The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

Soon after the failed attempt to get food or water from the cabin, the men see a Dutch ship approaching them from about two miles away. They notice her odd, frenetic manner of sailing and assume the person at the helm has been drinking. They see a sailor standing on deck nodding and smiling at them, and they celebrate this miraculous deliverance. However, once the brig is virtually on top of them, they notice a terrible smell, “utterly suffocating—insufferable, inconceivable” (69). They realize the ship is filled with rotting corpses, including several women. The figure they had assumed was a smiling sailor is actually a corpse propped up on the rigging, and his “smile” is caused by the movements of his skull as a seagull, perched on his back, pecks at him. The seagull flies over the fragments of the Grampus and drops “a clotted and liver-like substance” near the men’s feet. Pym swiftly kicks it into the sea.

Pym notes that he has since tried to find out what happened to this ship but has been unable to get definitive answers. He suspects that the crew died of yellow fever or as a result of accidental poisoning.

After the Dutch ship disappears, the men once again attempt to retrieve provisions from the cabin. Peters and Pym take turns diving in, using a chain to help them stay submerged long enough to explore it. Pym finds a bottle of Port wine, which the men share. However, Peters, Park, and Augustus drink more than Pym and experience “a species of delirium” as a result (73). Having found no food, Pym begins chewing on pieces of leather that were removed from a trunk. They pass more days and nights in “the most intense mental and bodily anguish that can possibly be imagined,” becoming increasingly weak and emaciated. Parker hallucinates land in the distance, and Peters and Pym have to restrain him to prevent him from swimming away.

The men eventually see another ship approaching them and again celebrate their salvation. However, the ship turns and sails away from them. Parker suggests that one of them should sacrifice himself so that the others can survive.

Pym attempts to dissuade Parker, but Augustus and Peters are both in favor of the plan. They agree to wait until the fog lifts in case a ship suddenly appears, but one never does. They finally draw lots, a process Pym describes in great detail and which he says “will embitter every future moment of [his] life” (79). Parker draws the shortest wood splinter, and Peters stabs him in the back. Over the subsequent four days, the rest of the men consume his body and blood in what Pym calls a “fearful repast” (81).

Several days later, Pym remembers that prior to the storm, he hid an axe in one of the berths. He retrieves it and uses it to cut through the deck over the storeroom, finding some wine, a ham, and several jars of olives. They also find a small tortoise from the Galapagos Islands, a gift for Captain Barnard from the captain of another ship. The men feel somewhat encouraged by this turn of events.

The men continue to drift into warmer waters. They endure a small storm and realize they are being followed by sharks. Augustus’s untreated injuries grow worse, and he develops a serious infection. Pym and Peters give him larger rations of food and water, but he soon dies. The rest of their provisions rot in the heat, and the number of sharks following them grows larger. The hull, which had been gradually rolling over, finally turns all the way, throwing the men into the water. Peters saves Pym from the water, pulling him onto the overturned hull. They realize they can eat the barnacles they find there, and some small rainstorms provide them with enough fresh water to stay alive.

They eventually see another ship approaching them but are hesitant to celebrate in case they are again abandoned. But this ship, the Jane Guy, rescues them.