Title: MS Found in a Bottle
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
Date of First Publication: 1833
Place of Publication: Baltimore Saturday Visiter
Type: Short Story
Characters: No Character
Themes: POSTHUMAN
Critical Summary: “MS Found in a Bottle” is a short story about a sailor and his bizarre encounters at sea. While voyaging on a ship, the sailor spots a cloud that unsettles him. At midnight that same night, the cloud turns into a hurricane so strong that it blows the entire crew and captain overboard, leaving only the sailor and a Swedish man left alive on the ship. For six days, the two men sail southward by the winds of the hurricane. On the sixth day, the Swede cries out in horror at the sight of a large, black ship floating above them. The black ship crashes down on them, sinking the ship and killing the Swede. The sailor manages to jump on the black ship, escaping death and finding himself surrounded by a crew and captain that are withered and immeasurably old. In his fright, he steals paper from the captain’s cabin and chronicles his experiences. He soon realizes that neither the captain nor crew can see him. Eventually, they make it all the way down to the South Pole where a whirlpool opens up. The crew are excited while the sailor is terrified, and the sailor casts out a bottle containing his manuscript as the ship sinks down.
“MS Found in a Bottle” connects to Frankenstein through shared themes of the Posthuman and the Last Man. In both stories, Victor and the sailor are confronted with the sublime. Victor creates life out of death after assembling human parts together, birthing the Creature. The sailor of “MS Found in a Bottle” finds himself on a decrepit ship so large and porous it should not be afloat. Like Frankenstein’s creature, the crew on the ship are more than human, not just because of their impossibly old age but also because they cannot see the sailor standing before them. Not only that, when they come to the whirlpool at the South Pole, the sailor is terrified in the face of death whereas the crew are eager to sink into the unknown depths. Their reaction indicates that death is not something to fear for them, the implication being that they are immortal. As for the Last Man theme, the Creature also threatens Victor with the possibility of human destruction, an apocalyptic catastrophe of the Creature’s own making which not only is sublime but overwhelmingly possible. As for the sailor of “MS Found in a Bottle,” he experiences the Last Man theme in the moment when the black ship leads the crew into a whirlpool. The scene suggests it may be the beginning of the end for humanity because of the very existence of an immortal crew and ship far beyond human understanding.
Administrative Notes: Hallie Houdetsanakis, CSUF; Alexis Shanley, CSUF (Editing)