August 2, today as I’m writing this, is the birthday of F. Marion Crawford (1854-1909).

Crawford wrote a number of stories about the supernatural, but he his brest remembered for two that have become classics, “For the Blood is the Life” and “The Upper Berth”.

Although an American, Crawford lived most of his life in Italy. He began his career as a novelist. Of his novels, the only one I’m aware of that has fantasatic elements is Khalid, which was reprinted in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.

I took a look at “For the Blood is the Life” a few years ago. Today, I’ll look at “The Upper Berth”. M. R. James considered it one of the best ghost stories and defnitely Crawford’s best tale. 

The story is told in a style that was popular at the time the story was written (1885) in which an unamed narrator is sitting in a group of men, often at a club or in a bar, and one of the others begins to tell a story. The rest of the work of fiction is the teller telling his tale. Why this framing sequence was so popular, I don’t know. It seems to me that it wouild be quicker to just get to the main story and skip the framing sequence.

Maybe that’s why club stories aren’t written much these days.

But I digress.

The main actor in this story is a man named Brisbane. He is a sailor who, for reasons that are never explained, is taking passage on a steamer from England to America. It is one he has traveled on before. His cabin on this trip has two berths (bunks, to you landlubbers). Brisbane gets there first and takes the lower one.

The first night, his roommate arrives after Brisbane has gone to bed. In the middle of the night, the man jumps out of bed and runs screaming down the hall. The next day the man is believed to have jumped overboard.

During the night, Brisbane wakes up to find the porthole locked open. He closes it.

The captain tells Brisbane that on the three previous voyages of the ship, the occupant of the cabin that had the  upper berth has gone overboard.

The captain and the ship’s doctor both try to talk Brisbane into bunking with them. He refuses.

At first.

After a couple of nights of the porthole opening when it’s been lockes shut and something occupying the empty upper berth, he changes his mind.

I’m condensing things greatly, of course. “The Upper Berth” deserves its reputation. It is a chilling ghost story. It is currently available in a number of places.

Crawford also wrote a story entitled “Man Overboard!”. I’ve not read it, but it would be interesting to do a comparison.