On January 2nd, 1897, a ship, on which Stephen Crane was returning home from Cuba, crashed a few miles away from the coast of Florida. Crane was lucky to survive. Several sailors, including Crane, drifted in the open sea for a whole day, until help arrived. These events were reflected in the several poems and short stories, the best of which – “The Open Boat” is considered to be a classic in the genre of novels. What is fascinating is that Crane had foreseen the events in one of his previously written poems, where he wrote that, for a sailor, whose ship was wrecked, the sea is a deathly gray wall.

As a result of this adventure, Crane got pneumonia. When he was cured (unfortunately, not completely), he left for England with his young wife, Cora, who left her first husband for Stephen. They were young and happy and led a truly bohemian lifestyle in England, recklessly spending their money, time and energy. Their new friend Herbert Wells was terrified of the excessive and impulsive extravagance of these young people. However, Wells knew that Crane’s talent was remarkable. No wonder he later wrote that Crane was undoubtedly the best writer of their generation.

“The Open Boat” tells both about the Crane’s feelings and emotions during the crash, and about a desperate fight for life against forces that do not care for one’s survival. The protagonist in the story is Crane himself; three other men, who shared his fate, the captain, the oiler and the cook, had all their real life counterparts. The real captain was also injured in real life, and Billy, the oiler, really drowned near the seashore, when the boat turned upside down. The first memoirs of Crane about this shipwreck were published only a few days after his rescue under the title “Stephen Crane’s Own Story”. Later on, Stephen changed his report to a narration, and the renamed story “The Open Boat” appeared in Scribner’s Magazine.