The Open Boat

The Open Boat [1897]

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

VOCABULARY

bail

convoy

dingey

steamer

thwart

LITERARY ELEMENTS AND TERMS

Naturalism:

ANNOUNCER #2: Escape! designed to free you from the four walls of today, free you for a half hour of high adventure.

MUSIC IN AND OUT

ANNOUNCER #1: You are in an open boat with three desperate men...two hundred yards from land and safety. But while you scream frantically for someone to rescue you, you realize that from the mountainous breakers between you and safety, there is no escape.

ANNOUNCER #2: Listen now, as transcribed, Escape! brings you Stephen Crane's unusual story, "The Open Boat."

MUSIC IN AND OUT

ANNOUNCER #1: Eighteen ninty-seven, a tale intended to be after the fact, being the experience of four men from the sunk steamer Commodore. They were a captain, an oiler, a cook, and a correspondent--and many a man ought to have a bath-tub larger than the boat which they road upon the sea.

PADDLING THROUGH WATER

NARRATOR: None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes were fastened upon the waves that swept towards them. The horizon narrowed and widened, dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks. A singular disadvantage of the sea lies in the fact that after successfully surmounting one wave you discover there is one behind it just as important--just as anxious to swamp a boat.

CAPTAIN: Keep'er a little more south, Billie.

OILER: A little more south, sir?

COOK: There's a house of refuge just north of the Mosquito Inlet Light. Soon as they see us, they'll come off in their boat and pick us up.

CORRESPONDENT: As soon as who see us, Cook?

COOK: The crew.

CORRESPONDENT: Houses of refuge don't have crews--only places where clothes and grub are stored for the benefit of shipwrecked people. They don't carry crews.

COOK: Oh, yes, they do.

CORRESPONDENT: No, they don't.

OILER: We're not there yet.

CORRESPONDENT: The oiler is right. We're not there--yet.

COOK: Good thing it's an on-shore wind. If not, where would we be?

CORRESPONDENT: Now, that's right.

CAPTAIN: Do you think We've got much of a show now, boys?

COOK: I don't know captain.

CAPTAIN: Oh, well. We'll get ashore all right.

OILER: Yes! If this wind holds!

COOK: If we don't catch hell in the surf.

MUSIC IN AND OUT

NARRATOR: Sometimes the gulls sat on the sea, comfortably in groups. Its wrath was no more to them than it was to a convoy of prairie chickens a thousand miles inland. Often they came close.

SEAGULLS SQUAWKING

NARRATOR: And at these times they were uncanny and sinister in their unblinking scrutiny.

OILER: Go on--get away! Get! Get!

SEAGULLS SQUAWKING

OILER: Oh. Ugly, filthy things.

MUSIC IN AND OUT

NARRATOR: The captain was hurt and couldn't do anything. The cook bailed. The oiler and the correspondent sat together in the same seat and rowed. Then the oiler took both oars; then the correspondent took both oars; then the oiler; then the correspondent.

PADDLING THROUGH WATER

CORRESPONDENT: Will you spare me?

OILER: Yeah, sure.

ANNOUNCER #1: But it was easier to steal eggs from under a hen than it was to change seats in the dingey. The man in the stern slid his hand along the thwart and moved with care. The man in the rowing seat slid his hand along the other thwart. As the two sidled past each other, the cook and the captain kept watchful eyes on the coming wave.

CAPTAIN: Look out now! Steady there!

CRASHING WAVE

CAPTAIN: Good boy, Billie.

MUSIC IN AND OUT

PADDLING THROUGH WATER

CAPTAIN: I think I see the light-house at Mosquito Inlet.

CORRESPONDENT: Where?

COOK: Wait--wait. I think I see it, too. Billy?

OILER: Uh, might be.

CORRESPONDENT: I don't see anything.

CAPTAIN: Look again. It's exactly in that direction.

