The Mary Celeste All Over Again.

by Randolph Stuart

Captain Thomas looks out from the wheelhouse of his ship at the fog bank in the distance. It was unusual to see fog here at this time of year. Perhaps it was because of the water temperature, which had dropped over 10 degrees in the last few hours and was still dropping. Now it was more like the waters of the Northern Atlantic instead of the latitude they now sailed. Suddenly the lookout in the crows nest calls out.

"Ship ahead. Two points off the starboard bow!"

Thomas quickly grabs the spyglass and looks toward the area called out by the lookout. He could barely see the outline of a ship through the fog. It appears to be motionless in the water, its sails furled, no smoke coming from its smoke stack.

"Mr. Henson, two points to starboard. I want to get closer to that ship, but not too close."

"Aye, aye captain," as the helmsman spins the wheel.

Slowly they pull up a hundred yards away from the mysterious ship. Captain Thomas sees that the sails are all furled. Lines from the davits hang down in the water, reminders of where the lifeboats must have once been. Grabbing the megaphone, he walks over to the railing and calls out to the mysterious ship.

"Ahoy! Ahoy! Can anyone hear me?" But the only answer was silence and the sound of the waves against the hull.

The first mate walks over to the captain and studies the ship with his spyglass. "I don't see anything, Cap'n. It looks abandoned."

"Aye, that it does, Mr. Hendricks. Assemble a boarding party. I want to find out more about that ship. If it is abandoned we'll take it in tow for salvage."

The first mate salutes and goes away to gather the boarding party. From the bridge the captain watches as the men get in the longboat and are lowered into the water.

Rowing over to the ship, Hendricks keeps a sharp eye on it as they draw closer. On the bow they can see the name. Coeur d'Alene, it says. Even the figurehead looks forlornly on them as they pass under the bowsprit.

When they reach the side, one man climbs up and over the rail. A few minutes later he throws down a rope ladder and the boarding party follows him.

Hendricks walks over the deck. Everything is neatly stowed. Going into the wheelhouse he sees that the wheel is tied, turned hard to the right, evidently to keep the ship going in circles. On a table are a few charts, but no sextant or other instruments to calculate their position. The ship's log is also missing. He is searching the room when suddenly one of the boarding party men bursts into the wheelhouse.

"Mr. Hedricks! I think you should come below deck; me and the lads have found something!"

"Show me, Mr. Speale!" he exclaims, hurrying after the man.

The first mate follows the man down the gangway into the ship's galley. Plates and cups were spread out over the table. It's like they just got up after eating and left, he thinks.

"And the rooms, all neat inside, clothes and everything still in them!"

"And the captain's quarters?"

"The same! Over there!"

The man points at a door and Hedricks goes in. Inside he sees a room with the bed made and everything neatly stowed away. He searches through the drawers, hoping to find the captain's personal log, but finds nothing.

"Nothing, Mr. Hendricks?" Speale asks hopefully.

"Nothing. No clues as to why they abandoned the ship. But based on what I've seen, it wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision. The neat rooms. The finished meals. It's like they prepared for it and then left the ship. I want every compartment searched; maybe someone left something behind that could provide a clue."

"Begging your pardon sir, but, um, some of the men are getting worried. This ain't natural, you know. They want to get off this ship and leave it. They think it's cursed, and they think we should leave it alone, forget about the salvage rights."

Hendricks sees the fear in the man's eyes and knows he has to be firm. "We have a job to do here, Mr. Speale! Have the men search all the rooms from top to bottom. I'll be in the engine room to see if we can get this ship moving."

"Aye, aye," the man replies nervously.

Hendricks had to admit that the man had a right to feel nervous. He had a tingling sensation at the back of his neck ever since he came aboard. But he couldn't let the men know that. Panic could spread like a wildfire in this situation.

He walks down the hallway to the gangway leading to the engine room. Opening the door, he sees it is pitch black inside. Getting a lantern, he lights it and descends down the steps. The lantern creates eerie shadows on the hull, which doesn't help his mood. The sooner he is out of here the better. Examining the boilers he sees that they are stone cold, like they've been out for weeks. Looking at them to see if they can get them started, he sees they have been sabotaged. Someone wanted to make sure they didn't get them working again.

While trying to figure out a way to repair the boilers, something catches his eye, a shadow moving across the room. The lantern is sitting on a shelf, perfectly still. He grabs it and looks more closely where he thought he saw something move. But he sees nothing. This place is definitely getting to me, he thinks. Walking back up the gangway, he glances back into the darkness behind him one last time before closing the door quickly behind him.

On the top deck, the crew are assembled around him, the men shifting nervously side from side. Mr. Speale hands Hendricks a small book. "We searched all the rooms, like you said. This is all we could find. It looks like a diary."

Hendricks opens it up and sees what looks like a woman's handwriting in French. The last entry is over a week old, he guesses.

"Nothing else?"

"No, sir," Mr. Speale says nervously.

"All right, let's get back to the ship." He shoves the diary in his jacket and they go towards the longboat. While they row back towards their ship, Hendricks continues to watch the strange vessel. Was it just him or did the fog get thicker and the seas calmer since they first arrived? A bit of water splashes on him from one of the oars. It is icy cold.

Captain Thomas is at the rail while the longboat is hoisted up. He helps Hendricks over the side, worried by the man's expression.

"Report, Mr. Hendricks!"

