MS. Found in a Bottle
by Edgar Allan Poe
Qui n'a plus qu'un moment a vivre
N'a plus rien a dissimuler.
Quinault -- Atys.
OF MY country and of my family I have little to say. Ill usage and
length of years have driven me from the one, and estranged me from
the other. Hereditary wealth afforded me an education of no common
order, and a contemplative turn of mind enabled me to methodize the
stores which early study very diligently garnered up. -- Beyond all
things, the study of the German moralists gave me great delight; not
from any ill-advised admiration of their eloquent madness, but from
the ease with which my habits of rigid thought enabled me to detect
their falsities. I have often been reproached with the aridity of
my genius; a deficiency of imagination has been imputed to me as a
crime; and the Pyrrhonism of my opinions has at all times rendered
me notorious. Indeed, a strong relish for physical philosophy has,
I fear, tinctured my mind with a very common error of this age -- I
mean the habit of referring occurrences, even the least susceptible
of such reference, to the principles of that science. Upon the whole,
no person could be less liable than myself to be led away from the
severe precincts of truth by the ignes fatui of superstition. I have
thought proper to premise thus much, lest the incredible tale I
have to tell should be considered rather the raving of a crude
imagination, than the positive experience of a mind to which the
reveries of fancy have been a dead letter and a nullity.
After many years spent in foreign travel, I sailed in the year
18 -- , from the port of Batavia, in the rich and populous island
of Java, on a voyage to the Archipelago of the Sunda islands. I
went as passenger -- having no other inducement than a kind of
nervous restlessness which haunted me as a fiend.
Our vessel was a beautiful ship of about four hundred tons,
copper-fastened, and built at Bombay of Malabar teak. She was
freighted with cotton-wool and oil, from the Lachadive islands.
We had also on board coir, jaggeree, ghee, cocoa-nuts, and a few
cases of opium. The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel
consequently crank.
We got under way with a mere breath of wind, and for many days
stood along the eastern coast of Java, without any other incident to
beguile the monotony of our course than the occasional meeting with
some of the small grabs of the Archipelago to which we were bound.
One evening, leaning over the taffrail, I observed a very singular,
isolated cloud, to the N.W. It was remarkable, as well for its color,
as from its being the first we had seen since our departure from
Batavia. I watched it attentively until sunset, when it spread all
at once to the eastward and westward, girting in the horizon with a
narrow strip of vapor, and looking like a long line of low beach.
My notice was soon afterwards attracted by the dusky-red appearance
of the moon, and the peculiar character of the sea. The latter was
undergoing a rapid change, and the water seemed more than usually
transparent. Although I could distinctly see the bottom, yet, heaving
the lead, I found the ship in fifteen fathoms. The air now became
intolerably hot, and was loaded with spiral exhalations similar to
those arising from heat iron. As night came on, every breath of wind
died away, an more entire calm it is impossible to conceive. The
flame of a candle burned upon the poop without the least perceptible
motion, and a long hair, held between the finger and thumb, hung
without the possibility of detecting a vibration. However, as the
captain said he could perceive no indication of danger, and as we
were drifting in bodily to shore, he ordered the sails to be furled,
and the anchor let go. No watch was set, and the crew, consisting
principally of Malays, stretched themselves deliberately upon deck. I
went below -- not without a full presentiment of evil. Indeed, every
appearance warranted me in apprehending a Simoom. I told the captain
my fears; but he paid no attention to what I said, and left me
without deigning to give a reply. My uneasiness, however, prevented
me from sleeping, and about midnight I went upon deck. -- As I placed
my foot upon the upper step of the companion-ladder, I was startled
by a loud, humming noise, like that occasioned by the rapid
revolution of a mill-wheel, and before I could ascertain its meaning,
I found the ship quivering to its centre. In the next instant, a
wilderness of foam hurled us upon our beam-ends, and, rushing over
us fore and aft, swept the entire decks from stem to stern.
The extreme fury of the blast proved, in a great measure, the
salvation of the ship. Although completely water-logged, yet, as her
masts had gone by the board, she rose, after a minute, heavily from
the sea, and, staggering awhile beneath the immense pressure of the
tempest, finally righted.
