The Sargasso Sea Stories
Carnacki stories
Captain Gault stories
Captain Jat stories
D.C.O. Cargunka stories
Standalone stories described elsewhere
''The following short stories are described in separate articles.'' *" A Tropical Horror" *"Miscellaneous stories
"The Goddess of Death"
"The Goddess of Death" was Hodgson's first published story, and appeared in 1904 in ''"Terror of the Water-Tank"
This story was first published in 1907 in ''Blue Book Magazine''. Samuel W. Bruce, "William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918)". in Harris-Fain, Darren, ed. ''British Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Before World War I''. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1997. pp.121-131. Hodgson introduces the story as follows:Crowning the heights on the outskirts of a certain town on the east coast is a large, iron water-tank from which an isolated row of small villas obtains its supply. The top of this tank has been cemented, and round it have been placed railings, thus making it a splendid "look-out" for any of the townspeople who may choose to promenade upon it. And very popular it was until the strange and terrible happenings of which I have set out to tell.The "strange and terrible happenings" begin with the discovery of a murder victim on the tank; he died by
"Bullion"
This story was first published in 1911 in ''Everybody's Weekly'' A ship is transporting a valuable cargo of gold bullion packed into chests, and stored in a separate locked and sealed room. But when mysterious whispering is heard in the night, an investigation leads the"The Mystery of the Water-Logged Ship"
This story was first published in 1911 in the ''"The Ghosts of the ''Glen Doon''"
This story was first published in 1911 in ''The Red Magazine''. Another floating derelict is the subject of an investigation because of a mysterious tapping. A brave (or foolhardy) man bets that he can spend the night aboard the allegedly haunted ship. Is the tapping noise produced by the ghosts of the men who drowned when it sank, or is there a more prosaic explanation? We learn that the iron ship ''Glen Doon'' "turned turtle" (flipped upside-down) and trapped ten workers aboard. For twenty-four hours the ship floated upside-down. The tapping of the workers' hammers on the hull led rescuers to attempt to drill holes in the ship, but this just allowed the air to escape faster, and the men were drowned as the ship sank. Seven months later, the ship was bought at auction and raised, although she then sat idle for another five years. No living soul is aboard her, but in the dead of night mysterious tapping can be heard, allegedly the ghosts of the drowned men. Larry Chaucer, the young son of a wealthy local, wagers that he can spend the night alone aboard the ship unmolested. He and a number of his friends first climb aboard and investigate; aside from some silt, the ship appears completely empty, yet the faint tapping can be heard, although its precise source cannot be located. As they inspect the ship the tapping ceases. The men withdraw to a boat near the ship and to the dock to listen for trouble, leaving Chaucer aboard to perform his vigil. As they wait, the tapping sound resumes, audible even across the bay. Suddenly the firing of a pistol is heard, and then a scream. The men race for the ship, but the young daredevil can't be found. Only his empty pistol and his lantern remain. As the men explore the hold, a strange sound is heard, as if someone were ascending through the stillness of the hold, but no one can be seen. The men hastily leave the hold. Days pass, and the police investigate in excruciating detail; Larry Chaucer's wealthy father is involved. The ship is emptied completely; the silt is removed, and the internal bulkheads are removed until the ''Glen Doon'' is little more than an iron shell. Nothing is found. Police officers keep watch on board, and patrol-boats are stationed near the hulk, looking for any clue, as fruitless weeks pass. One night the hammering sound starts again, and as armed detectives keep watch on the deck they see:...a man's head and face, the hair as long as a woman's, and dripping with sea water, so that the cadaverous face showed white and unwholesome from out of the sopping down-hang of the hair. In a minute there followed the body of the strange man, and the sea water ran from his garments, glistening as the moon-breams caught the drops. He came inboard over the rail, making no more noise than a shadow, and paused, swaying with a queer movement full in a patch of moonlight. Then, noiseless, he seemed to glide across the deck in the direction of the dark gape of the open main hatchway.Although the men try to stop him, and fire at him, the figure disappears into the hold, and no trace of him can be found. Investigation continues. Mechanics are hired to drill holes into the sides of the ship, demonstrating that there are no secret compartments. They even drill into the bottom of the ship, patching the holes with hot lead to prevent the ingress of water. The hollow steel lower masts are investigated as well, and found to be empty. The search looks hopeless until the police inspector discovers a single hair stuck in a nearly invisible metal seam in a hollow mast. A secret door into the mast is discovered and opened. At the bottom of the hollow mast, a secret passage is found, leading down into a shaft that opens into another vessel, made from discarded boilers welded together, suspended below the ''Glen Doon''. In it is a band of counterfeiters stamping coins; this is the source of the mysterious tapping. The miscreants are apprehended. Larry Chaucer presumably met his death at the hands of the counterfeiters.