"It's just as we thought, the ship was abandoned." Looking around, he whispers to the captain, "I think we should talk in private."

"My cabin, then."

Hendricks follows the captain and shuts the door behind him. Thomas sits at his desk, looking at his first mate.

"Captain," the man says slowly, "the ship was abandoned, just as we thought. But it looks like it was planned ahead. They ate one last meal and then left. The captain took his logs, navigation tools and charts. I guess they also took supplies like they were planning a long trip in the life-boats. All we could find was this," handing him the diary out of his jacket. "It looks like it was written by a woman, and it's in French. My French is poor," Hendricks sighs.

"So is mine, but I'll try to make sense of it. Anything else? Can we get a head of steam up on it and have it follow us?"

"That's also strange. The boilers have been sabotaged, like someone wanted to keep them from being used. I don't know if we can get them working again."

"Great. We could tow it, but it would more than double our travel time." Looking at the ship's clock, he sighs deeply. "It's getting late. First thing tomorrow, I want you to get the ship's engineer over there and see what he can do. In the meantime get some lines to it so it doesn't drift away in the night. And see if anyone can read French."

"Aye, aye, captain," Hendricks says, leaving the cabin.

That night in the crew's mess, Hendricks could feel the undercurrent of fear in the men's low voices. That ship had gotten to everyone and he couldn't blame them. A ship abandoned in the middle of the ocean, people trusting their fates to a small life-boat. It just didn't make sense , he muses. And that shadow that he thought he saw in the boiler room keeps coming back to him.

The next morning Captain Thomas watches as the engineer and Hendricks go over to the ship in the longboat with several men. He watches them disappear inside the ship's hold and secretly feels worried about them. Just then a crewman interrupts his musings.

"Uh, begging the cap'n's pardon, Hawkins here sir. Mr. Hendricks was looking for someone who spoke French. I served on a French ship for 3 years."

"Can you read it?" the captain asks.

"Yes, a little," the man replies.

"Follow me."

Inside the captain's cabin, he hands the man the diary they recovered from the ship. "We found this on the ship. Can you translate it?"

The man opens up the diary and looks at it. After a few minutes of reading, he speaks up. "It's written by a woman. It's a French ship, three months or so out of Cherbourg, I believe. They were sailing to Haiti. The last entry was fourteen days ago."

"Is there any mention of why they would leave their ship?" Thomas asks.

"I don't know yet, cap'n. But there are some entries where the woman talks about things she notices among the crew."

"Anything else?"

"It's hard to say, it's very confusing. In the last few entries she keeps repeating, 'bete noire, bete noire', over and over again."

"What does that mean?" the captain asks seriously.

"It literally means black beast, but it can also mean to hate or detest. Most people use it to mean a bad dream or nightmare," Hawkins says quietly.

"I see. Well, keep on reading it and let me know what you find. Tell no one about what's in the diary."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n."

In the abandoned ship's boiler room, Hendricks and the engineer are going over the boiler, trying to see if there is a way to repair it.

"Well, can it be fixed, Mr. Wilkes?"

The engineer takes off his cap and scratches his head, all the time looking wistfully at the machine. Finally he speaks up. "I could fix it," he says slowly. "With some spare parts that we have. It would take most of them. And hope that nothing goes wrong with our boilers."

"How long?"

"Three, maybe four days. We'll have to lash the ships together to move the parts."

"I'll tell the captain."

Back on the ship, the first mate is telling the captain the situation with the mystery ship's boilers.

"Three or four days?"

"That's what Wilkes said. And he wants to lash the ships together, to make it easier to move parts."

Thomas just sits there and grumbles to himself. After several moments he speaks up, "Tell him to get started. Lash the ships together. Use all available parts and hope nothing goes wrong here."

"Aye, aye, Captain." Just then there is a knock at the door.

"Enter," Thomas says.

The sailor who was translating the diary recovered from the abandoned ship enters. "Uh, begging your pardon Cap'n, Mr. Hendricks, Hawkins here. I finished reading the diary."

"Tell us what it says."

"Well, Cap'n, the entries for the first two months are normal enough. Then the woman talks about the ship finding a lifeboat adrift on the ocean. It's empty except for a chest in it, tightly bound by ropes. The boat looks like it's been drifting for years, with the hull all covered in barnacles."

"They manage to get the chest aboard and they cut the ropes and open the chest. It was empty, but a foul odor came out as soon as the lid was opened. The Captain ordered the chest tossed over the side and the lifeboat sunk. A few days later things start getting strange. Crewmembers start having strange dreams. And she does too. That's the first time she mentions the words 'bete noire' in her entries."

"She writes that she starts getting the dreams more and more often. She says the other people on the ship are also getting strange dreams. Finally one day a man climbs high up the rigging, screaming 'bete, bete c'est fini,'the beast is done!', and then jumps into the sea, killing himself."

"A week later they made the decision to abandon the ship. They put supplies into the lifeboats and then leave the ship. That's all there is. I guess in the rush the woman forgot her diary."

Thomson and Hendricks look at each other for a long time. The captain looks at the man and speaks, "Have you told anyone else about what you've read in the diary?"

"No, Cap'n."

"Good. Keep it yourself. That will be all."

The man puts the diary on the table and leaves the cabin.

After the crewman has left, Thomson turns to the first mate. "As if we don't have enough mysteries already. Now we're dealing with a haunted, mystery ship."

