Crane's Open Boat Story: Fact Or Fiction?

Stephen Crane's short story 'The Open Boat' is based on his own real-life experience of being stranded at sea for thirty hours in January 1897. Crane, a newspaper correspondent, was travelling to Cuba to cover the Cuban insurrection against Spain when his ship, the SS Commodore, sank off the coast of Florida. Crane and three other men were forced to navigate their way to shore in a small boat. One of the men, an oiler named Billy Higgins, drowned while trying to swim to shore.

Crane's inspiration for the story

Stephen Crane's short story 'The Open Boat' was inspired by his own experiences of being stranded at sea. In 1896, Crane was on his way to Cuba via Florida to work as a war correspondent during the Cuban insurrection against Spain. On 31 December 1896, the steamship SS Commodore that Crane was travelling on hit a sandbar and sank. Crane and three other men—the ship's captain, an oiler named Billie Higgins, and the ship's cook—spent 30 hours in a small dinghy, attempting to navigate their way to shore.

Crane's own account of the shipwreck and the men's survival, titled 'Stephen Crane's Own Story', was published a few days after his rescue. He soon adapted this report into narrative form, and the resulting short story, 'The Open Boat', was published in Scribner's Magazine. The story is told from the point of view of an anonymous correspondent, with Crane as the implied author.

Crane's experience of the shipwreck and the subsequent struggle for survival is reflected in the plot of 'The Open Boat'. The four characters in the story—the correspondent, the captain, the cook, and the oiler—are based on Crane and the three men who shared the dinghy with him. The captain's injury in the story, for example, reflects the real-life captain's injury during the shipwreck.

Crane's story also draws on his observations of the natural world during his time adrift at sea. The descriptions of the violent waves, the indifferent sea, and the men's physical and mental exhaustion are all inspired by Crane's first-hand experience of these phenomena.

In addition to drawing on his personal experience, Crane may also have been influenced by literary and artistic sources. One commentator has noted similarities between Crane's descriptions in 'The Open Boat' and episodes from other sources, including an illustration, a poem, and a textbook.

Crane's experience of the shipwreck

On the night of December 31, 1896, Stephen Crane boarded the steamship SS Commodore in Jacksonville, Florida. Crane, a 25-year-old journalist, was headed to Cuba to cover the Cuban insurrection against Spain. The ship, carrying 27 or 28 men and a cargo of supplies and ammunition for the Cuban rebels, sailed into the St. Johns River.

In the early hours of January 2, 1897, the SS Commodore struck a sandbar in a dense fog, damaging its hull. Although it was towed off the sandbar the following day, it was again beached in Mayport, Florida, and further damaged. A leak began in the boiler room that evening, and as a result of malfunctioning water pumps, the ship came to a standstill about 16 miles from Mosquito Inlet. As the ship took on more water, Crane described the engine room as resembling "a scene at this time taken from the middle kitchen of Hades."

Commodore's lifeboats were lowered, and the ship sank at 7 a.m. Crane was one of the last to leave the ship in a 10-foot dinghy. He and three other men—the captain, Edward Murphy; the cook; and an oiler named Billie Higgins—floundered off the coast of Florida for a day and a half before attempting to land their craft at Daytona Beach.

The small boat, however, overturned in the surf, forcing the exhausted men to swim to shore. Sadly, Higgins, the oiler, died. Crane was reunited with his partner, Cora, several days later, and quickly wrote an account of the sinking while waiting in Jacksonville for another ship. His report, titled "Stephen Crane's Own Story," was published on the front page of the New York Press on January 7, 1897, just three days after his rescue.

Crane's newspaper account of the shipwreck

On New Year's Eve, 1896, 25-year-old American author and journalist Stephen Crane boarded the steamship SS Commodore in Jacksonville, Florida. Crane was on his way to Cuba to work as a war correspondent during the Cuban insurrection against Spain. The ship, carrying 27 or 28 men and a cargo of supplies and ammunition for the Cuban rebels, sailed into the St. Johns River and, less than 2 miles from Jacksonville, struck a sandbar in a dense fog, damaging its hull.

The following day, the Commodore was towed off the sandbar, only to be beached in Mayport, Florida, and further damaged. That evening, a leak began in the boiler room and, due to malfunctioning water pumps, the ship came to a standstill about 16 miles from Mosquito Inlet. As the ship took on more water, Crane described the engine room as resembling "a scene at this time taken from the middle kitchen of Hades."

In the early hours of January 2, 1897, the lifeboats were lowered and the ship sank at 7 a.m. Crane was one of the last to leave the ship, joining three other men—the captain, Edward Murphy, an oiler named Billie Higgins, and the steward, C. B. Montgomery—in a 10-foot dinghy. They floundered off the coast of Florida for a day and a half before attempting to land their craft at Daytona Beach. However, the small boat overturned in the surf and the exhausted men were forced to swim to shore. Tragically, Higgins drowned.

Crane was reunited with his partner, Cora, several days later and quickly wrote an account of the sinking while waiting in Jacksonville for another ship. His report, titled "Stephen Crane's Own Story", was published on the front page of the New York Press on January 7, 1897, just three days after his rescue, and was soon reprinted in various other papers.