By what miracle I escaped destruction, it is impossible to say.
Stunned by the shock of the water, I found myself, upon recovery,
jammed in between the stern-post and rudder. With great difficulty
I gained my feet, and looking dizzily around, was, at first, struck
with the idea of our being among breakers; so terrific, beyond the
wildest imagination, was the whirlpool of mountainous and foaming
ocean within which we were engulfed. After a while, I heard the voice
of an old Swede, who had shipped with us at the moment of our leaving
port. I hallooed to him with all my strength, and presently he came
reeling aft. We soon discovered that we were the sole survivors of
the accident. All on deck, with the exception of ourselves, had been
swept overboard; -- the captain and mates must have perished as they
slept, for the cabins were deluged with water. Without assistance,
we could expect to do little for the security of the ship, and our
exertions were at first paralyzed by the momentary expectation of
going down. Our cable had, of course, parted like pack-thread, at the
first breath of the hurricane, or we should have been instantaneously
overwhelmed. We scudded with frightful velocity before the sea, and
the water made clear breaches over us. The frame-work of our stern
was shattered excessively, and, in almost every respect, we had
received considerable injury; but to our extreme Joy we found
the pumps unchoked, and that we had made no great shifting of our
ballast. The main fury of the blast had already blown over, and
we apprehended little danger from the violence of the wind; but we
looked forward to its total cessation with dismay; well believing,
that, in our shattered condition, we should inevitably perish in the
tremendous swell which would ensue. But this very just apprehension
seemed by no means likely to be soon verified. For five entire days
and nights -- during which our only subsistence was a small quantity
of jaggeree, procured with great difficulty from the forecastle --
the hulk flew at a rate defying computation, before rapidly
succeeding flaws of wind, which, without equalling the first violence
of the Simoom, were still more terrific than any tempest I had before
encountered. Our course for the first four days was, with trifling
variations, S.E. and by S.; and we must have run down the coast of
New Holland. -- On the fifth day the cold became extreme, although
the wind had hauled round a point more to the northward. -- The sun
arose with a sickly yellow lustre, and clambered a very few degrees
above the horizon -- emitting no decisive light. -- There were no
clouds apparent, yet the wind was upon the increase, and blew with
a fitful and unsteady fury. About noon, as nearly as we could guess,
our attention was again arrested by the appearance of the sun. It
gave out no light, properly so called, but a dull and sullen glow
without reflection, as if all its rays were polarized. Just before
sinking within the turgid sea, its central fires suddenly went out,
as if hurriedly extinguished by some unaccountable power. It was a
dim, sliver-like rim, alone, as it rushed down the unfathomable
ocean.
We waited in vain for the arrival of the sixth day -- that day to
me has not arrived -- to the Swede, never did arrive. Thenceforward
we were enshrouded in patchy darkness, so that we could not
have seen an object at twenty paces from the ship. Eternal
night continued to envelop us, all unrelieved by the phosphoric
sea-brilliancy to which we had been accustomed in the tropics.
We observed too, that, although the tempest continued to rage
with unabated violence, there was no longer to be discovered the
usual appearance of surf, or foam, which had hitherto attended
us. All around were horror, and thick gloom, and a black
sweltering desert of ebony. -- Superstitious terror crept by
degrees into the spirit of the old Swede, and my own soul was
wrapped up in silent wonder. We neglected all care of the ship,
as worse than useless, and securing ourselves, as well as possible,
to the stump of the mizen-mast, looked out bitterly into the world
of ocean. We had no means of calculating time, nor could we form
any guess of our situation. We were, however, well aware of having
made farther to the southward than any previous navigators, and
felt great amazement at not meeting with the usual impediments of
ice. In the meantime every moment threatened to be our last --
every mountainous billow hurried to overwhelm us. The swell
surpassed anything I had imagined possible, and that we were not
instantly buried is a miracle. My companion spoke of the lightness
of our cargo, and reminded me of the excellent qualities of our
ship; but I could not help feeling the utter hopelessness of hope
itself, and prepared myself gloomily for that death which I thought
nothing could defer beyond an hour, as, with every knot of way the
ship made, the swelling of the black stupendous seas became more
dismally appalling. At times we gasped for breath at an elevation
beyond the albatross -- at times became dizzy with the velocity
of our descent into some watery hell, where the air grew stagnant,
and no sound disturbed the slumbers of the kraken.
