The Blackbird

A team of English students has recently released a documentary surrounding the myth of the Blackbird, a ghost ship which has featured in nautical legend for years around the North Atlantic.

According to the story, the Blackbird was engaged by an unknown figure in Southampton to carry a secret but valuable cargo to New York. All information concerning the voyage was subsequently lost in a fire a few days after the ship left Southampton. The Blackbird took over a month to cross the ocean, and was found sitting silently at anchor in New York. When she did not respond to any signals the harbour master boarded her but was violently repelled by someone, or something, aboard the ship. One of the harbour master’s guards was killed and left on board, and two others were mortally wounded.

When a group of government investigators arrived the next morning the Blackbird had vanished. A covert search found no trace of her and a few subsequent operations have also failed.

Since then, the Blackbird has been sighted many times and in many places. None have boarded her and returned, and legend speculates wildly at what lies in the hold. Some stories claim that unearthly howls and strange lights emanate from her.

Now the Blackbird at last lies caught, somewhere in the ice near Baffin Island. Her exact location is a closely guarded secret, but one well-connected and generous benefactor has engaged the Investigators to find the truth through research and eventually boarding the Blackbird itself.

Possibilities

1 The Blackbird carried canisters of gas, developed by the Germans shortly before the end of the Great War. A few canisters were captured by the British army and the rest were destroyed. Some of these were to be sent to the United States for scientists there to investigate; they were the Blackbird’s cargo. The gas induces psychotic behaviour, along with physiological changes. Muscles swell and become much stronger, and metabolism is slowed, forcing victims into hibernation until disturbed. Eventually, victims become little more than killing machines clinging to only the deepest of drives. One of the canisters aboard the ship leaked, affecting the crew. They killed one another off until only one-the captain-was left. It was he who attacked the harbour master and it is he who still hibernates within the ship, still occasionally steering it and guarding its precious cargo.

2 A rich American collector bought at auction in England a set of rare and powerful mythos tomes including the Necronomicon and Unausprechlichen Kulten. This information came into the hands of a cult, which decided to steal the books for themselves. To ensure the safety of his purchase the collector hired the Blackbird to secretly convey them across the Atlantic. However, one crewmember was also a cultist, and as soon as the ship was underway he opened the crates. His already-weak mind was rent asunder by the awful truths within the books, and he used the books’ terrible magicks summon strange beings. These attacked first the crew and then the harbour master and, even now infest the ship. The cultist, bound eternally by the dark magic he called down, continues to steer the damned vessel.

3 The Blackbird contained oddly-inscribed tablets uncovered at Avebury and apparently older than human civilisation. The tablets were being sent to experts in America for expert opinion. However, the artefacts radiate a powerful magical aura which was felt by the Deep Ones off Cornwall as the Blackbird passed by. They sent their agents to destroy the records in Southampton, then killed or enslaved the ship’s crew and opened the cargo.

The Blackbird was later sunk off Innsmouth. Stories of its later appearances are just that - stories.

© Rory Naismith