"Maybe we should just leave it and continue on," Hendricks replies.

"The salvage value on a ship like that would give each man here the equivalent of a year's pay," Thomas adds.

"Still …"

"We keep this to ourselves. Understood?" the captain says sternly.

"Aye, Cap'n," the first mate replies and exits the cabin.

Up on deck, Hendricks directs the crew to attach lines to the abandoned ship and lash them together. The crewmen tug on the lines until the two ship's hulls are touching. Just then one of the men cries out and jumps back from the railing.

"What's wrong, Mr. Wilson!?" the first mate cries out.

"I thought I saw something in the water! A dark shape when the hulls touched!" he cries out.

"Probably just a shark. These waters are full of them. Now I want those lines squared away, good and tight!"

"Aye," the men call out.

The ship's engineer then takes his blackface crew with a load of parts over to the mystery ship's engine room to work on the its boilers. The rest of the crewmembers go back to their duties.

That night, dinner was quiet in the crew's mess, but Hendricks knew what was on each man's mind. That night in his quarters he lies in his bunk, the day's activities running through his head. Sleep comes slowly and in fits. He dreams about the ship, the engine room. He sees a dark shape lurking in the shadows that disappears just as he looks at it. It seems to be always there, just out of sight, big and dark.

He wakes up in a sweat in his bunk. From the deck he can hear the ship's bell chime four bells. Lying there, he can't get back to sleep and decides to go on deck for some fresh air. Once there, he walks over to the mystery ship, still lashed to theirs. He is staring at it when suddenly someone puts a hand on his shoulder that shocks him out of his reverie.

"Sorry, Mr. Hendricks. Didn't mean to startle you. I see you're up early too."

"Couldn't sleep, Cap'n."

"I see that ship is on your mind too. We'll get it fixed and be on our way and in port soon enough."

"It won't be soon enough for me. This fog and the calm waters with nary a breeze. It's got me worried."

Just then they hear a groan come from the mystery ship and it begins to sway back and forth in the water. They both look in stunned amazement as the aft section starts to sink. The lines holding the two ships together grow tight, straining under the load, the wooden rail groaning from the stress.

"She's going down! The captain yells. "All hands! Undo those lines before she drags us down with her!"

The crew desperately try to undo the lines that are being stretched tighter and tighter. Suddenly a section of rail is torn loose under the strain and their ship starts to heel over.

"No time! Cut the lines! Cut the lines before it drags us down," the captain shouts. The first mate runs over and grabs a fire ax from the wall. Swinging it desperately, he hacks at a line and it pulls apart with a snap. He starts on another line just as another section of rail breaks off under the strain.

"Hurry! Hurry!" the captain shouts desperately. Already the deck is starting to tip perilously to the side. The mystery ship's stern is almost below the water now and sinking fast. Bracing himself on the shifting deck, the first mate hacks at the heavy line while the ship continues to tilt. Finally it snaps and whips across the deck, striking a crewman and throwing him overboard with its force. The remaining lines quickly tear out of the decking and fly towards the sinking ship.

"Man overboard! Man overboard!" the captain calls out. Grabbing a lantern, he rushes to the side, desperately trying to catch sight of the crewman. He sees the man, flailing his arms in the water and looks for a line to toss to him. By now the sinking ship is half submerged and going down fast. A crewman tosses a rope to the man in the water who quickly grabs it.

"I can't hold it!" the crewman cries out. Others rush to his aid, desperately pulling against some unknown force on the line held by the sailor in the water. The captain and first mate join them, straining to hold the rope. Just then the sinking ship's bow disappears beneath the waves. The rope to the sailor in the water then yanks out of their hands, causing the men pulling on the line to fall backwards. Running over to the side they look desperately for the crewman, but see nothing in the dark waters below.

"He's gone," the captain says solemnly. "Mr. Hendricks! Muster the men, all hands on deck. I want a damage control party, and every man accounted for."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n," he replies wearily. "All right everyone, you heard the cap'n, everyone turn to. No one is getting any sleep tonight."

"What happened to Jones?" someone says.

"It was the cursed ship! Now we're cursed too!" a man cries out.

"Belay that talk, mister!"

"What was pulling on the line he held? That's not natural!" another man shouts.

"I said belay that talk! The line must've gotten caught on the sinking ship and tied around him. The man never had a chance! Now get those ropes stowed and this deck cleared. Bos'un! I want this ship squared away and ready to set sail" Turning to the Captain he says, "What are your orders, Captain? Continue on course now?"

"Yes, yes. Tell the engineer to get up a head of steam and tell the helmsman to get us back on our original course. "I'll be in my cabin."

"Aye, aye."

The morning dawns cold and gray. The sun shines dimly through the fog that enshrouds the ship. Hendricks goes into the captain's cabin. He sees him studying the diary recovered from the mystery ship.

"The ship is squared away and back on course, Cap'n." Looking at the diary he says, "That ship has really gotten to you hasn't it? I talked with the engineer and he said it was seaworthy. Says he'd stake his reputation on it, and I believe him. There was no earthly reason for it to sink!"

"No earthly reason, Mr Hendricks?" Thomas replies quietly.

"Don't tell me you think that ship was cursed too!"

"Based on what happened and what you just said, I don't know. We still have a month till we reach port. Frankly, I won't feel safe until then."

"We shouldn't have any more incidents."

"Let's hope so."