We were at the bottom of one of these abysses, when a quick scream
from my companion broke fearfully upon the night. "See! see!" cried
he, shrieking in my ears, "Almighty God! see! see!" As he spoke, I
became aware of a dull, sullen glare of red light which streamed
down the sides of the vast chasm where we lay, and threw a fitful
brilliancy upon our deck. Casting my eyes upwards, I beheld a
spectacle which froze the current of my blood. At a terrific height
directly above us, and upon the very verge of the precipitous
descent, hovered a gigantic ship of, perhaps, four thousand tons.
Although upreared upon the summit of a wave more than a hundred
times her own altitude, her apparent size exceeded that of any ship
of the line or East Indiaman in existence. Her huge hull was of a
deep dingy black, unrelieved by any of the customary carvings of a
ship. A single row of brass cannon protruded from her open ports,
and dashed from their polished surfaces the fires of innumerable
battle-lanterns, which swung to and fro about her rigging. But what
mainly inspired us with horror and astonishment, was that she bore
up under a press of sail in the very teeth of that supernatural sea,
and of that ungovernable hurricane. When we first discovered her,
her bows were alone to be seen, as she rose slowly from the dim and
horrible gulf beyond her. For a moment of intense terror she paused
upon the giddy pinnacle, as if in contemplation of her own sublimity,
then trembled and tottered, and -- came down.
At this instant, I know not what sudden self-possession came over my
spirit. Staggering as far aft as I could, I awaited fearlessly the
ruin that was to overwhelm. Our own vessel was at length ceasing from
her struggles, and sinking with her head to the sea. The shock of
the descending mass struck her, consequently, in that portion of her
frame which was already under water, and the inevitable result was
to hurl me, with irresistible violence, upon the rigging of the
stranger.
As I fell, the ship hove in stays, and went about; and to the
confusion ensuing I attributed my escape from the notice of the
crew. With little difficulty I made my way unperceived to the main
hatchway, which was partially open, and soon found an opportunity
of secreting myself in the hold. Why I did so I can hardly tell. An
indefinite sense of awe, which at first sight of the navigators of
the ship had taken hold of my mind, was perhaps the principle of my
concealment. I was unwilling to trust myself with a race of people
who had offered, to the cursory glance I had taken, so many points of
vague novelty, doubt, and apprehension. I therefore thought proper to
contrive a hiding-place in the hold. This I did by removing a small
portion of the shifting-boards, in such a manner as to afford me a
convenient retreat between the huge timbers of the ship.
I had scarcely completed my work, when a footstep in the hold forced
me to make use of it. A man passed by my place of concealment with
a feeble and unsteady gait. I could not see his face, but had an
opportunity of observing his general appearance. There was about it
an evidence of great age and infirmity. His knees tottered beneath a
load of years, and his entire frame quivered under the burthen. He
muttered to himself, in a low broken tone, some words of a language
which I could not understand, and groped in a corner among a pile of
singular-looking instruments, and decayed charts of navigation. His
manner was a wild mixture of the peevishness of second childhood, and
the solemn dignity of a God. He at length went on deck, and I saw him
no more.
* * * * * *
A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul
-- a sensation which will admit of no analysis, to which the lessons
of bygone times are inadequate, and for which I fear futurity itself
will offer me no key. To a mind constituted like my own, the latter
consideration is an evil. I shall never -- I know that I shall never
-- be satisfied with regard to the nature of my conceptions. Yet it
is not wonderful that these conceptions are indefinite, since they
have their origin in sources so utterly novel. A new sense -- a new
entity is added to my soul.
* * * * * *
It is long since I first trod the deck of this terrible ship,
and the rays of my destiny are, I think, gathering to a focus.
