Chapter 2: Atlantic Ocean – Background

Down in the South, by the waste without sail on it,
Far from the zone of the blossom and tree,
Lieth, with winter and whirlwind and wail on it,
Ghost of a land by the ghost of a sea.
Weird is the mist from the summit to base of it;
Sun of its heaven is wizened and grey;
Phantom of light is the light on the face of it—
Never is night on it, never is day!
Here is the shore without flower or bird on it;
Here is no litany sweet of the springs—
Only the haughty, harsh thunder is heard on it,
Only the storm, with a roar in its wings!

—Henry Kendall, “Beyond Kerguelen,” 1895

Keeper’s Information & Background

Learning the Ropes
The first few months at sea are designed to acclimatize the Keeper and players with life onboard a nineteenth-century whaling ship. The encounters are presented in a logical and manageable order. Shipboard duties and nautical terminology should be introduced gradually, as should the Quiddity and her crew, with occasional spotlights calling attention to the more quirky or notable personalities. There’s a lot of information to absorb, and if the Keeper overwhelms her players (or herself!) under a tsunami of jargon, the fun will drain from the campaign like waters through a ship’s scuppers! See “The Quiddity” for notes on nautical terminology. If the Keeper would like to provide the players with background material, “The Quiddity (Player Version)” may be distributed without risking spoilers.

Mythos Elements
The Keeper should also hold back on Mythos-related weirdness for a while. Things are going to get very strange in the Pacific Ocean; but for now, constrain the horror elements of the game to the occasional nightmare. Jeremiah Joab and William Pynchon may be members of the Kingsport Cult, but they’re also the ship’s captain and mate, and these roles should be developed first. Building shipboard relationships with the officers is vital for the health of the campaign, and makes the inevitable alliances, betrayals, and deaths more meaningful.

Pace
Given the dramatic conclusion of the Kingsport chapter, the Keeper should establish a more relaxed atmosphere, at least until the storm hits: good spirits prevail, and there’s plenty of greenhorn high-jinks to keep things lively. The first few days at sea may be roleplayed on a day-to-day basis. Once the players become more familiar with the setting and their shipboard roles, the Keeper may start accelerating the timetable. Eventually entire weeks may pass with little more attention than a brief summary—“It’s been a full week of fair weather, and the Quiddity is making good time. Still, no whales have been sighted.” It’s up to the Keeper to pace the campaign, but it’s important to keep in mind that White Leviathan covers three years of game time!

Sensitivity Note: Animal Cruelty
The hunting and butchering of whales is a brutal trade, and much of the horror of this industry is self-evident in the descriptions provided throughout White Leviathan. But this indifference to the suffering of animals is not restricted to whales. The men of the nineteenth century were, as a whole, remarkably inhumane to animals, an attitude that went far beyond the necessities of food, fur, and oil. Contemporary accounts of whaling voyages are filled with shocking episodes of animal cruelty, often described with appalling nonchalance. Birds are shot in the hundreds just for sport, young whales are wounded to attract their parents, boiling oil is poured down the gullet of living sharks, and turtles are stacked like barrels for months before slaughter. There were some dissenters, of course, but there was nothing like an organized animal rights movement, and national ideas of “conservation” were nascent at best. White Leviathan is written with these contemporary attitudes in mind, and there’s much in the coming pages to disgust a modern gamer used to procuring his meat wrapped in neat plastic packages! (For the record, the author eats meat, has been hunting, and enjoys fishing. But these nineteenth century guys, man—they see a new animal, they shoot it just for kicks!)

The Atlantic Ocean

By 1844, the mid-Atlantic Ocean is no longer a fertile whaling ground, and the Quiddity makes haste to reach the Pacific. Except for the storm described in Encounter 9, the weather remains mild, and the Quiddity makes excellent time. Only two main concerns occupy the minds of the crew: the doldrums, and rounding the Horn.

The Doldrums
The doldrums are formed when the northeast and southeast trade winds meet at the equator and push each other upwards. This creates a strange, low-pressure zone with little wind, turbulent skies, and the occasional sudden storm. Ships sometimes get stuck for weeks; when things get bad, a captain may order the whaleboats to tow the ship with ropes. Once the equator is crossed, the skies begin to reveal southern constellations, and greenhorns are raised a notch in estimated “rank”—indeed, there is a ceremony onboard the ship to mark the occasion. (See Encounter 10.)

Rounding the Horn
As attested by dozens of sea shanties, the difficulty of rounding Cape Horn is legendary. Fraught with great swells, terrible storms, and plummeting temperatures, it’s not unknown for a ship to be destroyed in the process. Three to five weeks of storms may be expected, with winds from Antarctica swelling the waves to heights of 60 feet. Some captains avoid it altogether, circling the globe via Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to make the Pacific passage. Rounding the Cape should be on the mind of every experienced sailor. Looming in the future, it causes apprehension; as the Horn approaches, fear and dread.