The next few days were quiet, the ship returned to its normal routine, But Hendricks could sense something was wrong with the crew. Nothing he could pin on, just a general unease. He could relate to that. Almost every night he had the same dream. He was on deck, desperately hacking at the ropes tying their ship to the sinking ship. But try as he could, he couldn't cut the lines. The ship heeled over and sank beneath the waters. He fell over the side and felt something big and dark pulling him under the water. Struggling, he was dragged down, his lungs filling with water. Then he woke up in his bunk, sweating and gasping for breath.

That morning at breakfast the ship's engineer approaches Hendricks.

"Morning, Mr. Hendricks," he says, "you look like I feel."

"Bad night for you too, Wilkes?"

"Aye, dreams. I keep finding myself in the engine room. I see shadows moving on the bulkheads. Yesterday one of my crew refused to go into the hold unless another man went with him. Claims there is something back there, lurking in the shadows. It's got my whole crew spooked."

Just then there was a loud boom from below. The engineer jumps up and runs toward the door and flies down the gangway to the boiler room. Inside, he sees the place is a bedlam, steam and smoke fills the room, with men running around shouting and crying out in pain.

Wilkes runs over to a valve and turns it desperately. He shouts to another man to do the same to another. The steam stops spraying, but smoke still fills the room. He then runs over to check several gauges and adjusts some more valves.

The first mate is at the hatch to the boiler room, looking around at the chaos below him.

"Report!" he cries out.

"Looks like the main valve blew! I've bypassed it for now, but I'll have to shut the engines down until I've found the problem!" the engineer shouts.

Looking over at two men leaning against the hull, Hendricks shouts out, "You two! Get some others and get these injured men out of here!" He then gets one man to his feet and helps him towards the upper deck. There the ship's doctor quickly examines the injured men, suffering mostly burns from the steam. Some serious. Seeing the situation in hand, he returns to the boiler room where he sees Wilkes going over the maze of pipes in the room.

"Find anything?" he asks.

"Aye. This main pipe ruptured," he says, pointing at the twisted metal. "Although why, I haven't a clue."

"Can you fix it?"

"Aye, but it will take some time."

"Get to it. I'll be on deck with the captain."

Up on deck, Hendricks sees the captain talking with the doctor. Sadly, he notes that two men have sheets covering them.

"Status, Mr. Hendricks," the captain says grimly.

"Wilkes says a main pipe ruptured. He can fix it, but we will be without engine power until he does. I see we lost two men," he says, looking at the covered bodies.

"Yes, two others are injured, but the doctor says they should recover. Get me an estimate when we can get underway." The captain then turns back to the doctor.

That evening after the service for the victims of the explosion, the first mate approaches the captain.

"Mr, Wilkes says he's done and he can get up a head of steam now and we can get the engines running again. But he recommends no more than half power until we can get to port."

"Very well, set course at half power. That will add another twenty days or more to our journey. Does he have any idea why the pipe ruptured?"

"No, Cap'n. But it's got him worried."

"Me too. I don't like the recent events this ship has had. It's too much for coincidence," the captain says, and walks away.

If the mood of the ship was sour before the accident, it is even worse now. The explosion and deaths of the crewmen had affected everyone. Now they were limping to port, with the accursed fog and icy waters following them.

The men sat in the crew's mess, eating their evening meal. The meals had been very quiet the last few days, each man preoccupied with his own thoughts. One man in particular just sat there, staring at his plate, not moving or talking to anyone. Suddenly he screams and jumps up from his seat. The others in the room look at him in stunned silence.

He screams again, pointing at his plate. "It's there, it's there!" he cries out. Suddenly, he throws the plate off the table and it shatters against the wall.

A man near him comes over and tries to put his arms around the screaming man, trying to calm him down.

"John! John! It's all right! Calm down!"

He breaks free from the man holding him and grabs a knife off the table, waving it around at the stunned crew.

"Get away! All of you get away! You're dead! You're all dead! Don't you understand? It's here, on this ship! It's going to kill all of us!" he screams.

Hendrickson slowly moves through the men surrounding the screaming madman. "Simmons! It's me, Hendricks; put down that knife!"

The man turns suddenly and points the knife at the first mate, who is slowly approaching him with his hands out.

"Stay away! Stay away," he screams, waving the knife at the first mate . You're dead! You've seen it! You've seen the monster too! It's in your dreams too!"

"I don't know what you mean. Just put down the knife and everything will be fine. We can talk."

"No!" Simmons screams, swinging the knife at the first mate, who barely dodges the slashing blade. The rest of the crew fall back from the raging madman after seeing the attack. He then rushes out the door and up the stairs to the deck. Hendricks follows him, making sure he stays away from the slashing knife. The crewmen on deck are stunned by what they see and quickly move away from the crazed man. He runs toward the rail, swinging the knife at everyone around him.

Hendricks slowly approaches the man, his back against the rail. He is screaming and waving his knife at everyone.

"It killed Jones! And it's going to kill all of us too! It's in our dreams!"

"Simmons, it's going to be okay, just give me the knife," Hendicks says, trying to calm the man.

The madman looks around him at the men circling him. Seeing there is no escape, he cries out and leaps over the rail into the water below. Hendricks quickly rushes over to the side, desperately searching the dark waters below him, but sees nothing. The other men join him, but no one sees anything.

Turning away from the rail, the first mate speaks to the stunned crew. "He's gone. There's nothing more we can do. Back to your stations."