> The cook let go of the line. We rowed around to see if we could not get a line from the chief engineer, and all this time, mind you, there were no shrieks, no groans, but silence, silence and silence, and then the Commodore sank. She lurched to windward, then swung afar back, righted and dove into the sea, and the rafts were suddenly swallowed by this frightful maw of the ocean. And then by the men on the ten-foot dingy were words said that were still not words—something far beyond words.

Crane's story of the shipwreck and the men's survival concentrates mainly on the sinking of the Commodore and the ensuing chaos. He dedicates just two paragraphs to the fate of the four men in the dinghy, detailing their inability to save those stranded on the sinking ship:

> The history of life in an open boat for thirty hours would no doubt be very instructive for the young, but none is to be told here now. For my part, I would prefer to tell the story at once, because from it would shine the splendid manhood of Captain Edward Murphy and of William Higgins, the oiler.

Crane's adaptation of his account into a short story

In 1896, Crane was on his way to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent during the Cuban insurrection against Spain. The steamship SS Commodore, carrying Crane and 27 or 28 men, along with a cargo of supplies and ammunition for the Cuban rebels, sank off the coast of Florida. Crane and three other men—the captain, an oiler named Billie Higgins, and the cook—were stranded at sea for thirty hours, navigating their way to shore in a small boat. Crane's account of the shipwreck and the men's survival, titled "Stephen Crane's Own Story", was published a few days after his rescue.

Crane's adaptation of his report into narrative form resulted in the short story "The Open Boat", published in Scribner's Magazine in 1897. The story is told from the point of view of an anonymous correspondent, with Crane as the implied author. The action closely resembles the author's experiences after the shipwreck.

"The Open Boat" is divided into seven sections, each told mainly from the point of view of the correspondent, based on Crane himself. The first part introduces the four characters—the correspondent, a condescending observer detached from the rest of the group; the captain, who is injured and morose at having lost his ship; the cook, fat and comical, but optimistic that they will be rescued; and the oiler, Billie, who is physically the strongest and the only one referred to by name.

The moods of the men fluctuate from anger at their desperate situation to a growing empathy for one another and the sudden realisation that nature is indifferent to their fates. The men become fatigued and bicker with one another; nevertheless, the oiler and the correspondent take turns rowing toward shore, while the cook bails water to keep the boat afloat. When they see a lighthouse on the horizon, their hope is tempered with the realisation of the danger of trying to reach it. Their hopes dwindle further when, after seeing a man waving from shore, and what may or may not be another boat, they fail to make contact.

The correspondent and the oiler continue to take turns rowing, while the others sleep fitfully during the night. The correspondent then notices a shark swimming near the boat, but he does not seem to be bothered by it as one would expect. In the penultimate chapter, the correspondent wearily recalls a verse from the poem "Bingen on the Rhine" by Caroline Norton, in which a "soldier of the Legion" dies far from home.

In the final chapter, the men resolve to abandon the floundering dinghy they have occupied for thirty hours and to swim ashore. As they begin the long swim to the beach, Billie, the oiler, the strongest of the four, swims ahead of the others. The captain advances towards the shore while still holding onto the boat, and the cook uses a surviving oar. The correspondent is trapped by a local current, but is eventually able to swim on. After three of the men safely reach the shore, they find Billie dead, his body washed up on the beach.

Although autobiographical in nature, "The Open Boat" is a work of fiction. It is often considered a principal example of Naturalism, an offshoot of the Realist literary movement, in which scientific principles of objectivity and detachment are applied to the study of human characteristics. While a majority of critics agree that the story acts as a paradigm of the human situation, they disagree as to its precise nature. Some believe the story affirms man's place in the world by concentrating on the characters' isolation, while others insist that the story questions man's place in the universe through metaphorical or indirect means.

Crane's use of imagery and symbolism

Stephen Crane's short story, 'The Open Boat', is a work of fiction based on his real-life experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida. Crane's use of imagery and symbolism in the story is exemplary and adds depth to the narrative.

The story opens with the line, "None of them knew the colour of the sky." This line is a powerful piece of imagery, highlighting the men's focus on the violent waves that threatened to swamp their boat. The waves are described as slate-grey with foaming white tops, creating a vivid picture of the turbulent sea. The imagery continues with descriptions of the jagged horizon, the walls of water, and the white flame of the waves. The imagery is not limited to the sea, as Crane also describes the grey faces of the men, their glinting eyes, and the splashing of the waves past them.

Crane's symbolism in the story is also noteworthy. The sea is often personified and given feminine pronouns, portraying it as an intangible, yet effeminate threat. The men in the boat are pitted against this force of nature, highlighting their insignificance and powerlessness. The sea is also described as indifferent, "flatly indifferent", emphasising the idea that nature is ambivalent towards the struggles of humans.

Another symbolic element is the lighthouse, which represents hope and the possibility of rescue. However, the lighthouse also serves as a reminder of the men's isolation and the vastness of the sea, as it remains out of reach for most of the story.

Crane also uses symbolism to explore the theme of survival and the conflict between man and nature. The oiler, Billie, is the strongest and most physically able of the four characters. Despite his strength, he is the only one who perishes, swimming ahead of the others but ultimately drowning in the shallow water. This can be seen as a critique of Darwinism, suggesting that survival is not always dependent on physical strength or ability.

The imagery and symbolism in 'The Open Boat' are integral to the narrative, enhancing the themes and adding depth to the characters' experiences. Crane's use of these literary devices showcases his skill as a writer and contributes to the enduring appeal of the story.

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