"Mr. Jock Danplank"
This story was first published in 1912 in ''The Red Magazine''. Mr. Jock Danplank, a British citizen who has spent time living in the United States, has come into a substantial inheritance that includes not only money but a cottage complete with gardening and housekeeping staff and a stunningly beautiful garden. But Danplank's deceased uncle neglected to tell anyone just where the money was to be found. Near death, he was heard to mutter "seventy-seven feet due east", but was unable to finish his instructions. Danplank and his wife, Mary, take possession of the cottage and examining a large, ornate desk, attached to the floor, that was also part of the bequest. During the days and nights that follow, it becomes clear that Danplank's cousin is also trying to locate the money; he repeatedly invades the cottage grounds and angers the aged head gardener by trampling on the flower-beds; he even digs enormous pits on the grounds in the dead of night. As the story reaches its climax Danplank and his wife arrange a surprise for the cousin. They silently observe him tampering with the ornate table in the cottage, and afterwards, while he and his confederates are digging another deep pit in the gardens, fill the pit with water and photograph him clambering out, covered with mud. The cousin's examinations have given them a clue, and they discover that by putting the table back in its original position they are able to use the"The Mystery of Captain Chappel"
This story was first published in 1917 in ''The Red Magazine''. A mysterious murder has taken place. Because the victim was observed leaving a pub and then found dead nearby, only a minute later, having traversed only a short distance on an empty street with high walls on either side, police are baffled. The initial setup is presented as a"The Home-Coming of Captain Dan"
This story was first published in 1918 in ''The Red Magazine''. Captain Dan himself is a very colorful character who speaks in a mixture of nautical argot and gutter French."Merciful Plunder"
This story was first published in 1925 in ''Argosy-Allstory Weekly''. A sea captain named Mellor is carrying out trading in a seaport on the Adriatic coast; the seaport is involved in "the wars so common in the Balkans." Mortar and rifle fire is audible in the distance, but Captain Mellor is more disturbed to hear the horrible sounds of a mass execution of twenty minors, who had been fighting as irregular guerilla warriors, in the town square. Twenty more youths remain locked in the local jail awaiting execution the next morning. Mellor, pretending to support the executions and displaying little sympathy for the youths, gets a tour from a Frenchman. Mellor observes the pitiful condition of the prisoners, and watches as a guard puts out a cigarette against one boy's leg; he also learns the layout of the jail building and the location and number of the guards. That night, Mellor leads a daring raid. A cliff edge lies behind and above the jail, and with his chief engineer George and two other crewmen, in the dark of night they put into place a spar and pulley to lower the captain and his chief engineer to the jail window. While they are nearly caught, with the help of the boys they manage to remove the window bars with a hacksaw; the boys kill one guard with one of the bars, and the captain manages to incapacitate two others. The boys are removed through the window and spirited away aboard Mellor's ship. The Frenchman never learns by what means the boys have miraculously disappeared, although he remains appalled by Mellor's outward cavalier attitude, telling him "the good God was kinder than you.""The Haunting of the ''Lady Shannon''"
The story was first published in 1916 in the Premier Magazine.Premier Magazine, January 1916, pp103-110. In 1975, it was reprinted in the collection ''Out of the Storm'' edited by"Last trip they treated one of the ordinaries so badly that the poor chap went queer -- silly. Mind you, he acted like a goat and gave both the second mate and the skipper slack; but they knocked all that out of him and some of his brains as well, I believe. Anyway, he went half-dotty before the end of the voyage."A few days later, Seaman Jones, a vocal advocate of standing up for himself, bites off a plug of tobacco and is noticed by the second mate. He refuses to throw his tobacco overboard and the mate attacks him. They fight, and Jones severely injures the mate. The captain begins shouting and firing his revolver, although he only wounds one man by accident. The first mate also attacks Jones; in the fracas, the captain throws his revolver and accidentally strikes the first mate, who is knocked unconscious. One of the apprentices, Tommy, involuntarily shouts "Hurray!" and is attacked by the captain, who beats him, knocking him unconscious. Jones meanwhile attacks the second mate, and is also knocked unconscious, while the first mate has recovered. At the end of the complicated fracas Tommy, the second mate, and Jones are all unconscious. The second mate recovers with the administration of whiskey. Two nights later, Jones is still only semi-conscious. As the second mate keeps watch, he abruptly screams and falls; he is found to be dead of a stab wound, although the weapon and the source of the attack are unknown; the attack seemed to come out of nowhere, right under the captain's watchful eye. The captain is deeply disturbed, and musters the entire crew for inspection. Everyone is present and accounted for, except Jones and Tommy. We learn that, in the opinion of the first mate, Jones is near death, and the apprentice Tommy is also still too badly injured to have committed the murder. The captain and the first mate are baffled, and become suspicious that the cause was supernatural. The next day the captain becomes hopelessly drunk; the first mate disposes of the second mate's body, and repeatedly checks on the state of seaman Jones. The first mate goes on watch that evening. During his watch, he sends an older sailor repeatedly to check on Jones; at 2:30 a.m., the seaman reports that Jones has died. A disturbing grating sound is immediately heard, and the first mate, his imagination working overtime, becomes agitated, believing Jones' ghost may be coming for him. We learn that Tommy is also doing poorly, which only adds the mate's fears. That evening, the captain and the mate keep watch together. After the moonrise, a "strange husky inhuman gurgle" is heard from the bridge, and a "low, incredible, abominable laughter." The mate panics, screaming "he's come for me!" and running to the bridge; he is suddenly stabbed. A figure comes at the captain: "something white and slender that ran upon the captain noiselessly." The captain, panicked, crashes into the steel side of the deck-house and is knocked unconscious. The figure vanishes overboard, apparently without a splash. In the aftermath, we learn that the white figure was Toby, the ordinary seaman, who had been "hazed to the verge of insanity by the brutality of the captain and the officers on the previous voyage." He was covered with flour, and apparently had been living as a stowaway in among the cargo; he had stabbed the officers from a vantage point hidden in a ventilator. In conclusion, the story tells us that
Tommy regained his health, as did both Captain Jeller and Jacob, the mate; but as a "hardcase" skipper and a "buck-o-mate", they are no longer shining examples.
