About a minute later, having finished shipping the gangway, I was going
forrard, when the Second's voice called me back

"Tell the Captain what it was you saw just now," he said, in a low
voice. "I can't say exactly, Sir," I replied. "But it seemed to me like the
shadow of a ship, rising up through the water." "There, Sir," remarked the Second Mate to the Old Man. "Just what I told
you." The Skipper stared at me. "You're quite sure?" he asked. "Yes, Sir," I answered. "Tammy saw it, too." I waited a minute. Then they turned to go aft. The Second was saying
something. "Can I go, Sir?" I asked. "Yes, that will do, Jessop," he said, over his shoulder. But the Old Man
came back to the break, and spoke to me. "Remember, not a word of this forrard!" he said. "No Sir," I replied, and he went back to the Second Mate; while I walked
forrard to the fo'cas'le to get something to eat. "Your whack's in the kettle, Jessop," said Tom, as I stepped in over the
washboard. "An' I got your lime-juice in a pannikin." "Thanks," I said, and sat down. As I stowed away my grub, I took no notice of the chatter of the others. I was too stuffed with my own thoughts. That shadow of a vessel rising,
you know, out of the profound deeps, had impressed me tremendously. It
had not been imagination. Three of us had seen it--really four; for
Plummer distinctly saw it; though he failed to recognise it as anything
extraordinary. As you can understand, I thought a lot about this shadow of a vessel. But, I am sure, for a time, my ideas must just have gone in an
everlasting, blind circle. And then I got another thought; for I got
thinking of the figures I had seen aloft in the early morning; and I
began to imagine fresh things. You see, that first thing that had come
up over the side, had come _out of the sea_. And it had gone back. And
now there was this shadow vessel-thing--ghost-ship I called it. It was a
damned good name, too. And the dark, noiseless men ... I thought a lot
on these lines. Unconsciously, I put a question to myself, aloud:

"Were they the crew?" "Eh?" said Jaskett, who was on the next chest. I took hold of myself, as it were, and glanced at him, in an apparently
careless manner. "Did I speak?" I asked. "Yes, mate," he replied, eyeing me, curiously. "Yer said sumthin' about
a crew." "I must have been dreaming," I said; and rose up to put away my plate. XIV


_The Ghost Ships_


At four o'clock, when again we went on deck, the Second Mate told me to
go on with a paunch mat I was making; while Tammy, he sent to get out
his sinnet. I had the mat slug on the fore side of the mainmast, between
it and the after end of the house; and, in a few minutes, Tammy brought
his sinnet and yarns to the mast, and made fast to one of the pins. "What do you think it was, Jessop?" he asked, abruptly, after a short
silence. I looked at him. "What do you think?" I replied. "I don't know what to think," he said. "But I've a feeling that it's
something to do with all the rest," and he indicated aloft, with his
head. "I've been thinking, too," I remarked. "That it is?" he inquired. "Yes," I answered, and told him how the idea had come to me at my
dinner, that the strange men-shadows which came aboard, might come from
that indistinct vessel we had seen down in the sea. "Good Lord!" he exclaimed, as he got my meaning. And then for a little,
he stood and thought. "That's where they live, you mean?" he said, at last, and paused again. "Well," I replied. "It can't be the sort of existence _we_ should call
life." He nodded, doubtfully. "No," he said, and was silent again. Presently, he put out an idea that had come to him. "You _think_, then, that that--vessel has been with us for some time, if
we'd only known?" he asked. "All along," I replied. "I mean ever since these things started." "Supposing there are others," he said, suddenly. I looked at him. "If there are," I said. "You can pray to God that they won't stumble
across us. It strikes me that whether they're ghosts, or not ghosts,
they're blood-gutted pirates. "It seems horrible," he said solemnly, "to be talking seriously like
this, about--you know, about such things." "I've tried to stop thinking that way," I told him. "I've felt I should
go cracked, if I didn't. There's damned queer things happen at sea, I
know; but this isn't one of them." "It seems so strange and unreal, one moment, doesn't it?" he said. "And
the next, you _know_ it's really true, and you can't understand why you
didn't always know. And yet they'd never believe, if you told them
ashore about it." "They'd believe, if they'd been in this packet in the middle watch this
morning," I said. "Besides," I went on. "They don't understand. We didn't ... I shall
always feel different now, when I read that some packet hasn't been
heard of." Tammy stared at me. "I've heard some of the old shellbacks talking about things," he said. "But I never took them really seriously." "Well," I said. "I guess we'll have to take this seriously. I wish to
God we were home!" "My God! so do I," he said. For a good while after that, we both worked on in silence; but,
presently, he went off on another tack. "Do you think we'll really shorten her down every night before it gets
dark?" he asked. "Certainly," I replied. "They'll never get the men to go aloft at night,
after what's happened." "But, but--supposing they _ordered_ us aloft--" he began. "Would you go?" I interrupted. "No!" he said, emphatically. "I'd jolly well be put in irons first!" "That settles it, then," I replied. "You wouldn't go, nor would any one
else." At this moment the Second Mate came along. "Shove that mat and that sinnet away, you two," he said. "Then get your
brooms and clear up." "i, i, Sir," we said, and he went on forrard. "Jump on the house, Tammy," I said. "And let go the other end of this
rope, will you?" "Right" he said, and did as I had asked him. When he came back, I got
him to give me a hand to roll up the mat, which was a very large one. "I'll finish stopping it," I said. "You go and put your sinnet away." "Wait a minute," he replied, and gathered up a double handful of shakins
from the deck, under where I had been working. Then he ran to the side. "Here!" I said. "Don't go dumping those. They'll only float, and the
Second Mate or the Skipper will be sure to spot them." "Come here, Jessop!" he interrupted, in a low voice, and taking no
notice of what I had been saying. I got up off the hatch, where I was kneeling. He was staring over the
side. "What's up?" I asked. "For God's sake, hurry!" he said, and I ran, and jumped on to the spar,
alongside of him. "Look!" he said, and pointed with a handful of shakins, right down,
directly beneath us. Some of the shakins dropped from his hand, and blurred the water,
momentarily, so that I could not see. Then, as the ripples cleared away,
I saw what he meant. "Two of them!" he said, in a voice that was scarcely above a whisper.