CORRESPONDENT: Well-well now I see it. It's real small like the head of a pin. Think we'll make it, Captain?

CAPTAIN: If this wind holds and the boat don't swamp, we can't do much else. Bail her, Cook

COOK: All right, Captain.

NARRATOR: The brown mats of seaweed that appeared from time to time informed the men in the boat that it was making progress slowly toward the land. And slowly the lighthouse grew larger, an upright shadow on the sky. And then, land appeared...thinner than paper.

CAPTAIN: I wish we had a sail. We might try my overcoat on the end of an oar and give you two boys a chance to rest.

OILER: I'll try anything. What'd say? Let's try it.

CAPTAIN: Here's my coat.

OILER: Thanks, sir. Throw it down towards me. I'll try it on.

CAPTAIN: Yeah, here you go.

COOK: There's some rope there Billie. You can lash it better.

OILER: Sleeves will do better, I think. You'll have to hold one oar. You, the other. Ready?

COOK: Alrighty.

OILER: Hoist her.

COOK: Easy!

CORRESPONDENT: Hold on. Keep her steady now--steady.

OILER: A little lower.

CORRESPONDENT: What?

CAPTAIN: Are we making headway Billie?

OILER: We'll swamp this way--the wind's too powerful, fellas.

CORRESPONDENT: Take her down.

COOK: Easy!

CORRESPONDENT: (signs) Well, we'll just have to row. How in the names of all the saints can there be people who think it's fun to row a boat?

COOK: You put things right smart.

Wouldn't be so bad if we'd eaten before.

CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, if we got ourselves in pink condition before we got shipwrecked--that would be funner too.

Agreed.

Be less people drowning at sea.

I'll spare you.

CORRESPONDENT: We can both do it. Take the right oar, Billie.

NARRATOR: Slowly and beautifully the land loomed out of the sea. And the wind came again--and then wouldn't--and then came again, veering from northeast to southeast.

COOK: Listen.

NARRATOR: And a new sound struck the ears of the men in the boat--the sweet low thunder of the surf on the shore.

COOK: We must be about opposite New Smyrna. I believe they abandoned that life-saving station there about a year ago.

CAPTAIN: Did they? Take her easy, now, boys. Don't spend yourselves. If we have to run a surf you'll need all your strength, because we'll sure have to swim for it. Take your time.

CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

OILER: Yes, Captain.

COOK: That's the house of refuge, sure. They'll see us before long, and come out after us.

CAPTAIN: The keeper ought to be able to make us out now, if he's looking through a glass. He'll notify the life-saving people.

OILER: None of those other boats could have got ashore to give word of the wreck--else the life-boat would be out hunting us.

CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Billie. That's right.

CAPTAIN: I don't think it would be wise to try for the lighthouse now. Swing her ahead a little more north, Billie.

OILDER: A little more north, sir.

CAPTAIN: Steady now there, Billie, my boy.

OILDER: Steady as she is, Captain.

CAPTAIN: In an hour, perhaps--maybe two--we'll be ashore--dry and fed.

OILER: Want to drink to that, Captain?

CAPTAIN: Sure.

COOK: Still got the water jug.

CAPTAIN: Well, let's have it around--all hands.

OILER: Go go ahead.

COOK: You first, sir.

CAPTAIN: (drinks) All right. Cook?

COOK: Thank you. (drinks) Billie?

COOK: (drinks) Ah!

OILER: (drinks) Ah! Tastes good--fresh water. Here you go.

CORRESPONDENT: Thanks. (drinks) Well, since we're celebrating, I got a surprise. Look.

COOK: Cigars!

CAPTAIN: Aren't they wet?

CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, some of them are--but some of them are dry. I don't know how. Here, I got dry matches. Here you are.

COOKS: Thank you.

CAPTAIN: Well, now. This is more like it. Yes, sir. In another hour--dry and fed...

MUSIC IN AND OUT

CAPTAIN: There don't seem to be any signs of life about your house of refuge.

