[ WP ] Scare me using my fear of the sea ( thalassophobia )

Mr. Tunstall walked onto the deck and shielded his eyes from the sun. It reflected off the light colored wood of the newly washed deck and the pure white of the canvas sailsand caused such a start contrast with the airless, lightless darkness below that it took his eyes a moment to adjust. 
 
 
 When he did he found something quite against his expectation. Universal apprehension was the only word to describe it. The captain paced his quarterdeck as he usually did this time of day, but he walked with his shoulders hanging low, and his head turned towards his shoes as though he didn ’ t want to meet the gaze of any man aboard. 
 
 
 The sailors too, looked troubled and some of the newer, greener hands looked positively panicked. The sails hung there flapping weekly in the sea air; there was not much of a breeze. 
 
 
 Mr. Tunstall was a passenger no more. He had paid his way for a voyage from Canton to London and although he had overcome his initial bout of seasickness he knew very little about the complexities of moving a ship through a limitless, horizon-less sea. 
 
 
 In his ignorance he turned to the ships Surgeon, their doctor. He was not the best authority on naval affairs but Mr. Tunstall had long since found that his accounts of life at sea were far less technical and more easily understandable than that of a common sailor. 
 
 
 “ Dr. Greene ” he asked, “ what ’ s afoot? Is there plague aboard? Are we to sink? ” 
 
 
 “ Well sir ” Greene said in a friendly voice, but one devoid of all cheerfulness, “ a leak, a clear death wound would be mighty perilous to be sure. But what it appears we might have here is a far longer death sentence ”. 
 
 
 “ How? ” Tunstall asked, completely taken aback. 
 
 
 “ Well sir, look around you. It ’ s a total dead calm. No breeze to fill the sails and therefore no way to sail away from that damned rock ”. 
 
 
 The rock in questions was Martin ’ s island, now only a couple thousand yards away on the starboard bow. It had been explained to Tunstall the night before that the island was completely inaccessible. Sheer rock in the form of towering cliffs on all sides; a certain wreck to any ship that got too close. 
 
 
 “ Certainly an island, even an unhospitable island can ’ t possibly be our ruin ” Tunstall said, shocked. “ With us seeing it so soon. Surely the ship still steers? Can we not bear away, or bear up and avoid ruin? ”. 
 
 
 At this Dr. Greene gave a laugh at Turnstall ’ s simplicity, his complete lack of knowledge of maritime life. 
 
 
 “ Oh sir ” he began, “ If there were a breeze we would have steered to avoid the island long, long ago, before she ever came into sight. And it shouldn ’ t have been hard neither since the winds are usually so regular in this part of the ocean. But what ’ s bringing us in is the current. Every minute the current is drawing us closer to those cliffs and the steering don ’ t matter. It ’ s a god damned clock calms and unless the breeze lifts up, we ’ ll be dashed onto the rocks and wrecked by dinnertime ”. 
 
 
 At this the Captains tense nerves finally snapped and he shouted aft, “ Mr. Goodall will that boat ever be hoisted down or does a more competent officer have to supervise the proceedings?!? ”. 
 
 
 “ They're lowering the boats ” Greene began in response to Tunstall ’ s questioning stare. “ They ’ ll hitch a towline to the boats and try and tow the ship away from the current ” 
 
 
 “ Well that sounds absolutely foolproof ” Tunstall said, he had seen the boats warp the ship in harbor dozens of time. 
 
 
 “ Maybe ” Greene said, “ But what can men do in such a current? And how long can they pull in such a heat? Even for their lives? There is no telling ”. 
 
 
 “ Dr. Greene ” the Captain began sternly, “ perhaps you best go below and prepare the sick bay. There may be some invalids by the afternoon. ” 
 
 
 The Captain was as distressed as all the hands and he had grown annoyed by Greene ’ s proclamations of doom. He, like at least sixty of the seventy sailors aboard, could not swim. Not that swimming would do much against such treacherous, unforgiving rocks. 
 
 
 “ If I were you sir ” Greene finished in a low murmur, “ I would change into some light working clothes and maybe procure some sailcloth mittens. If the breeze don ’ t pick up, we ’ ll have to lighten ship. First the guns and then lord knows what else. Us landsmen will probably be set to the pumps, pumping fresh water over the side ”. 
 
 
 With the Doctors disappearance Tunstall looked at the loosely hanging sailcloth and again at the troubled demeanor of the Captain. Then he cast another look at the sheer, razor sharp cliffs of Martin ’ s island, a full hundred yards closer than it had been when he came on deck. 

