The Monster & Captain Kreel

We were out in the North Atlantic

When the storm began to blow,

We reefed in the tops and gallants so

We wouldn't end down below,

The ship was tossed in a fury,

The mate was strapped to the wheel,

There wasn't a dry man left aboard,

Not even Captain Kreel.

 

The Captain, he was a bully,

He would flog 'til his arm was sore,

He drove the men at their stations 'til

They couldn't have taken more,

He kept a rope at the yardarm,

A warning to every man,

His word was not to be questioned if

A tar didn't want to hang!

 

Each wave was a liquid mountain

That crashed on the after deck,

The wind was a screaming banshee that

Would threaten, despair and wreck,

When out from below there came a scream,

A woman, so fair of face,

But the Captain swore an ugly oath

That the ship was in disgrace!

 

The wife of an able seaman,

He'd smuggled the girl aboard,

He'd thought he could keep her hidden there

Until they went ashore,

But the men with their superstitions

Then blamed her for the storm,

They seized her, dragged to the gunnels

And would hurry her overboard!

 

The Captain barked out an order,

The jack tars staggered back,

They wouldn't defy their Captain if

The ship was under attack!

The mate then seized the woman

And bared her at the breast,

Turned her to face the heaving sea

As she stood there, half undressed.

 

Bare breasted, like the figurehead

They carried on the prow,

A woman was known to calm the seas

If she shamed its gods somehow,

The wind died down in the stays and yards

And the sea died down as well,

But she little knew as she covered up

She approached the gates of hell!

 

The seaman was court-martialled,

Up there, on the quarter deck,

Where the Captain gave no quarter,

It was keel haul, or his neck!

They tied the rope around his chest

And flung him overboard,

We heaved on the rope, and prayed he'd hold

His breath 'til he came aboard.

 

We dragged him under the water,

And felt him under the keel,

The rope was a little bit lighter

Than the brow of Captain Kreel,

For he was a livid monster

Who just wanted the seaman dead,

His plans for the wife were plain to see

As he sent her to his bed!

 

The seaman's body surfaced,

It wasn't going well,

We hauled him over the side of the ship

'Til we caught a glimpse of hell,

The rope was knotted about his chest

And twisted around his neck,

There was nothing at all below the waist,

As his entrails sprayed the deck!

 

Even the Captain blanched at this

But he motioned us away,

'Toss the remains all overboard

Then swab the decks - Belay!'

We wondered how Jones was cut in half,

It couldn't have been the keel,

But kept our mutterings to ourselves,

For fear of the monster, Kreel.

 

Out on the starboard side we saw

A giant head appear,

Just as the body hit the waves

It reared, and sniffed the air,

Then pounced on the human morsel,

Picked it up in its savage jaw,

As we shrank on back at its evil eye

It gave out a primitive roar.

 

There wasn't a moment from then on

We weren't all chilled inside,

The monster followed and circled us

As we rode the heaving tide,

It must have been eighty feet or more,

A great, carnivorous beast,

The serpent had tasted human flesh

And we were a human feast!

 

The wind had dropped, the sails were limp,

We couldn't sail for home,

We were caught in the theme of a nightmare dream

Where the beasts of the world could roam,

The Captain kept to his cabin then,

We could hear the woman plead,

With a monster within, a monster without

We were caught in a monstrous creed.

 

'It's all the fault of that woman there!'

I knew what the ratings thought,

'We need to be throwing her overboard

To escape the luck she brought!'

The mate came down and roused them out,

'There'll be no talk of this,

We have to get under sail tonight

When the wind begins to rise.'

 

The Captain showed on the quarter-deck

Just after the seventh bell,

The sun was down in the west, the moon

Was riding high, as well.

We raised the sails as the shadows loomed,

Unfurled topgallant stays,

I was watching the Captain against the moon

His back to the after rail.

 

The serpent's head loomed large above

The figure of Captain Kreel,

The hairs rose up on the back of my neck

As I watched the shadows steal.

It opened up with its mighty jaw

Clamped down on the Captain's head,

Lifted him clear of the quarter deck

As he screamed - 'Oh God! I'm dead!'

 

We never saw Captain Kreel again,

But nobody seemed to care,

We sailed for the Falkland Islands then,

And we left the woman there,

I heard she married again, sometime,

To a sailor known as Kip,

And dreams of her home in Pompey, but -

They won't let her onto a ship!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

Perhaps Captain Kreel was a woman disguised as a man, seeing as how the triton chose him over the woman. LOL! Funny how having a woman on board angers the sea but having a naked woman on board calms the sea. Imagine that!

Yeah to the power of female nudity! :)

Linda Marie

[Tate Morgan]

Oh this is just the best aside from the ancient mariner it is a great story the work is evident and beautiful I would love my name affixed to it
tate

[R J Askew]

Cracking stuff. This, for me is the best of the ones of yours that I have just read. The theme is spot on for a classic ballad. We all have a bit of cruelty in us and I instantly took to the Capn. That was the way to be. No messing around. Live or die. Obey or die. That's how it was. Simple. Unlike now. And -- feeling out of sort with love -- I see my life as a journey on a wild sea where women bring unwelcome distraction. And so hurrah from Kreel! And over the side with the rancid tar. But Kreel is outmonstered and by a monster taken. I think two best lines in the poem are 'monster without monster within' and the twist at the end where the source of the doom is stranded down under. Hurrah for Pompey!

[Doctor JKC]

"As he screamed - 'Oh God! I'm dead!'"

Wow, what a great sea tale in the mode
of William Hope Hodgson.
Fine detail.

Excellent!
Dr. Callaghan

[Merlot]

Poetic Justice so to speak...Aren't we fortunate it is no longer considered bad luck to have a woman on board a ship !!!

[Lena M. P.]

I dub thee the tale master! A touch of Moby Dick, Jonah, and The Bounty rolled into one story. Nicely done!

[Marion A Sadler]

David... I really like this. Riveting reading, somewhere between jaws and the perfect storm.
Marion

[Emily B]

More should read your work. The tale reminds me in a small way of Skipper Ireson's ride. . . . but your monster Kreel soon dwarfs it.

[LJW]

These epic tales are just that....EPIC.

I am not a fan of such tales. However, I am a huge fan of such tales when you write them. You seem to have mastered the perfect balance of writing skill, dry wit, storytelling ability, and originality.

More should read your work.

[Mark]

David, Your gift for expressing the grisly and macabre in gorgeous language is unsurpassed! How appropriate that Monster B devoured Monster A; the metaphor would seem to be that we all, by our actions, create our own Fates!Seaman on the Halfshell (with a twist of Limey!); make it a double!