COOK: No. Funny they don't see us!

OILER: We have to do through that surf, we'll swamp for sure.

COOK: Funny they don't see us.

CAPTAIN: Well, I suppose we'll have to make a try for ourselves. If we stay out here too long, we'll none of us have strength left to swim after the boat swamps. Head her straight in, Billie.

OILER: Straight in, sir.

CAPTAIN: If we don't all get ashore--if we don't all get ashore, I suppose you fellows know where to send news of my finish?

COOK: Yes, sir. If I don't get ashore, you boys can tell my old lady what happened.

OILER: My family lives in New Brunswick. Just ask for them at the Hampton Inn.

CORRESPONDENT: If I don't get ashore--if I don't get ashore, it won't matter to anyone but me.

CAPTAIN: Ready?

OILER: Aye, sir?

We can't go in any closer.

OILER: Boys, she won't... if we keep her headed toward shore. ...to swim. Should I take her out to sea again, Captain?

CAPTAIN: Yes, Billie. Go ahead. Take her out to sea.

MUSIC IN AND OUT

NARRATOR: And the boat with the four men in it--the captain, the oiler, the cook, and the correspondent--turned back away from the land and bumped over the furrowed sea to deeper water.

SUSPENSE

ANNOUNCER #2: We will return to Escape! in just a moment, but first, sit back and relax and watch the cars roll by. Watch the heavy traffic on the highways in the summertime. Watch the traffic jams and the road blocks and the tired, hot drivers sitting behind the steering wheels of their cars, trying to make time--and getting nowhere fast. Just help yourself to a nice, refreshing cool drink set on your chair on the porch, your stoop, your lawn, under the shade of a big elm, with your radio tuned to your sweet music or a thrilling whodunnit on CBS radio and watch the summer rush on the roadways. Gosh, you're smart. And now, back to Escape!

MUSIC IN AND OUT

PADDLING THROUGH WATER

NARRATOR: When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no brick and no temples. And he finds that nature is serene among the struggles of the individual. She's not cruel, nor beneficent, nor treacherous, nor wise. But she is indifferent, flatly indifferent.

COOK: Well, anyhow, they must have seen us from shore by now.

OILER: Squall coming from the southeast, sir.

CAPTAIN: I see it, Billie. Keep it the way she is.

OILER: All right, sir.

COOK: What do you think of those life-saving people? Ain't they peaches?

CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, funny they haven't seen us.

COOK: Maybe they think we're out here for sport! Maybe they think we're fishin'. Maybe they think we're damned fools...sorry.

OILER: There, Sir. St. Augustine?

CAPTAIN: Oh, no. I don't think so. Too near Mosquito Inlet.

CORRESPONDENT: You ever like to row, Billie?

OILER: No. Did you?

CORRESPONDENT: (sarcastically) Always loved it. (grunts) Loved it.

COOK: Look! There's a man on shore!

CAPTAIN: Where?

COOK: There! See 'im? See 'im?

CAPTAIN: Yes, sure! He's walking along. Now he's stopped. Look! He's facing us! He's waving at us!

COOK: So he is! By thunder!

CAPTAIN: Ah, now we're all right! Now we're all right! There'll be a boat out here for us in half-an-hour.

COOK: He's going on. He's running. He's going up to that house there...He's standing still again. He's looking, I think...There he goes again. Toward the house.

CAPTAIN: Now he's stopped again.

OILER: Is he waving at us?

CAPTAIN: No, not now! he was, though.

COOK: Look! There comes another man! Look at him go, would you. Why, he's on a bicycle. Now he's met the other man. They're both waving at us.

CAPTAIN: There comes something up the beach.

OILER: Is it a lifeboat, sir?

CAPTAIN: I think so.

COOK: No...no...It's not a lifeboat.

OILER: Oh.

COOK: It's--it's nothing but a bus. One of those big hotel buses.

