The Ghost Pirates

By: William Hope Hodgson

Narrated by: Harry Shaw

Mysterious deaths and disappearances on a doomed ship on its final voyage. Another ship appears out of nowhere, then vanishes. A single survivor of the Mortzestus gives his account of terror and haunting on the high seas in this classic tale by master writer William Hope Hodgson.

Public Domain (P)2014 Harry Shaw

Strange Tides

This is the story of the merchant ship Mortzestus on it's final voyage. The story is told from the ships only survivor, who recounts how some unknown horror gradually pulled the ship to its ultimate doom.

I tracked this novel down, because H.P. Lovecraft lavished praise on it as a first rate horror story. The beginning is slow, but Lovecraft fans in particular will find a lot to interest to interest them. Lots of otherworldly, possibly inter dimensional, horrors abound here.

The only drawback is the narration. This novel has a lot of technical ship jargon (Hodgson was a sailor in addition to horror novelist) so the book is already a bit dense. Add to this the soulless, bored sounding narration of Harry Shaw and it really does hurt the suspense. Still, it wasn't enough to kill my enjoyment. Go check it out!