Ah, yiss. Love William Hope Hodgson. Only a few other writers have enthralled me the way he has. I can't help losing myself in his words. It's a hard line to walk describing something so it is understood, but not overly described as to get in the way. I can overlay my own imaginings of these people and it really gives his stories a timeless quality. Of course it helps to have great narration as well. Well done all around.
@@silvertheelf Agreed! Lovecraft can scare anyone from wanting to explore the dark depths of the ocean floor. Too many sunken ocean ruins with buildings following strange cyclopean angles. 🌊🏛️🌊
much better than listening to the election results tonight , looks like a huge Labour victory ! rejoice at that news. Another super sea horror story, thanks Ian.
I remember this story from a collection of tales in university. It really grabbed me back then, and when Lovecraft praised Hodgeson in his essay, I was ready to say "Amen!" He had a way of using the ocean as a setting for horror, and pre-dated Lovecraft in bringing the fearful Unknown to the reader instead of having the protagonist have to go find it. It would have been nice if he had lived into the pulp era and had written more stories.
I've always loved this one ever since I found a site with a collection of PDFs of old cryptozoological-adjacent stories years and years ago and this was in one of them.
A master class in why you shouldn’t write recounts in present tense form unless you want to break immersion. Shame, there was really nice language in this story.
I love this stuff. I've been out on the open ocean on a small ship and the sea can start to get in your head if you start thinking about it too much. If start thinking about the isolation too much or about it being legit miles to the sea floor. If you start thinking about all the sharks and kaiju that might be swimming undernieth you while you're in the middle of bum f no where.
“..and by its feeble, wavering beams I could distinguish a repellent array of antique slabs, urns, cenotaphs, and mausolean facades..” Keep up the good work and, as always, stay safe!
Oh my. I can never get enough of W.H.H. The man could write one hell of a yarn! I love his stories so much. I always think of the treasures he would have written for us were he not killed in 1918. This old sailor loves Hodgson's sea stories. They remind me of being on watch at night. He wrote timeless stories for us to enjoy. They never get old. Thanks, again, for introducing me to this amazing author. As always, your narration is amazing!
@joea.9969 he was killed by artillery during the Fourth Battle of Ypres, one of the later battles of the German Spring Offensive, in 1918. This excellent channel has his wonderful nautical tales, the Carnacki stories, and The House on the Borderland at a minimum (all great listening). Ian's versions of these stories are peerless.
I don't think it sounds plausible that a giant sea serpent would go for a barrel of corned beef. I can imagine that an apex carnivore of the sea would delight in a meat source of potassium, so perhaps some kind of bacon pickled in ash would have been the actual scene.