CAPTAIN: By thunder, you're right. What do you suppose they're doing with a bus?

CORRESPONDENT: Why don't they get a lifeboat?

COOK: Hey--hey. Maybe they are going around collecting the life-crew?

CAPTAIN: That's it. Keep her running into to the wind, Billie.

OILER: All right, sir.

CAPTAIN: Look! There's a fellow waving a little black flag at us. He's standing on the steps of the bus. There come two other fellows. Now they're all talking together. Look at the fellow with the flag. He sees us not doubt. He's know what it's all about. (yelling) Hey! Come get us! Come get us!

COOK: Hey, that ain't a flag, is it? That's his coat. Why, certainly, that's his coat.

CAPTAIN: So it is. It's his coat. But would you look at him swing it.

CORRESPONDENT: Oh, say, there isn't any life-saving station there. That's just a winter resort hotel bus that has brought over some of the customers to see us drown.

CAPTAIN: What's that idiot with the coat mean? What's he signaling, anyhow?

OILER: It looks as if he were trying to tell us to go north. There must be a life-saving station up there.

CAPTAIN: No! He thinks we're fishing. Just giving us a wave.

CORRESPONDENT: That's all we need now, a cheery little wave to send us on to eternity.

He don't mean anything. He's just playing.

COOK: try the surf or go to sea or go north or go south or go... some reason but look at him

CORRESPONDENT: Why don't he stop waving that coat long enough so we can tell him we're ... dying.

CAPTAIN: It's all right now. They'll have a boat out here for us in less than no time, now that they've seen us.

CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

OILER: coming on, sir.

CAPTAIN: Oh, we'll never have to stay here all night! Don't you worry. They've seen us now, and it won't be long before they'll come chasing out after us. Oh, come on boys, cheer up now.

DIRGE

NARRATOR: The shore grew dusky. The man waving a coat blended gradually into this gloom, and it swallowed in the same manner the omnibus and the group of people. The spray, when it dashed uproariously over the side, made the voyagers shrink and swear like men who were being branded. A night on the sea in an open boat is a long night.

COOK: I'd like to catch the chump who waved the coat. I feel like soaking him one, just for luck.

Why? What did he do?

COOK: Oh, nothing, but then he seemed so damned cheerful.

CAPTAIN: Keep her head up.

OILER: Keep her head up, sir.

NARRATOR: The obligation of the man at the oars was to keep the boat headed so that the tilt of the rollers would not capsize her, and to preserve her from filling when the crests rushed past. The black waves were silent and hard to be seen in the darkness. Often one was almost upon the boat before the oarsman was aware. On the northern horizon a new light appeared, a small bluish gleam on the edge of the waters. These two lights were the furniture of the world. Otherwise there was nothing but waves.

CAPTAIN: You awake?

OILER: Aye.

CAPTAIN: Keep her making for that light north.

OILER: Aye.

CAPTAIN: Keep it about two points off the port bow.

OILER: Aye, sir (groaning)

NARRATOR: There was a long, loud swishing astern of the boat, and a gleaming trail of phosphorescence, like blue flame, was furrowed on the black waters. It might have been made by a monstrous knife. Then there came a stillness, while the correspondent breathed with the open mouth and looked at the sea. Suddenly there was another swish and another long flash of bluish light, and this time it was alongside the boat, and might almost have been reached with an oar. The correspondent saw an enormous fin speed like a shadow through the water, hurling the crystalline spray and leaving the long glowing trail. The correspondent looked over his shoulder at the captain. His face was hidden, and he seemed to be asleep. He looked at the babes of the sea. They certainly were asleep. So, being bereft of sympathy, he leaned a little way to one side and swore softly into the sea. But the thing did not then leave the vicinity of the boat. Ahead or astern, on one side or the other, at intervals long or short, fled the long sparkling streak, and there was to be heard the whirroo of the dark fin. The speed and power of the thing was greatly to be admired. It cut the water like a gigantic and keen projectile.

