Publication history
First published in the Civil and Military Gazette, 20 July 1889. Collected Volume VII, No.45 of Turn-overs, 1889, and in Abaft the Funnel (Unauthorised and Authorised Editions), 1909.
The story
The story takes place one hot humid night on a passenger ship sailing between ports unknown. The narrator tries to find somewhere to sleep on deck in order to escape the heat in his cabin, as do many of the passengers. He finds a space right in the bows of the ship and falls asleep, but is awakened by the glare of a red lamp from another steamship which is approaching on a collision course. He cannot understand why the lookouts on both vessels do not raise the alarm, but watches as the two vessels collide. He is finally awoken from his nightmare by the quartermaster.
See also Mary Hamer’s essay
“Kipling and Dreams”
Background
Kipling had sailed from Calcutta in March 1889 with various ports of call, arriving in San Francisco in June 1889, as recounted in From Sea to Sea chapters I to XXII.
[D.P.]
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