Rachel Ward

One of the first notable events to transpire onboard the Quiddity will be the unexpected appearance of Rachel Ward. But even before this, a wise Keeper should exploit her condition for some dramatic roleplaying scenarios. How’s life inside her cask? Did she bring enough food and water? Did she make any friends among the ship’s rats? Does she sneak out and explore? Will she contact possible allies before going public—perhaps her graverobbing chum, Professor Lowell; or the opium-addled blacksmith, Morgan? And of course, does she emerge on her own, or is she discovered? The Keeper must balance Rachel’s predicament with the rest of the characters, who have the benefit of public gameplay. In other words, don’t keep a major character locked in a barrel for too long!

Secondary Character
Because Rachel must remain hidden at the start of the voyage, the Keeper may allow her player to run one of the Quiddity’s sailors during the first few days at sea. This is an excellent way to get the ball rolling on secondary characters, if the Keeper has decided to adopt that system. Otherwise, it may serve as a fun diversion, letting Rachel’s player “learn the ropes” while Rachel herself is scheming in her cask. To get the full effect of the initial encounters, a greenhorn works best.

The Handsome Cabin Boy
If Rachel Ward signed onto the Quiddity disguised as a greenhorn, the first few days play out quite differently than if Rachel is hiding belowdecks. Rachel will find herself being sent aloft, assigned to a watch, and sleeping in the forecastle. For details on this option, see Rachel Ward’s character profile.

Reaction to Rachel
Rachel’s sudden appearance causes quite a stir among the all-male crew, and no small amount of distress. Having a woman onboard is unlucky, and to make things worse, she’s a redhead. Nobody wants a “hen frigate.” After all, they’re already carrying a useless passenger with that crackpot naturalist! The officers and experienced hands also recognize the risk of having an unmarried woman onboard. At best, she may distract the crew. At worst, she may be in physical danger. The Keeper should explain to Rachel that she’s been designated “Unlucky.” (See “The Curse of Jonah” for details.)

With the exception of a few libidinous crewmen such as Pig Bodine and Isaac Reed, the ship’s NPCs will by united in their desire to send Rachel home as quickly as possible. While the Keeper can certainly exploit this for drama, it’s obviously not a permissible outcome, and ultimately Joab will disallow it. But before the Keeper invokes the captain’s authority, she should allow Rachel some room to maneuver. How does Rachel respond to the crew? Does she make allies? And of course, how does she respond to Joab, who may be pointedly ignoring her?

Captain Joab
Ultimately it’s the captain’s decision, and the Keeper should base Joab’s response on Rachel’s actions. At this point, it’s unlikely she’ll win him over through affection, and shaming Joab by revealing her pregnancy only invokes his wrath. (See “Managing the Campaign” for details.) But of course, players are players, and therefore unpredictable! There are many possible scenarios here, from an angry Joab literally throwing her overboard—in which case, Pynchon or Coffin may intervene—to Joab taking pity on the “young whore” and promising to put her ashore at the Falklands. The most likely outcome is to have a furious captain declare, “Since Miss Ward wants to go a-whaling, a-whaling she shall go,” and order her to be treated like any foremasthand.

The Henhouse
While an angry Joab might condemn Rachel to the forecastle, there’s no way Pynchon or Coffin would allow that. The Keeper should give Coffin the opportunity to intercede; but if the player gets nowhere with Joab, Pynchon comes to the rescue. He’ll order the reluctant carpenter to build Rachel a small cabin behind the midship shelter. While it’s hardly ideal, this “henhouse” offers Rachel some privacy. (See “The Quiddity, Location 11-B” for details.)

Rachel’s Pregnancy
Rachel may voluntarily reveal her pregnancy at any time, but it’s not a secret possible to maintain past winter. She begins “showing” sometime between January and February 1845. However, the Keeper may allow certain characters to guess her condition as early as late November 1844; particularly those with medical experience, such as Dr. Lowell, or those from big families, like Quakaloo or Stanley Ruch. A Medicine roll offers the best results, but an Intelligence roll may also suffice, modified by the appropriate month. By March 1845, anyone looking at Rachel is permitted an Intelligence roll to assess the situation. Of course, “there’s no secrets onboard a ship,” so it’s unlikely to get that far. Once the news is public, it’s up to the Keeper and players to determine the outcome.

Sources & Notes

The author is greatly indebted to two principle sources for this chapter—Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea, and Francis Allyn Olmsted’s Incidents of a Whaling Voyage. Both feature whaling ships traveling down the Atlantic and rounding Cape Horn, and Olmsted’s book was written just a few years before the Quiddity’s voyage. Despite the repugnant racism and smug self-righteousness of its prissy author, Olmsted’s narrative features many indelible, first-hand accounts of these marvelous waters.

White Leviathan, Chapter 2—Atlantic Ocean
[Back to Chapter 1: Setting Sail | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Chapter 2: Encounters]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 8 August 2022
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]