Incomprehensible men! Wrapped up in meditations of a kind which I
cannot divine, they pass me by unnoticed. Concealment is utter folly
on my part, for the people will not see. It was but just now that I
passed directly before the eyes of the mate -- it was no long while
ago that I ventured into the captain's own private cabin, and took
thence the materials with which I write, and have written. I shall
from time to time continue this Journal. It is true that I may not
find an opportunity of transmitting it to the world, but I will not
fall to make the endeavour. At the last moment I will enclose the MS.
in a bottle, and cast it within the sea.
* * * * * *
An incident has occurred which has given me new room for meditation.
Are such things the operation of ungoverned Chance? I had ventured
upon deck and thrown myself down, without attracting any notice,
among a pile of ratlin-stuff and old sails in the bottom of the yawl.
While musing upon the singularity of my fate, I unwittingly daubed
with a tar-brush the edges of a neatly-folded studding-sail which lay
near me on a barrel. The studding-sail is now bent upon the ship, and
the thoughtless touches of the brush are spread out into the word
DISCOVERY.
I have made many observations lately upon the structure of the
vessel. Although well armed, she is not, I think, a ship of war. Her
rigging, build, and general equipment, all negative a supposition of
this kind. What she is not, I can easily perceive -- what she is,
I fear it is impossible to say. I know not how it is, but in
scrutinizing her strange model and singular cast of spars, her
huge size and overgrown suits of canvas, her severely simple bow
and antiquated stern, there will occasionally flash across my mind
a sensation of familiar things, and there is always mixed up with
such indistinct shadows of recollection, an unaccountable memory
of old foreign chronicles and ages long ago.
* * * * * *
I have been looking at the timbers of the ship. She is built of a
material to which I am a stranger. There is a peculiar character
about the wood which strikes me as rendering it unfit for the purpose
to which it has been applied. I mean its extreme porousness,
considered independently by the worm-eaten condition which is
a consequence of navigation in these seas, and apart from the
rottenness attendant upon age. It will appear perhaps an observation
somewhat over-curious, but this wood would have every characteristic
of Spanish oak, if Spanish oak were distended by any unnatural means.
In reading the above sentence a curious apothegm of an old
weather-beaten Dutch navigator comes full upon my recollection. "It
is as sure," he was wont to say, when any doubt was entertained of
his veracity, "as sure as there is a sea where the ship itself will
grow in bulk like the living body of the seaman."
* * * * * *
About an hour ago, I made bold to thrust myself among a group of
the crew. They paid me no manner of attention, and, although I stood
in the very midst of them all, seemed utterly unconscious of my
presence. Like the one I had at first seen in the hold, they all
bore about them the marks of a hoary old age. Their knees trembled
with infirmity; their shoulders were bent double with decrepitude;
their shrivelled skins rattled in the wind; their voices were low,
tremulous and broken; their eyes glistened with the rheum of years;
and their gray hairs streamed terribly in the tempest. Around them,
on every part of the deck, lay scattered mathematical instruments
of the most quaint and obsolete construction.
* * * * * *
I mentioned some time ago the bending of a studding-sail. From that
period the ship, being thrown dead off the wind, has continued her
terrific course due south, with every rag of canvas packed upon her,
from her trucks to her lower studding-sail booms, and rolling every
moment her top-gallant yard-arms into the most appalling hell of
water which it can enter into the mind of a man to imagine. I have
just left the deck, where I find it impossible to maintain a footing,
although the crew seem to experience little inconvenience. It appears
to me a miracle of miracles that our enormous bulk is not swallowed
up at once and forever. We are surely doomed to hover continually
upon the brink of Eternity, without taking a final plunge into the
abyss. From billows a thousand times more stupendous than any I have
ever seen, we glide away with the facility of the arrowy sea-gull;
and the colossal waters rear their heads above us like demons of the
deep, but like demons confined to simple threats and forbidden to
destroy. I am led to attribute these frequent escapes to the only
natural cause which can account for such effect. -- I must suppose
the ship to be within the influence of some strong current, or
impetuous under-tow.