"He said you've seen it too! In your dreams!" someone calls out.

"What did he mean?" another man shouts.

"Belay that talk, mister! Everyone back to your stations!" He sees the captain standing by the doorway, beckoning him. Hendricks walks through the crowd towards the captain who leads him back to his cabin. Inside, Thomas stares silently at his first mate.

"Report, Mr Hendricks!"

"I don't know what happened, Cap'n. We were in the crew's mess when Simmons suddenly jumped up and started screaming. He grabbed a knife and started waving it at everyone. I tried to calm him down, but he ran out on deck. I tried to calm him down again, but he jumped overboard before I could reach him. When I looked over the rail he was gone, not a trace of him."

The captain continues to stare at his first mate for several moments and then slumps down in his chair.

"He said 'It's in your dreams'. Any idea what he's talking about?"

"No, Cap'n."

The captain continues to look at Hendricks and finally dismisses him. Watching Hendricks leave the cabin, he thinks about what the crewman said, wondering what it could mean.

That night Hendricks sleeps fitfully, the events of the day going through his mind. When he does sleep, he dreams he is walking through the hallways of a ghost ship. The compartments and decks are empty, looking like they had been abandoned long ago. Lines and tattered sails hang from the masts. In the distance he thinks he sees a shadow or a shape, large and massive. When he tries to run towards the shadow, it just disappears. Somehow he finds himself below deck. The hold is full of shadows, dark and mysterious. He walks to the hatch leading to the engine room. The room is quiet and still, yet he thinks he saw a shadow move in the darkness. He follows it and goes into the compartment at the rear of the ship. Opening the hatch, he finally sees it, moving against the ship's hull, a shapeless black void. Gradually, he watches it rearrange itself into a form of sorts. A face appears, variations in the darkness. A mouth moves without making any sound.

"What are you?" Hendricks cries out.

"What …" was the reply, like a voice from beyond the grave.

"What are you?" he cries out again.

"You?" it says, chilling him to the bone.

"Yes! Who are you! What do you want?"

"Want?"

"What do you want?!" he screams again.

"You," it replies coldly.

Suddenly Hendricks jerks up in his bunk, his body covered in sweat, yet his room feels cold. He jumps up and rushes out of his cabin, not noticing or caring how he looks. A crewman in the hall stares at him in amazement and is quickly shoved aside. He throws open the door and runs down the gangway to the engine room. Men on duty stop and stare at him. Hendricks runs to the hatch at the rear and throws it open. The compartment is icy cold, his panting breath frosting in the air. In the back where he saw the black shape, ice is on the wall. He touches it with his fingers and quickly jerks them back as an icy numbness shoots up his hand and arm.

From the hatchway the stunned engine crew are staring at him. He holds his numb arm tightly against him and turns around to face them while shivering in the coldroom.

"Mr Hendircks! What's going on here? It's freezing in here!" a man shouts.

"Did you see it! Did you see it?" Hendricks cries out.

"See what?" one cries out.

"There!" he says pointing at the hull. "There against the hull! A black shape!"

They all shake their heads. One of them finds an old, dirty blanket and hands it to the half naked first mate who wraps it around his shivering body. Together they help him out of the compartment and shut the hatch behind them.

"Are you all right?" one man asks.

"Y-yes, Hendrick stammers, his whole body shivering.

"C'mon!" a man calls out. "Get him up to the galley! Get him some coffee and wake the captain!"

The men help Hendricks up the gangway and into the mess hall. They sit him down at a table and one rushes out to get the captain. Another goes into the galley to make coffee. The captain comes in a few minutes later, followed by the crewman. He sees the first mate shivering at the table, with the blanket wrapped tightly around him. The others stand around them, waiting in anticipation.

"What happened, Mr. Hendricks? This man said you ran half naked into the engine room and then into the aft hold. He said the room was icy cold and you were screaming about seeing something. Then they bring you up here, chilled to the bone!"

"I saw it! I saw it in a dream. In a dream! It was so real, and I heard it speak! Like a voice from beyond the grave."

"In a dream! Are you crazy!" Thomas replies incredulously.

"It was so real! And the room was cold, so cold," he says, shuddering involuntarily.

"Aye, that's true," a man said.

"Okay, what else. You said it spoke. What did it say?" Thomas demands.

"I asked what it wanted. It just said 'you', and then I woke up in my bunk. I ran right away down to the engine room and into the aft compartment."

The captain just sits back and stares at his first mate and the engine crew. A crewman puts two cups of coffee on the table. Hendricks just sits quietly, both hands around his cup, savoring the warmth.

"Can anyone add anything else to this story?" Thomas asks.

"No, Cap'n," A man says. "We were in the engine room when he came running in and went into the aft hold."

"The aft hold? And what was in there?'

"Icy cold, Cap'n. Never seen anything like it in my life," one man says nervously.

"Was it empty?"

"As far as we could tell," another man says. The rest of the men murmur ayes.

"Very well. Return to your posts. Inform me if anything unusual comes up."

"Uh, Cap'n," one man stammers.

"What is it, man! Spit it out!"

"Well, Cap'n, some of the men working below have said they think they've seen a shadow moving on the hull. And sometimes they say it gets cold down there for a few minutes. Cold and dank like a tomb. They didn't want to say anything because they were afraid that you would say they were crazy and lock them up for their own good. And now this," he says, looking at the first mate.

"I see," the Captain replies. "Very well, carry on."

