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The Ghost Pirates
The Ghost Pirates
The captivating tale of the ship "Mortzestus," an unlucky vessel haunted by "too many shadows." The unifying theme seems to be the dreadful forces that lurk just beneath the veneer of what we, in immense folly, believe to be "reality." Malign forces may surface at any moment to drag us to destruction or worse.
Book Excerpt
t
twelve paces distant; when, abruptly, the silent figure made three quick
strides to the port rail, and climbed over it into the sea.
I rushed to the side, and stared over; but nothing met my gaze, except the shadow of the ship, sweeping over the moonlit sea.
How long I stared down blankly into the water, it would be impossible to say; certainly for a good minute. I felt blank--just horribly blank. It was such a beastly confirmation of the unnaturalness of the thing I had concluded to be only a sort of brain fancy. I seemed, for that little time, deprived, you know, of the power of coherent thought. I suppose I was dazed--mentally stunned, in a way.
As I have said, a minute or so must have gone, while I had been staring into the dark of the water under the ship's side. Then, I came suddenly to my ordinary self. The Second Mate was singing out: "Lee fore brace."
I went to the braces, like a chap in a dream.
II
What Tammy the 'Prentice Saw
The next morning, in my w
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Readers reviews
4.8
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Beautiful descriptive writing of the crew, ship, and ominous nautical scenes - although the ghost story itself is only fairly good.
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(1909) Ghost story (Pirates) / Thriller (Supernatural) / Nautical
R: * * * * *
Plot bullets
A ship is engulfed in a mist. This is no normal sea fog. Evil lurks in it, in the form of a ghost ship and it's blood thursty pirate crew.
A series of mysterious accidents begin at night. At first it is thought to be only the sailors tricks, or at worst, the result of their superstitious minds.
Strange forms that resemble ancient pirates are seen coming out of the sea to do mischief and murder.
One crew member after another, begin to die. The captain and officers no longer consider the accidents and sightings as mere superstition.
This ship, as perhaps many other ships that never reached port, must deal a life and death struggle with 'The Ghost Pirates'
I do not consider this a pirate story in the traditional sense.. The crew on board the ship must deal with supernatural beings. The fact that they were pirates in another life, is only a pretext for their blood thirsty designs
Hodgson considers his three stories, 'The House on the Borderland', 'The Boats of the Glen-Carrig' and this story as a trilogy. They are not sequels and not related, except for their emphasis on the supernatural presents of
beings, perhaps from another dimension.
The author is one of my favorite authors of unearthly fiction. His 'Carnacki, The Ghost Finder' is no mere story of things that go bump in the night. It is pure terror.
Read these stories by candlelight on a stormy night.
His 'Night Land' is one of my favorite sci-fi/adventure/pulp/romance/thriller stories of the future..
Posted: 2014/08/28 11:08 pm CDT
R: * * * * *
Plot bullets
A ship is engulfed in a mist. This is no normal sea fog. Evil lurks in it, in the form of a ghost ship and it's blood thursty pirate crew.
A series of mysterious accidents begin at night. At first it is thought to be only the sailors tricks, or at worst, the result of their superstitious minds.
Strange forms that resemble ancient pirates are seen coming out of the sea to do mischief and murder.
One crew member after another, begin to die. The captain and officers no longer consider the accidents and sightings as mere superstition.
This ship, as perhaps many other ships that never reached port, must deal a life and death struggle with 'The Ghost Pirates'
I do not consider this a pirate story in the traditional sense.. The crew on board the ship must deal with supernatural beings. The fact that they were pirates in another life, is only a pretext for their blood thirsty designs
Hodgson considers his three stories, 'The House on the Borderland', 'The Boats of the Glen-Carrig' and this story as a trilogy. They are not sequels and not related, except for their emphasis on the supernatural presents of
beings, perhaps from another dimension.
The author is one of my favorite authors of unearthly fiction. His 'Carnacki, The Ghost Finder' is no mere story of things that go bump in the night. It is pure terror.
Read these stories by candlelight on a stormy night.
His 'Night Land' is one of my favorite sci-fi/adventure/pulp/romance/thriller stories of the future..
Posted: 2014/08/28 11:08 pm CDT
08/28/2014
WOW! This is a great story. I loved all the different accents. I got lost with the sailing terminology. All the different sails, masts,and other apparatus had my mind swimming. The story itself kept me up till late hours as it was very engrossing. I lost all sense of time while reading. I recommend this to anyone who loves adventure or ghost stories.
04/21/2012
WOW! This is a great story. I loved all the different accents. I got lost with the sailing terminology. All the different sails, masts,and other apparatus had my mind swimming. The story itself kept me up till late hours as it was very engrossing. I lost all sense of time while reading. I recommend this to anyone who loves adventure or ghost stories.
04/21/2012
Very creepy! A little hard to read the dialogue at times, due to the author's spelling of the sailor's accents. Overall, this book is an interesting quick read.
11/23/2006
"Ghost Pirates" is the tale of a ship surrounded in mystery.
The story is explored through the experiences of the narrator "Jessop". He joins the ship for a return journey to England, knowing beforehand that strange things have happened previously. Most of the crew has left the ship, only one sailor is left who has knowledge of the goings-on, but is not keen to elaborate.
As the journey home unfolds, strange things appear at night, benign at first; but then things start to go amiss high-up in the rigging.
One of my most favourite parts, was the chase-down of something up in the sails during the dead of night. Sailors scramble up with only the meagre the light of a lantern, and the blue-white blaze of an occasional, frantically lit flare. Up and up the go, forcing back the darkness and unknown, only to find more than they bargined for.
At times I felt a bit confused interpreting the written accents of a few of the sailors, in particular (what I think was) the Scottish ones. Also the book jumps straight into sail and rigging terminology I had no idea of, but you quickly learn that "the royal" is one of the sails, and similiarly for other terms.
Overall this book is great, the story isn't very long, but once the narrator made his first "sighting" I was hooked.
I'd rather give it 9/10, than 5/5 though,
it's good, but not perfect.
The story is explored through the experiences of the narrator "Jessop". He joins the ship for a return journey to England, knowing beforehand that strange things have happened previously. Most of the crew has left the ship, only one sailor is left who has knowledge of the goings-on, but is not keen to elaborate.
As the journey home unfolds, strange things appear at night, benign at first; but then things start to go amiss high-up in the rigging.
One of my most favourite parts, was the chase-down of something up in the sails during the dead of night. Sailors scramble up with only the meagre the light of a lantern, and the blue-white blaze of an occasional, frantically lit flare. Up and up the go, forcing back the darkness and unknown, only to find more than they bargined for.
At times I felt a bit confused interpreting the written accents of a few of the sailors, in particular (what I think was) the Scottish ones. Also the book jumps straight into sail and rigging terminology I had no idea of, but you quickly learn that "the royal" is one of the sails, and similiarly for other terms.
Overall this book is great, the story isn't very long, but once the narrator made his first "sighting" I was hooked.
I'd rather give it 9/10, than 5/5 though,
it's good, but not perfect.
08/30/2006