* * * * * *
I have seen the captain face to face, and in his own cabin -- but, as
I expected, he paid me no attention. Although in his appearance there
is, to a casual observer, nothing which might bespeak him more or
less than man-still a feeling of irrepressible reverence and awe
mingled with the sensation of wonder with which I regarded him. In
stature he is nearly my own height; that is, about five feet eight
inches. He is of a well-knit and compact frame of body, neither
robust nor remarkably otherwise. But it is the singularity of the
expression which reigns upon the face -- it is the intense, the
wonderful, the thrilling evidence of old age, so utter, so extreme,
which excites within my spirit a sense -- a sentiment ineffable. His
forehead, although little wrinkled, seems to bear upon it the stamp
of a myriad of years. -- His gray hairs are records of the past, and
his grayer eyes are Sybils of the future. The cabin floor was thickly
strewn with strange, iron-clasped folios, and mouldering instruments
of science, and obsolete long-forgotten charts. His head was bowed
down upon his hands, and he pored, with a fiery unquiet eye, over
a paper which I took to be a commission, and which, at all events,
bore the signature of a monarch. He muttered to himself, as did the
first seaman whom I saw in the hold, some low peevish syllables of a
foreign tongue, and although the speaker was close at my elbow, his
voice seemed to reach my ears from the distance of a mile.
* * * * * *
The ship and all in it are imbued with the spirit of Eld. The crew
glide to and fro like the ghosts of buried centuries; their eyes
have an eager and uneasy meaning; and when their fingers fall athwart
my path in the wild glare of the battle-lanterns, I feel as I have
never felt before, although I have been all my life a dealer in
antiquities, and have imbibed the shadows of fallen columns at
Balbec, and Tadmor, and Persepolis, until my very soul has become
a ruin.
* * * * * *
When I look around me I feel ashamed of my former apprehensions. If
I trembled at the blast which has hitherto attended us, shall I not
stand aghast at a warring of wind and ocean, to convey any idea of
which the words tornado and simoom are trivial and ineffective? All
in the immediate vicinity of the ship is the blackness of eternal
night, and a chaos of foamless water; but, about a league on either
side of us, may be seen, indistinctly and at intervals, stupendous
ramparts of ice, towering away into the desolate sky, and looking
like the walls of the universe.
* * * * * *
As I imagined, the ship proves to be in a current; if that
appellation can properly be given to a tide which, howling and
shrieking by the white ice, thunders on to the southward with a
velocity like the headlong dashing of a cataract.
* * * * * *
To conceive the horror of my sensations is, I presume, utterly
impossible; yet a curiosity to penetrate the mysteries of these awful
regions, predominates even over my despair, and will reconcile me to
the most hideous aspect of death. It is evident that we are hurrying
onwards to some exciting knowledge -- some never-to-be-imparted
secret, whose attainment is destruction. Perhaps this current
leads us to the southern pole itself. It must be confessed that a
supposition apparently so wild has every probability in its favor.
* * * * * *
The crew pace the deck with unquiet and tremulous step; but there is
upon their countenances an expression more of the eagerness of hope
than of the apathy of despair.
In the meantime the wind is still in our poop, and, as we carry a
crowd of canvas, the ship is at times lifted bodily from out the
sea -- Oh, horror upon horror! the ice opens suddenly to the right,
and to the left, and we are whirling dizzily, in immense concentric
circles, round and round the borders of a gigantic amphitheatre, the
summit of whose walls is lost in the darkness and the distance. But
little time will be left me to ponder upon my destiny -- the circles
rapidly grow small -- we are plunging madly within the grasp of the
whirlpool -- and amid a roaring, and bellowing, and thundering of
ocean and of tempest, the ship is quivering -- oh God! and -- going
down!
NOTE. -- The "MS. Found in a Bottle," was originally published
in 1831, and it was not until many years afterwards that I became
acquainted with the maps of Mercator, in which the ocean is
represented as rushing, by four mouths, into the (northern) Polar
Gulf, to be absorbed into the bowels of the earth; the Pole itself
being represented by a black rock, towering to a prodigious height.
~~~~~~~ THE END ~~~~~~~
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