The crewmen salute and leave the two men alone in the galley.

"It's here. On this ship," Hendricks says quietly while sipping his coffee. "Whatever was on that abandoned ship came onto ours. Something dark and cold. Icy cold. So cold. It sank the other ship when we were starting to fix it. It killed that sailor who was knocked overboard when that ship sank. It made that boiler pipe explode and it's going to kill us too!"

"Belay that, Mr.Hendricks! I'll have no talk like that on this ship!"

"It's the bete noire, the black beast that the woman wrote in the diary! It's here!"

"What do you suggest, that we abandon ship like the other crew did? You know what our chances are on the open sea," Thomas replies sarcastically.

"I don't know, Cap'n. I don't know," Hendricks says, shaking his head. "It may come to that."

Word of what had happened to the first mate spread throughout the ship. More crew members talked about seeing shadows moving below deck. Some refused to go down below unless they were accompanied by another. On deck a man cried out suddenly that the ship was cursed, and he had to be manhandled by several others before he got violent. Captain Thomas watched all this with a growing sense of unease. With the ship traveling at half power, their port was over a month away. He wondered if they would make it with the crew behaving like this. Abandoning the ship was a desperate ploy, one he only wanted to do as a last resort.

Hendricks spent most of the day in his quarters, nursing his arm that was still numbed by whatever was in the ship's hold when he heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," he calls out, and sees the captain standing there.

"How does the arm feel?" he asks.

"It still tingles," Hendrick says, looking at his hand.

"Any ideas about what happened?"

"No, Captain. Just a cold, an icy cold, and blackness. I spoke to it, asking what it was. But it just answered like it was learning each word as I spoke to it."

"Does it know about us?"

"Perhaps. Dimly."

"Is it malevolent? Evil?"

"I don't know. Perhaps not in the way we think of it. To be evil it would have to be aware of us. Knowing what it is doing is evil. I don't feel that."

"What does it want?"

"I don't think it even knows what it wants, except it just wants."

"Great!" the captain exclaims. "Some thing that caused all hands on one ship to abandon it is now on ours, wreaking havoc with it."

"It doesn't want us to leave," Hendricks says suddenly.

"What! What did you just say?"

"I don't know. It just popped into my head. But it explains all the recent incidents. Why the wheel of the abandoned ship was tied so it kept going in circles. The sabotaged boilers. The explosion in the boiler room."

"It doesn't want us to leave! Why?"

"I don't know. It may be part of that wanting, but not knowing what or why it wants."

Suddenly a crewman bursts into the room, his face pale and full of fear.

"Cap'n! You've got to come to the wheelhouse right away! Something's happened!"

The captain and Hendricks dash out of his cabin and run to the wheel house where they see the helmsman staring at the ship's compass.

"What is it Mr. Sanders? Report!" the captain says.

"The compass, Captain! Look at it!"

Both Thomas and Hendricks stare at the ship's compass. Instead of maintaining a fixed reference to north it slowly moves back and forth aimlessly.

"How long has it been doing this?" Hendricks demands.

"I don't know. I glanced over at it a few minutes ago. That's when I noticed it."

"Are we still on course?" the captain asks.

"I don't know. We could be, but I can't be sure."

The captain rushes outside to look for the sun, but the ever present haze makes it impossible.

"No way to make an observation with this weather." Looking at Hendricks he says to him, "I have a compass in my cabin on the wall, bring it here!"

A few minutes later the first mate returns with the captain's private compass. He holds it next to the ship's compass. Both rotate aimlessly, never settling on due north.

"It's not broken," Hendricks dead pans.

The captain stares at his first mate. "Now we are in trouble, Mr. Hendricks. With no compass, no navigational references, we can end up traveling in circles."

Word of the broken compass spread like wildfire through the ship. The crew was starting to panic and both men knew they had to do something quickly before it got out of control. In the privacy of the captain's cabin, Thomas and Hendricks discussed what to do next.

"We need to find out what has taken over the ship, and quickly!" Thomas says.

"It's some unknown force. Something came aboard that ship when they opened that chest on the lifeboat," the first mate replies.

"Something that calls out to us in our dreams and chills you to the bone when you try to touch it."

The first mate cradles his still tingling arm. "We need to go to the aft section and try to find out what is going on."

The captain looks at his first mate holding his arm. "Do you feel up to it?"

"Aye, Captain. We have no choice."

The two men slowly walk down the stairs to the boiler room, the boiler crew staring at them in apprehension.

"Is it true about the compass, Cap'n?" one asks meekly.

"Aye! Is it true that we're lost? And it's that thing that came from that haunted ship?" another adds.

"Belay that talk, mister!" the captain replies. "We're not lost! Not on my ship! Mr. Hendricks and I are going to find out what is going on here, and we are starting with the aft compartment."

The boiler crew back away as the captain and first mate approach the aft compartment door. Thomas reaches out gingerly and grabs the handle. "It's cold," he says warily, "cold as ice." Hendricks looks at him and solemnly nods. The captain turns the handle and slowly opens the hatch.

The hatch opens and a wave of cold air rushes out, chilling the two men. Thomas goes in first, followed by Hendricks. Inside it is cold, deathly cold. The two men's breaths fog in the frigid air. In the very back they can see a sheet of ice on the hull. The captain moves forward and starts to reach out to touch it when the first mate grabs his arm and jerks it back.

