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The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.Poe, Edgar Allan

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The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.

Name: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.
Author: Poe, Edgar Allan

Poe, Edgar Allan

Sea stories; Stowaways -- Fiction; Whaling ships -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction

_January 18._ This morning[4] we continued to the southward, with the
same pleasant weather as before. The sea was entirely smooth, the air
tolerably warm and from the northeast, the temperature of the water
fifty-three. We now again got our sounding-gear in order, and, with a
hundred and fifty fathoms of line, found the current setting towards
the pole at the rate of a mile an hour. This constant tendency to the
southward, both in the wind and current, caused some degree of
speculation, and even of alarm, in different quarters of the schooner,
and I saw distinctly that no little impression had been made upon the
mind of Captain Guy. He was exceedingly sensitive to ridicule, however,
and I finally succeeded in laughing him out of his apprehensions. The
variation was now very trivial. In the course of the day we saw several
large whales of the right species, and innumerable flights of the
albatross passed over the vessel. We also picked up a bush, full of red
berries, like those of the hawthorn, and the carcass of a
singular-looking land-animal. It was three feet in length, and but six
inches in height, with four very short legs, the feet armed with long
claws of a brilliant scarlet, and resembling coral in substance. The
body was covered with a straight silky hair, perfectly white. The tail
was peaked like that of a rat, and about a foot and a half long. The
head resembled a cat's, with the exception of the ears--these were
flapped like the ears of a dog. The _teeth_ were of the same brilliant
scarlet as the claws.

[Footnote 4: The terms _morning_ and _evening_, which I have made use
of to avoid confusion in my narrative, as far as possible, must not, of
course, be taken in their ordinary sense. For a long time past we had
had no night at all, the daylight being continual. The dates throughout
are according to nautical time, and the bearings must be understood as
per compass. I would also remark in this place, that I cannot, in the
first portion of what is here written, pretend to strict accuracy in
respect to dates, or latitudes and longitudes, having kept no regular
journal until after the period of which this first portion treats. In
many instances I have relied altogether upon memory.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

General

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.

Poe, Edgar Allan

Sea stories; Stowaways -- Fiction; Whaling ships -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction

_January 18._ This morning[4] we continued to the southward, with the
same pleasant weather as before. The sea was entirely smooth, the air
tolerably warm and from the northeast, the temperature of the water
fifty-three. We now again got our sounding-gear in order, and, with a
hundred and fifty fathoms of line, found the current setting towards
the pole at the rate of a mile an hour. This constant tendency to the
southward, both in the wind and current, caused some degree of
speculation, and even of alarm, in different quarters of the schooner,
and I saw distinctly that no little impression had been made upon the
mind of Captain Guy. He was exceedingly sensitive to ridicule, however,
and I finally succeeded in laughing him out of his apprehensions. The
variation was now very trivial. In the course of the day we saw several
large whales of the right species, and innumerable flights of the
albatross passed over the vessel. We also picked up a bush, full of red
berries, like those of the hawthorn, and the carcass of a
singular-looking land-animal. It was three feet in length, and but six
inches in height, with four very short legs, the feet armed with long
claws of a brilliant scarlet, and resembling coral in substance. The
body was covered with a straight silky hair, perfectly white. The tail
was peaked like that of a rat, and about a foot and a half long. The
head resembled a cat's, with the exception of the ears--these were
flapped like the ears of a dog. The _teeth_ were of the same brilliant
scarlet as the claws.

[Footnote 4: The terms _morning_ and _evening_, which I have made use
of to avoid confusion in my narrative, as far as possible, must not, of
course, be taken in their ordinary sense. For a long time past we had
had no night at all, the daylight being continual. The dates throughout
are according to nautical time, and the bearings must be understood as
per compass. I would also remark in this place, that I cannot, in the
first portion of what is here written, pretend to strict accuracy in
respect to dates, or latitudes and longitudes, having kept no regular
journal until after the period of which this first portion treats. In
many instances I have relied altogether upon memory.]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: Comprising the details of a mutiny and atrocious butchery on board the American brig Grampus, on her way to the South Seas, in the month of June, 1827.

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