What will you be doing tonight when 2010 comes onto the scene? We of the Stephen Crane blog will be working at our night job, unfortunately, rather than reading Crane stories aloud into the new year as we'd like to. Still, our labors tonight won't be nearly as bad as Crane's 1897 new year's party aboard the SS Commodore, a little steamer (pictured above) which twice ran up on sand before inconveniently sinking off the Florida coast. Two lifeboats were lowered but one sank, drowning the seven men aboard. The other boat preserved our hero Stephen Crane, the captain, and members of the crew, excepting one fated to die. This ordeal, which can be read in detail at this webpage, was the basis for Crane's most powerful short story, The Open Boat, which can be read online here.
Thankfully Crane was not a Romantic, or he probably would have drown'd at sea. Yet he'd survive for only a handful of years more, and relive The Open Boat experience in nightmares on his deathbed, his diseased lungs drowning him on dry land. Alas, the fatal reach of cruel Poseidon!
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There is at least one film version of The Open Boat floating around, but we haven't located or watched it yet, so if you can help please email or leave a comment below. And keep reading here all through 2010 as we celebrate Stephen Crane stuff!
