THE LAST VOLTAGE OF THE GHOST SHIP | HERITAGE OF WORD | GRADE 12

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE GHOST SHIP

                                        By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Summary

The story describes how a boy deepens his observation and at last how he grows out of boyhood.

The boy has become a strong new man and he wants to show how he has changed. Many years before he had seen a large ship without lights and without any sound. One night it passed by his village. It was long and tall. It sailed to the other side of the bay. When the lights of the lighthouse fell on it, it disappeared and when there  were on lights it would reappear. Something must have gone wrong because it moved to the sand bank, ran on the ground, broke up and sank without a single sound. Actually after happening this, it had produced a large explosive noise. The next day he knew that it was his dream. He could see no sign of the ship. He could see the hunts on the seahorse and the smugglers ships  on the sea. But he didn't tell anyone about it.
The following March he saw the ship moving in the wrong direction as in the first time. He was sure that he was awake and ran to tell his mother. She saw very sad. She supposed that his brain was decayed. She had to go town to buy a chair. So she asked a boatman to watch over her son. But he saw the fish and hairs, not the ship. The son was so stubborn and she had to promise to watch the ship the next March. She sat on the chair thinking of her dead husband. she was excited and died. After this, four other women also died when they sat on this chair and they threw the evil chair into the sea.
The boy was an orphan now. He didn't like to live by charity. He sold fish out of the boats. His voice was becoming louder. He looked to the sea another night in March. He saw the big whale. The dog were barking and the women were afraid. Even the oldest men remembered how their great - grandfather had crawled under their beds. Those who ran into the street didn't see the ship which was lost again in the east and raised up the following year. But they beat the boy. They left him twisted. He was extremely angry and wanted to show who he was. He did not tell anyone about his plan next year.

On the eve of the appearance of the ghost ship, he was going steal a boat, cross the bay spend the evening for it. He was lost his adventure and didn't notice the usual things : the ivory statuette, the Dutch Negroes and the Malayans. It was night and he was rowing in the stolen boat to the mouth of the day. He didn't light the lantern not the alert the custom police. Every fifteen seconds, the light of the lighthouse home. He was getting close to the buoys. The lights looked cruel and the water sad. The night was very dark as if the stars were dead. Now the ship was there. It was very large and there was no light because there was nobody inside. He saw a lot of drowned animals floating. When there was the light of the lighthouse it all disappeared. He stayed alone not knowing what to do. When the light passed, the ship appeared again. Its compass were not of order and it was moving to the sand bank. Suddenly it occurred to him that he should light the lantern. When he lighted it, the ship corrected it course and it was a rebirth. The animals corpse went to the bottom and the routine of life came to normal. He was still angry. He wanted to show the cowards who he was. He rowed his boat in front of the ship. He was guiding the pilot. The ship seemed to be under his control. Even the lights of the lighthouse didn't make it invisible.

The crosses of the Church, the misery of the house, and the illusion were very dear. The ship still followed him. The pilot must have mistaken and then there was a roar of the whistle bursting forth. He was soaked with the downpour of steam. His boat was about to upturn. The whole village was bright with the ship light. A second before the ship broke the ground. Then the light came out and it was no longer a march morning but a bright a noon of Wednesday. Now he could see the suprised disbelievers. They looked thoroughly at the largest ship in the world. The other one was on the ground in front of the church. It was taller and larger than the village with its name engraved in iron letters, Halaesillog. The wasters of the sea of death were dripping down its sides.