"Careful, Cap'n! That's where I touched it!"

Thomas keeps his hand away from the ice while moving closer to it. He examines it in the lamplight and the rest of the hull in the compartment for several minutes. Then he lightly touches a part of the hull without any ice on it and quickly jerks his hand back.

"Are you all right, Cap'n!?" the first mate cries out, grabbing Thomas by the shoulders.

The captain cradles the hand that touched the hull in the other, rubbing it to restore some warmth and feeling to it. "So cold, so cold," he says, looking at the first mate. "And I barely touched it!" he says incredulously.

"Whatever it is, it's spreading. It will take over the entire ship if we don't stop it."

"Let's get the hell out of here," the captain says.

The two men leave the compartment and Hendricks closes the hatch behind them. A crewman starts to speak up, but the stern look on the first mate's face quickly silences him. Going up the stairway, the Captain mutters 'cabin' to Hendricks, who helps him to his quarters.

Inside the captain's cabin, the two men sit down and just think in silence. Thomas is still cradling his injured hand in the other, rubbing them together.

Finally the first mate speaks up. "How's the hand?"

"Better. I can imagine what you went through. Any ideas?"

"None, I'm afraid. Whatever it is, it's deadly. Look what happened when you just barely touched it. I think it will try to take over the ship. I'm guessing the heat from the boilers is keeping it in the aft compartment for now."

"Maybe that's why the boilers in that ship were shut down."

"By the crew or by whatever that thing is?"

"I don't know. Maybe that's why the crew abandoned ship. They knew that thing was going to spread over the ship."

"Will we do the same thing, Cap'n?"

"If we can't contain it, yes. I want you to try something. You said that maybe the heat from the boiler room is keeping it in the aft compartment."

"It's just a guess, Cap'n."

"I want you to talk to the engineer. Have him rig some pipes or something to feed hot steam into the aft compartment. Let's try to warm it up and see what happens."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n. I'll get on it right away." The first mate salutes and leaves the cabin.

"May God help us if this doesn't work," Thomas says to himself.

The engineer got on the task right away. In a few hours he had some pipes rigged up that took some of the boiler's steam and fed it into the aft compartment. When it was ready, Wilkes and Hendricks stood over the main valve that would feed steam into the aft hold.

"All set, Mr. Hendricks?" Wilkes asks.

"Go ahead. A little at first."

The engineer twists the handle and steam flows through the pipe and into the compartment. White clouds of vapor pour out through the partially open hatch. They continue like this for several minutes before Hendricks tells him to stop. Going to the hatch he opens it and slowly steps into the compartment. Looking at the hull in the back, he sees the ice is still there, maybe a little less than before.

Coming out he tells the engineer to open the valve more. White vapor clouds come billowing out of the room, filling up the boiler room in a frigid fog.

"How long do we have to do this?" Wilkes cries out.

"Until it's done! We reduced it a little before. I want to give it everything we've got!"

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the vapor clouds diminish and then disappear. Hendricks tells the engineer to shut off the valve and the flow of steam into the room stops. Carefully opening the hatch, he looks inside the hold. Going to the back he looks at the hull and sees the ice is gone. Carefully, he barely touches the hull where the ice was. It's cold, but not the frigid cold he felt before, and his finger doesn't tingle.

The engineer peers inside the hatch and calls out to him. "Did we get it?"

"Yes, I think so. Keep the pipes in place. I'm going to see the captain."

The first mate went on deck to the captain's cabin. After entering, he smiles at him. "I think we got it, Cap'n. The ice is gone."

"Are you certain?"

"As certain as I am about anything, now."

"Let's go to the wheelhouse. I want to see if the compasses are working properly."

The two men leave the cabin and walk up to the wheelhouse. Inside, they both look at the ship's compass. It now points due north. The captain then turns to the helmsman and speaks to him. "Get this ship back on course to our port. I want to get away from here as soon as possible."

The man says aye, aye and turns the wheel towards their destination.

The ship's routine returns to normal. No one has any more bad dreams and everyone is looking forward to getting into port and enjoying some shore leave. Even Hendricks starts to relax, feeling that whatever was haunting them is gone.

Then a few days later, Hendiricks is on deck when he hears the helmsman call out to him from the wheelhouse.

"Mr Hendricks! Mr Hendricks! Come here quick!" the man shouts.

The first mate runs up the stairs to the wheel house where he sees the man pointing at the ship's compass.

"It's doing it again! Look!"

Hendricks looks at the compass and sees it moving aimlessly like it did a few days earlier. Running out of the wheelhouse, he dashes down into the ship's hold and the boiler room. Once in the boiler room he goes to the aft compartment hatch. The handle is icy cold. Turning it, he slowly opens up the hatch and a wave of frigid air flows over him. Looking carefully, he sees the ice has returned to the same spot as before, perhaps not as large now.

He rushes out of the compartment and runs up the stairs to the deck. There he sees the captain coming out of the wheelhouse.

"It's back! It's back! The ice is back and the compass is drifting again!" Hendricks cries out.

"Get the engineer! Tell him to set up those pipes again. This time we'll blast it until we're sure it's gone forever!"

Hendricks gets the engineer and together they rig up more piping to blast the aft compartment with hot steam.

"Will it work this time, Mr Hendricks? Before it just seemed like it just drove it away for a short time?" Wilkes asks.

"It has to. We have no choice! Open it up all the way!"

