personal fitness.

  It was the subject of personal fitness that led to Hodgson’s first (non-fiction) publications, and his successes in this realm lead him to pursue fiction writing as an vocation. His first success came in 1904, with a story entitled “The Goddess of Death.” But his second published story, “A Tropical Horror,” (included herein) was published in one of the more prestigious fiction magazines of the time; this story brought Hodgson to the attention of some very influential editors, and his fiction writing career took off.

  Hodgson had a unique voice that combined a haunting cosmic sensibility with an ability to depict the common place, and the common man. During his lifetime, it was his ability to depict life at sea that garnered most of his commercial successes. His straight adventure narratives always sold to prestigious markets, but it was his body of weird sea fiction that really made him stand out from his peers. In particular, the strange haunted dead space in the Atlantic where currents didn’t flow and ships floundered for days waiting for breeze proved to be fertile ground for Hodgson’s fantastic imagination… The Sargasso Sea cycle of stories formed a significant subset of his weird sea fiction. Stories of haunted ships and broken men rolled off of Hodgson’s typewriter and into the imaginations of a generation.

  Hodgson dabbled in many different commercial subgenres and the “psychic detective” genre was a rather significant one during his lifetime. Carnacki the Ghost-Finder is the protagonist of a series of stories that found success and significant readership both during his lifetime and after his death. With this character alone, Hodgson would become a significant foot note in the literary history of ghost fiction.

  After his death, it was the weird cosmic narratives of The House on the Borderland and The Night Land that would be pointed to as his great achievements. These novels were a commercial failure during his lifetime but a new generation of editors reprinted his work, not in the context of popular “mainstream” fiction, but in the “ghetto” of weird fiction. What was too strange for turn-of-the-century mainstream readers was exactly what sf/fantasy readers in the 30’s and 40’s were looking for. Hodgson continued to find an audience amongst genre readers, being reprinted in mass market paperback form numerous times, most notably in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in the early 70s.

  This book gathers together a sampling of Hodgson’s styles and works. Alongside his novel-length weird sea adventure The Ghost Pirates are several other weird and supernatural tales of the sea—one of his Sargasso Sea stories, “The Mystery of the Derelict” is included amongst these. Hodgson’s seminal occult detective is represented herein with the story “The Searcher of the End House.” While it is only hinted at, the weird cosmic wonder and melancholy that is found in abundance in The Night Land and The House on the Borderland can be found in several short stories within, including one of his most atypical stories, “Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani.” No summation of Hodgson’s work could be complete without a story that featured an abusive first mate or captain, and a lowly cabin boy or deck hand who manages to serve them their just deserts. This plot device is one that occurs so frequently in Hodgson’s work that one can’t help but speculate as to the horrific abuses Hodgson must have suffered aboard ship as a thirteen-year-old cabin boy. “We Two and Bully Dunkan” is a quality example of this type of revenge narrative.

  This volume is only a primer that scratches the surface of the dark seas of William Hope Hodgson’s fiction. While his stories may have been written for the commercial fiction markets of his day, they still resonate with a power that transcends the ephemeral tastes of those markets. A hundred years later new readers are still discovering the joy of Hodgson for the first time. And these new readers, along with those of us who have been reading Hodgson for a lifetime, continue to be transported to the cosmically weird and thrillingly wondrous places that only Hodgson can take us.

  Jeremy Lassen

  San Francisco,

  August 2012

  The Ghost Pirates

  To Mary Whalley

  “Olden Memories that shine against death’s Night —

  quiet stars of sweet Enchantments, that are seen

  In Life’s lost distances...”

  The World of Dreams

  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!-o-o-o-o! hear ’em stamp!

  Ha!-o-o-o-o-o-o! 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 ’em

  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 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 payday 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.