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The Temple
By H. P. Lovecraft
(Manuscript found on the coast of Yucatan.)
On August 20, 1917, I, Karl Heinrich, Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein, Lieutenant-Commander in the
Imperial German Navy and in charge of the submarine U-29, deposit this bottle and record in
the Atlantic Ocean at a point to me unknown but probably about N. Latitude 20°, W. Longitude
35°, where my ship lies disabled on the ocean floor. I do so because of my desire to set
certain unusual facts before the public; a thing I shall not in all probability survive to accomplish
in person, since the circumstances surrounding me are as menacing as they are extraordinary,
and involve not only the hopeless crippling of the U-29, but the impairment of my iron German
will in a manner most disastrous.
On the afternoon of June 18, as reported by wireless to the U-61, bound for
Kiel, we torpedoed the British freighter Victory, New York to Liverpool, in N. Latitude
45° 16′, W. Longitude 28° 34′; permitting the crew to leave in boats in order
to obtain a good cinema view for the admiralty records. The ship sank quite picturesquely, bow
first, the stern rising high out of the water whilst the hull shot down perpendicularly to the
bottom of the sea. Our camera missed nothing, and I regret that so fine a reel of film should never
reach Berlin. After that we sank the lifeboats with our guns and submerged.
When we rose to the surface about sunset a seaman’s body was found on
the deck, hands gripping the railing in curious fashion. The poor fellow was young, rather dark,
and very handsome; probably an Italian or Greek, and undoubtedly of the Victory’s
crew. He had evidently sought refuge on the very ship which had been forced to destroy his own—one
more victim of the unjust war of aggression which the English pig-dogs are waging upon the Fatherland.
Our men searched him for souvenirs, and found in his coat pocket a very odd bit of ivory carved
to represent a youth’s head crowned with laurel. My fellow-officer, Lieut. Klenze, believed
that the thing was of great age and artistic value, so took it from the men for himself. How
it had ever come into the possession of a common sailor, neither he nor I could imagine.
As the dead man was thrown overboard there occurred two incidents which created
much disturbance amongst the crew. The fellow’s eyes had been closed; but in the dragging
of his body to the rail they were jarred open, and many seemed to entertain a queer delusion
that they gazed steadily and mockingly at Schmidt and Zimmer, who were bent over the corpse.
The Boatswain Müller, an elderly man who would have known better had he not been a superstitious
Alsatian swine, became so excited by this impression that he watched the body in the water;
and swore that after it sank a little it drew its limbs into a swimming position and sped away
to the south under the waves. Klenze and I did not like these displays of peasant ignorance,
and severely reprimanded the men, particularly Müller.
The next day a very troublesome situation was created by the indisposition
of some of the crew. They were evidently suffering from the nervous strain of our long voyage,
and had had bad dreams. Several seemed quite dazed and stupid; and after satisfying myself that
they were not feigning their weakness, I excused them from their duties. The sea was rather
rough, so we descended to a depth where the waves were less troublesome. Here we were comparatively
calm, despite a somewhat puzzling southward current which we could not identify from our oceanographic
charts. The moans of the sick men were decidedly annoying; but since they did not appear to
demoralise the rest of the crew, we did not resort to extreme measures. It was our plan to remain
where we were and intercept the liner Dacia, mentioned in information from agents
in New York.
In the early evening we rose to the surface, and found the sea less heavy.
The smoke of a battleship was on the northern horizon, but our distance and ability to submerge
made us safe. What worried us more was the talk of Boatswain Müller, which grew wilder
as night came on. He was in a detestably childish state, and babbled of some illusion of dead
bodies drifting past the undersea portholes; bodies which looked at him intensely, and which
he recognised in spite of bloating as having seen dying during some of our victorious German
exploits. And he said that the young man we had found and tossed overboard was their leader.
This was very gruesome and abnormal, so we confined Müller in irons and had him soundly
whipped. The men were not pleased at his punishment, but discipline was necessary. We also denied
the request of a delegation headed by Seaman Zimmer, that the curious carved ivory head be cast
into the sea.
On June 20, Seamen Bohm and Schmidt, who had been ill the day before, became
violently insane. I regretted that no physician was included in our complement of officers,
since German lives are precious; but the constant ravings of the two concerning a terrible curse
were most subversive of discipline, so drastic steps were taken. The crew accepted the event
in a sullen fashion, but it seemed to quiet Müller; who thereafter gave us no trouble.
In the evening we released him, and he went about his duties silently.
In the week that followed we were all very nervous, watching for the Dacia.
The tension was aggravated by the disappearance of Müller and Zimmer, who undoubtedly committed
suicide as a result of the fears which had seemed to harass them, though they were not observed
in the act of jumping overboard. I was rather glad to be rid of Müller, for even his silence
had unfavourably affected the crew. Everyone seemed inclined to be silent now, as though holding
a secret fear. Many were ill, but none made a disturbance. Lieut. Klenze chafed under the strain,
and was annoyed by the merest trifles—such as the school of dolphins which gathered about
the U-29 in increasing numbers, and the growing intensity of that southward current which was
not on our chart.
It at length became apparent that we had missed the Dacia altogether.
Such failures are not uncommon, and we were more pleased than disappointed; since our return
to Wilhelmshaven was now in order. At noon June 28 we turned northeastward, and despite some
rather comical entanglements with the unusual masses of dolphins were soon under way.
The explosion in the engine room at 2 P.M. was wholly a surprise. No defect
in the machinery or carelessness in the men had been noticed, yet without warning the ship was
racked from end to end with a colossal shock. Lieut. Klenze hurried to the engine room, finding
the fuel-tank and most of the mechanism shattered, and Engineers Raabe and Schneider instantly
killed. Our situation had suddenly become grave indeed; for though the chemical air regenerators
were intact, and though we could use the devices for raising and submerging the ship and opening
the hatches as long as compressed air and storage batteries might hold out, we were powerless
to propel or guide the submarine. To seek rescue in the lifeboats would be to deliver ourselves
into the hands of enemies unreasonably embittered against our great German nation, and our wireless
had failed ever since the Victory affair to put us in touch with a fellow U-boat of the
Imperial Navy.
From the hour of the accident till July 2 we drifted constantly to the south,
almost without plans and encountering no vessel. Dolphins still encircled the U-29, a somewhat
remarkable circumstance considering the distance we had covered. On the morning of July 2 we
sighted a warship flying American colours, and the men became very restless in their desire
to surrender. Finally Lieut. Klenze had to shoot a seaman named Traube, who urged this un-German
act with especial violence. This quieted the crew for the time, and we submerged unseen.
The next afternoon a dense flock of sea-birds appeared from the south, and
the ocean began to heave ominously. Closing our hatches, we awaited developments until we realised
that we must either submerge or be swamped in the mounting waves. Our air pressure and electricity
were diminishing, and we wished to avoid all unnecessary use of our slender mechanical resources;
but in this case there was no choice. We did not descend far, and when after several hours the
sea was calmer, we decided to