Stephen Crane's short story "The Open Boat" tells the story of four men—an oiler, a correspondent, a captain, and a cook—struggling to survive in a lifeboat off the coast of Florida after a shipwreck. The men live through two days and a night at sea, relying on each other's strength, support, and knowledge to ultimately make it to shore. One of them, the oiler, does not ultimately survive the journey. Returned to land, the men feel they know something new about the dialogue of land and sea.
It was well known even in Crane's time that "The Open Boat" is a fictionalization of his experience surviving a shipwreck in 1897. He first published a journalistic account of his experiences,...
