The Open Boat
The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure, first American edition, 1898First publication
1897
Literature form
Story
Genres
Literary, adventure
Writing language
English
Author's country
United States
Length
Approx. 9,500 words
Notable lines
None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them.
— First lines
Many a man ought to have a bath-tub larger than the boat which here rode upon the sea.
There was a sudden tightening of muscles. There was some thinking.
"If we don't all get ashore—" said the captain. "If we don't all get ashore, I suppose you fellows know where to send news of my finish?"
The cook's head was on a thwart, and he looked without interest at the water under his nose. He was deep in other scenes. Finally he spoke. "Billie," he murmured, dreamfully, "what kind of pie do you like best?"
Afterward the man might have had an impulse to shake his fist at the clouds: "Just you drown me, now, and then hear what I call you!"
It seems that instantly the beach was populated with men with blankets, clothes, and flasks, and women with coffee-pots and all the remedies sacred to their minds. The welcome of the land to the men from the sea was warm and generous, but a still and dripping shape was carried slowly up the beach, and the land's welcome for it could only be the different and sinister hospitality of the grave.
When it came night, the white waves paced to and fro in the moonlight, and the wind brought the sound of the great sea's voice to the men on shore, and they felt that they could then be interpreters.
— Last line