"The Heathen's Revenge"
This story was first published in 1988 in chapbook form as "The Way of the Heathen.""The Shamraken Homeward-Bounder"
This is considered by some editors such as Jeremy Lassen to be one of Hodgson's finest short stories. It features a remarkable crew of aged sailors who seem to have been at sea for decades; even the one they call the "boy" is fifty years old."Out of the Storm"
"The Albatross"
First published in the American pulp magazine ''"The 'Prentices' Mutiny"
"The Island of the Crossbones"
"The Stone Ship"
An earthquake raises a section of the seabed in the night, bringing with it a strange ship from ages past and stranger creatures from the sea bottom to menace a ship's crew."The Regeneration of Captain Bully Keller"
"The Mystery of Missing Ships"
"We Two and Bully Dunkan"
"The Haunted Pampero"
"The Real Thing: 'S.O.S.'"
"Jack Grey, Second Mate"
A ship sets out from Frisco with a strangely acting passenger and a crew scraped up off the waterfront. Things quickly escalate from unpleasant to grim in this violent tale. - From Pulpgen.com"The Smugglers"
"In the Wailing Gully"
"The Girl with the Grey Eyes"
Hodgson is not known as a writer of romantic stories, although several of his novels contain themes of romantic love amidst the horror and adventure. This is one of a small number of stories that he wrote specifically targeted to female readers of romance magazines."Kind, Kind and Gentle is She"
"A Timely Escape"
"On the Bridge"
This story, presented as a factual minute-by-minute account of events on the bridge of a ship as it navigates through iceberg-filled waters, was actually written to capitalize on interest in the sinking of the"Through the Vortex of a Cyclone"
A four-masted ship is absorbed by a terrible cyclone storm; an excellent example of the fight between man and nature. The atmosphere is masterly graduated; the story begins among the quiet waters of the ocean beneath clear and blue sky, but gradually the horizont is getting darker, a strange voice is heard, then the ship is plunged into the monstrous hurricane. Then, when it is exactly in the Vortex (the center of the cyclone), the crew members fire an old pistol loaded with a flash-dust and they see the legendary Pyramidal Sea, a sea raised to a high water-hills, while the cry of the cyclone is circulating around them in a distance of several tens of miles. Though not being a fiction or horror story, this tale belongs to the best Mr. Hodgson ever wrote."A Fight with a Submarine"
"In the Danger Zone"
"Old Golly"
"Demons of the Sea"
"The Wild Man of the Sea"
"The Habitants of Middle Islet"
"The Riven Night"
"The Heaving of the Log"
"The Sharks of the St. Elmo"
"Sailormen"
"By the Lee"
"The Captain of the Onion Boat"
Hodgson is not known as a writer of romantic stories, although several of his novels contain themes of romantic love amidst the horror and adventure. This is one of a small number of stories that he wrote specifically targeted to female readers of romance magazines. A sea captain is torn between love and respect for duty as he watches the love of his life go about her daily routine in a convent. She entered the convent when he disappeared and she believed he was dead. Eventually at the urging of his first mate, the captain attracts her attention, arranges a liaison, and retrieves the willing woman who then faces an unknown future on an onion boat."The Sea-Horses"
"The Valley of Lost Children"
"Date 1965: Modern Warfare"
"My House Shall Be Called the House of Prayer"
"Judge Barclay's Wife"
"How the Honorable Billy Darrell Raided the Wind"
"The Friendship of Monsieur Jeynois"
"The Inn of the Black Crow"
"What Happened in the Thunderbolt"
"How Sir Jerrold Treyn Dealt with the Dutch in Caunston Cove"
"Jem Binney and the Safe at Lockwood Hall"
"Diamond Cut Diamond with a Vengeance"
"The Room of Fear"
"The Promise"
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:William Hope Hodgson's Short Stories Hodgson, William Hope Hodgson, William Hope Hodgson, William Hope