'THE HAUNTED BOATMAN' By Matt Cowan

William Hope Hodgson was born in Blackmore End, Essex in 1877. He ran away from boarding school at the age of thirteen to work at sea, eventually becoming a lieutenant in the merchant marine. He left that line of work because he had become unhappy with the lifestyle. He used his experiences at sea in a number of his short stories and novels, his best selling novel, The Boats of the Glen Carrig (1907) in particular. From what I have read about the novel, it is a difficult read, but one filled with all sorts of bizarre monsters and oddities that only one with a marvelous imagination could come up with. While at sea, Hodgson undertook a rigorous workout regiment in order to protect himself from bullying by other sailors, as he was a rather short man. He was very successful at this, and after leaving sea life he opened his own exercise school, W.H. Hodgson’s School of Physical Culture. He even used his knowledge of how muscles work to handcuff famous escape artist Harry Houdini on stage in 1902. It took Houdini over two hours to escape the restraints, after which he accused Hodgson of intentionally hurting him and jamming the locks of the cuffs.

When his school failed to earn him enough of a living, he turned to writing. Hodgson was one of the more imaginative writers, as is evidenced in his classic novels and short stories. Along with The Boats of the Glen Carrig, he also wrote the popular novels, The House On The Borderland (1908), The Ghost Pirates (1909) and The Night Land (1912). William Hope Hodgson died during WWI after being struck by an artillery shell in Ypres in April of 1918. He had been previously sent home from an injury but insisted on re-enlisting once he had healed up.

The Whistling Room (1909) - This is one of my all-time favorite stories. It is one of eight stories that feature Hodgson’s paranormal investigator Carnacki ‘The Ghost Finder’. It involves a room inside a castle in Ireland. A devilish whistling keeps coming from the room that is definitely not made by a human or the wind. The room is indeed haunted, but what makes this tale so original is the way in which in turns out to be so. I won’t ruin it but telling what it is, but it is easily worth reading all the way to the end to find out the reason for the whistling entity in the room and what form it takes.

Out of the Storm- This short tale is from a sailor whose ship is hopelessly caught in a horrendous storm from which they are already sinking. The captain is relating the events to his friend on another boat via telegraph. It is so well written that it really seems the ship is caught inside Hell itself. He describes the sea as laughing as it pummels the ship and tells of the evils the people aboard engage in as they fight for their lives to keep from being swept away.

The Derelict (1912)- This very suspenseful story tells of a sailing vessel that notices another ship in the distance as they emerge from a storm. The ship is obviously old and after repairs are made to their own ship, the captain, the doctor and a few other men take a rowboat out to investigate it. The ship they find is completely covered in thick, white, mold and has a strange animalistic smell to it. The story unfolds in such dramatic fashion as they examine it that the reader’s attention (at least mine was) is glued to it, and a feeling of menace hangs in the air like the strange mist that cloaks the ship. This is another story that shows how imaginative Hodgson was. This is not your typical ‘ghost ship’ sort of tale. In fact there are no ghosts, but something worse.

The Valley Of Lost Children (1906)- This one isn’t scary and is difficult to read because the dialog is written in a way to try and convey the accents of the characters. It is about people who have had a child die, who catch the glimpse of a valley where they play in the afterlife. This one lacks the punch and originality of the other stories listed here.

A few other interesting things involving Hodgson:

-Six of his Carnacki stories are collected in an anthology titled, Carnacki ‘The Ghost Finder’. Some of them turn out to be human culprits instead of the supernatural. There is also a free RPG available online for the Carnacki setting for Forgotten Futures IV.

-Season 4 of the excellent TV show LOST has a character whose name matches one of Hodgson’s creations. The captain of the freighter near the LOST Island is named Captain Gault. LOST likes to use literary references often in its show so the possibility exists that they could be referring to Hodgson’s character (there is a similarly named character in an Ann Rand book, but it is spelled differently).

-An anthology edited by Sam Moskowitz entitled Horrors Unseen, was published in 1974 dedicated to Hodgson. It included The Ghost Pirates and its previously unpublished original ending, which was found after his death. The book also contained a number of short stories that either influenced Hodgson or seemed to be influenced by him.

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