The Doldrums

Day Unknown

Hour Unknown

Still no wind and waves.

At least I think it’s been that long. It feels like it. No instruments work still and daylight has seemed to abandon us. The lanterns we lit on the ship, as well as the candles inside my quarters seem to burn without aid of wick and they seem to be glowing a color that’s not like they have done before. This only aids the fears and superstitions of my crew that we are indeed under the curse of the Doldrums. Everyone is restless, including my wife and daughter, concerning this perpetual darkness and the mysterious circumstances in which the lanterns and candles burn. I am too starting to feel uneasy. Maybe talk of this curse that I cannot seem to keep at bay has finally taken over the helm of my mind. I continue to pray that my strength through the Spirit will stay with me.

~ Captain Jacques Gallo

Day Unknown

Hour Unknown

I was awakened to such a knocking on my door that I jumped to a great height that I felt I would break through the very roof of my quarters. I went to answer it, expecting the worst, but receiving the best instead. A crewmember pointed to the seas. There were waves and I could even feel a growing breeze. We were moving! Almost immediately the whole crew was awakened by me and my summoner’s shouts of praise. The curse had been lifted and what’s more, the Lord came through to deliver us out of such a desolate state. Praise be to the Lord!

~ Captain Jacques Gallo

Day Unknown

Hour Unknown

The wind has returned to a steady gust and though the night remains and the lanterns and candles burn in their same strange way, the compass has returned to a state of reliable reading, even though time and date continue to elude us. We maintained our path, heading due West toward the Azores.

~ Captain Jacques Gallo

Day Unknown

Hour Unknown

Some members of my crew have been growing uneasy and have reported to me the cause of their concerns. It seems impossible to believe, though they are of sound mind as their interactions with peers and work reflect, that such strange reports can come from the tongues of sane, rational men.

To me they have reported sounds coming as if from the ocean deep itself. Not that of whale or porpoise but of something much bigger; a sound belonging to something of such great size that only a noise mustered by its bellow could reach the surface from such great depths. By the state of their eyes and trembling of voice I believed their story to be true. But by my education of all things living in the sea, both small and great, such a story was beyond my considering.

~ Captain Jacques Gallo.

Day Unknown

Hour Unknown

I heard the story of the noise again. This time there were more members of my crew, all with the same look as before, and all convinced that what they heard was real.

They tell me it shakes the vessel’s very deck and that it only happens when I’m asleep. To save my shipmates from further upset, I feel obligated to show a belief in their story and determine the time they reported to have heard it. It is now my hope that I can ease these disturbances by which my crew now suffers.

~ Captain Jacques Gallo

Day Unknown

Hour Unknown

I finally heard it. It was like the members of my crew had exclaimed. It sounded like a trumpet from a horn atop a mountain. But it rose up as though it came from the floor of the sea. However, unlike those who reported it to me, I did not feel the deck quake beneath my feet. It sounded like it came from but a few miles away. Perhaps we were close to land.

I pray that that’s the case and we are indeed close to our destination.

~ Captain Jacques Gallo

Day Unknown

Hour Unknown

We indeed must be close to land. Since the first time hearing that great bellow, I’ve heard it many times since. And It seems to be happening with more frequency since then. At first I feared that I was succumbing to the very hysteria that my crew seems to now be suffering from. I reassure them the best I can, as I do myself, by expressing to them that it is of earthly origin and most likely a geological act of nature.

As an addition to this entry, it has been brought to my attention that we are entering into a dense, white fog. The strange light that burns on our candles and in our lanterns is still bright and I am confident our vision will not be compromised as well as our work and the maintenance of this vessel.

~ Captain Jacques Gallo

Day Unknown

Hour Unknown

We have been surrounded by this fog for what I assume has been a day’s length. Then again, I am not sure. That great noise has been haunting us since the first day we’ve encountered it and now it seems as though it’s all around us, reflected by the very fog itself. Though the lanterns and candles burn bright, they provide no use or reassurance past the decks of the ship. For, we cannot even see the sea we float upon. The wind is still present but serves no use in pushing aside this fog that surrounds us. To my crew’s and my recollection, there has never been any fog that has persisted in weather like this. Perhaps we have entered an inlet or bay or some kind that has provided this possibility.

It is my hope that the Almighty shall see us through it.

~ Captain Jacques Gallo