MS. Found in a Bottle

MS. Found in a Bottle Summary | MS. Found in a Bottle Summary

The narrator begins his tale by explaining that he has received a good education due to his family's wealth, and that though he has always been interested in the mind he has always lacked imagination. He mentions this to lend credibility to the story he is about to tell.

Having spent many years traveling, the narrator set out as a passenger on a ship bound for the Archipelago Islands. The voyage is smooth at first, but after several days he notices strange clouds and a change of weather. He is a bit disturbed by the sudden calmness but the captain doesn't seem worried, even when the narrator expresses concern. Unable to sleep, the narrator starts up on deck. It is then that he hears an odd humming noise. Suddenly, the ship is rocked by a huge wave.

After recovering from the blast, the narrator discovers that only he and an old Swede have survived; everyone else who had been on the ship has been washed overboard. For five days, though they constantly fear being wrecked completely by another massive wave, they are merely swept along by unreasonably strong winds. On the sixth day the sun never rises, leaving the two men to sail along in total darkness.

At times, he says, they are brought to altitudes so high they can hardly catch their breath, while at other times, they find themselves in what appears to be a deep abyss. It is while at the bottom of one such abyss that the old Swede alerts the narrator to a strange reddish glow. When he looks up, a gigantic ship is looming over them. To their horror, it is coming down directly at them, but when it hits their ship the force of the blow hurls the narrator on to the deck of the strange ship.

The narrator lands on the ship undetected and hides himself away unnoticed. He doesn't know why he feels the need to hide, but he hides nonetheless. Soon a man passes by, and the narrator observes from his hiding place that the man seems extremely old.

Time passes, and the narrator is perplexed at the behavior of the crew on the ship. They do not notice or acknowledge his presence in any way; in fact, he says, he walked right into the captain's cabin and took the writing materials he is presently using to record his account, which he plans to stuff into a bottle and cast out to sea at the last possible moment.

In his explorations of the ship, the narrator finds that the ship's name is "Discovery." He also has occasion to survey the material the ship is made of and finds it to be unusual, like Spanish Oak, which would have been a poor choice for building a ship. Again he speaks of traveling unseen among the old, decrepit-looking crew as they continue to take absolutely no interest in him. They seem intent on making some sort of calculations with the ancient mathematical instruments lying about.

Time passes in this manner, and eventually the crew begins to pace the deck with an expectant look of hope on their faces. Suddenly the ship is sucked into a whirlpool, and they begin going down ... down ... This account, apparently, was the message found in a bottle.