Wilkes turns the valve and hot steam roars out of the pipe in the aft compartment. The boiler room quickly fills up with billows of white vapor. He looks at the boiler pressure gauge and sees it visibly dropping while the steam is released.

"We can only keep this up for a few more minutes!" Wilkes cries out.

"Keep on! Use it all. I want to drive that thing from here forever!"

Suddenly the aft compartment hatch swings open and a shape flies out of it. A darkness against the white clouds of vapor. It brushes against the engineer, who collapses to the deck. It then flies across the boiler room and disappears into the darkness of the hold.

The first mate shuts off the valve and rushes over to the fallen engineer, writhing and gasping on the floor in pain.

"So cold, so cold," he gasps, his whole body shaking.

"Help me get this man to the doctor!" Hendricks cries out to the boiler crew.

Together, they help get Wilkes up the gangway and to the ship's doctor. Reaching the cabin, they lay him on the bed and cover his shivering body with blankets to help warm him. Seeing that there is nothing more he can do there, Hendricks rushes out to tell the captain what happened.

He finds the captain in the wheelhouse, staring at the ship's compass, now pointing due north.

"Is it gone?" Thomas asks hopefully.

"We applied the steam at full force and saw something dark fly out of the hold. It brushed against Wilkes and he collapsed on the deck. I then saw it fly out of the boiler room into the forward compartments."

"So it may still be here," the captain replies despondently. "All we may have done is drive it from one part of the ship to another. How is Wilkes?"

"Pretty bad. We took him to the doctor. We should inspect the cargo holds, find out where it's gone," Hendricks says.

"Very well, get some men and start inspecting them. I'll be in my cabin."

The first mate got a team together and they inspected the cargo holds. Two showed no sign of the black form that had come aboard their ship. But the third one had a patch of ice forming on the hull. The crew returns to the top deck and Hendricks goes to the captain's cabin to give him his report.

Thomas knew it was bad news the moment the first mate walked through the door.

"You were right, Cap'n," Hendricks replies tiredly. "The creature is now in the forward hold. Ice is forming on the hull, just like in the aft compartment."

"So we can't kill it or drive it off the ship. What do we do now?"

"Abandon ship?"

"It looks like that creature or whatever it is, is forcing us to do that."

"The alternative is to drift aimlessly in circles while we slowly run out of food and water," Hendricks replies quietly.

"If we load up the boats as much as we can with all available supplies, how long can we last on the open sea?"

"Three weeks, maybe four with rationing. Water will be the biggest problem."

"And the nearest land?"

"Four weeks is my best estimate."

"Mine too, considering we have no clear idea of our position. Very well, start loading. Priority to casks of water. Get as much as we can and start securing them in the lifeboats."

Captain Thomas and First Mate Hendricks stand on the deck of their ship. The lifeboats have been filled to capacity with supplies. Barely enough room for the men in them. The ship's compass and other navigational tools, along with charts, are also loaded in the boats.

"Any final words, Cap'n?' Hendricks asks. "Should we leave some sort of warning for other ships, telling them to stay away from this ship?"

"I left the other ship's diary in my cabin with an account of what happened here. Hopefully that will be some help."

"Now, after you Mr. Hendricks. The captain is always the last one to leave the ship."

As their lifeboat rowed away from the ship, Hendricks thought he saw something moving on the deck through the mists. It was hard to tell, but it looked dark and hulking. It moves like it is searching for something and then it disappears from sight.

Captain Deveau looks out from the wheelhouse of his ship at the fog bank in the distance. It was unusual to see fog here at this time of year. Perhaps it was because of the water temperature, which had dropped over 10 degrees in the last few hours and was still dropping. Now it was more like the waters of the Northern Atlantic instead of the latitude they now sailed. Suddenly the lookout in the crows nest calls out.

"Ship ahead. Two points off the starboard bow!"

The captain quickly grabs the spyglass and looks toward the area called out by the lookout. He could barely see the outline of a ship through the fog. It appears to be motionless in the water, its sails furled, no smoke coming from its smoke stack.

"Mr. Jones, two points to starboard. I want to get closer to that ship, but not too close."

"Aye, aye, Captain," as the helmsman spins the wheel.

Slowly they pull up a hundred yards away from the mysterious ship. Captain Deveau sees that the sails are all furled. Lines from the davits hang down in the water, reminders of where the lifeboats once hung. Grabbing the megaphone, he walks over to the railing and calls out to the mysterious ship.

"Ahoy! Ahoy! Can anyone hear me?" But the only answer was silence and the sound of the waves against the hull.

The first mate walks over to the captain and studies the ship with his spyglass. "I don't see anything, Cap'n. It looks abandoned."

"Aye. that it does, Mr. Wright. Assemble a boarding party. I want to find out more about that ship. If it is abandoned we'll take it in tow for salvage."

The first mate salutes and goes away to gather the boarding party. From the bridge the captain watches as the men get in the long boat and are lowered into the water. Through his spy glass he sees the ship's name, Mary Celeste.

Bio: I have submitted other stories for Aphelion as well as Schlock! webzine. I have stories published in the anthologies: Of Poets, Spies and Unearthliness, A Dickensian Steamfantasy—A Very Different 1800's, and, Exomoons—Natural and Unnatural Astronomical Bodies Orbiting Strange Planets, by Rogue Planet Press. I am now fully retired and I can now write in my new home.

E-mail: Randolph Stuart

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