The Rime of the Ancient Mariner of mist and snow"; the south wind that had initially led them from the land of ice now sends the ship into uncharted waters near the equator, where it is becalmed. The sailors change their minds again and blame the mariner for the torment of their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the mariner to wear the dead albatross about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer from killing it, or perhaps as a sign of regret: Eventually, the ship encounters a ghostly hulk. On board are Death (a skeleton) and the "Night-mare Life-in-Death", a deathly-pale woman,
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to tutelary spirits: "Suppose you represent him as having killed one of these birds on entering the south sea, and the tutelary spirits of these regions take upon them to avenge the crime." By the time the trio finished their walk, the poem had taken shape. Bernard Martin argues in "The Ancient Mariner and the Authentic Narrative" that Coleridge was also influenced by the life of Anglican clergyman John Newton, who had a near-death experience aboard a slave ship. The poem may also have been inspired by the legends of the Wandering Jew, who was forced to wander the earth