Questions for Discussion

1. Who appears to be the main character in "The Open Boat"?

a) The captain.

b) The oiler.

c) The correspondent.

d) The cook.

2. Who do the men think would be cruel to allow them to die?

a) The men on shore.

b) Nature.

c) The captain.

d) God.

3. What do the men need both the oiler and correspondent's strength for in Part 6?

a) Rowing to shore.

b) Protecting the captain.

c) Swimming to shore while carrying the cook.

d) Cooking dinner.

1. Who hears the sound of the shark's powerful fin?

a) The captain.

b) The oiler.

c) The correspondent.

d) The cook.

2. In Part 5, why is the correspondent the only one who is scared by the shark?

a) Because he is the only one in the water.

b) Because he is the only one awake.

c) Because it is a figment of his imagination.

d) Because he is the only one who is not used to the sea.

3. What can the men do about the shark?

a) Kill it.

b) Nothing.

c) Be its dinner.

d) Laugh at it.

1. What do the men do to gain assistance from the wind in Part 3?

a) Hide under the boat.

b) Row the oars.

c) Make a sail.

d) Nothing.

2. How long has it been since the four men have slept?

a) A week.

b) Two days and nights.

c) Four days.

d) A few hours.

3. Why do the four men become the most loyal of friends?

a) They have always been loyal friends.

b) Their current circumstances.

c) They are very alike.

d) They do not.

1. Who tries to calm the other men?

a) The correspondent.

b) The cook.

c) The captain.

d) The oiler.

2. How do the men feel when the intruders leave?

a) Sad.

b) Angry.

c) Relieved.

d) Indifferent.

3. Who is rowing when the lighthouse comes into view?

a) The captain.

b) The correspondent.

c) The oiler.

d) The cook.

4. What does the sun transform the ocean into in Part 2?

a) A nightmarish deathtrap.

b) A spectacular light show.

c) A warm bath.

d) A friendly acquaintance.

1. What do the men realize when the water changes from gray to emerald green?

a) That it is nighttime.

b) That it must be daylight.

c) That the storm has arrived.

d) That the storm has lifted.

2. What suggests the men have been on a noteworthy trip?

a) The presence of the correspondent.

b) The presence of the captain.

c) Their nice clothes.

d) Their eagerness to reach safety.

3. What is the oiler doing at the beginning of the novel?

a) Taking his turn with the oars.

b) Eating dinner.

c) Taking a nap.

d) Constructing a makeshift sail.

3. What floats by to taunt the men?

a) A jacket.

b) A message in a bottle.

c) Seagulls.

d) Seaweed.

3. Who falls asleep in the soggy boat in Part 6?

a) The oiler.

b) The correspondent.

c) The captain.

d) The cook.

4. What happens as the men get closer to land?

a) The wind picks up.

b) The waves capsize the boat.

c) The men rejoice.

d) The men get further from land, not closer.

The men are outraged at all of the following except

A) nature.

B) fate.

C) life-savers.

D) Red Cross women.

Which of the following best describes the relationship between the men in the dinghy?

A) They blame one another for their predicament.

B) They are depressed, hopeless, and lethargic.

C) They are united by an unspoken sense of brotherhood.

D) They are naively optimistic.

Which character dies at the end of the story?

A) the captain

B) the oiler

C) the cook

D) the correspondent

The most often-repeated visual image in the story is

A) waves.

B) sharks.

C) sails.

D) trees.

While he rows during the night, the correspondent is made uneasy by the presence of

A) a giant tanker in the distance.

B) an eerie cloud in the night sky.

C) a shark.

D) a screeching albatross.

The correspondent remembers a children’s verse about

A) a woman drowning.

B) a soldier dying.

C) children playing in water.

D) a fish granting wishes.

At one point, the men celebrate what they think is an impending rescue by

A) splashing each other.

B) killing a gull.

C) eating pie.

D) smoking cigars.