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Over the course of the story, the narrator transforms from believing science and rationality are the key to understanding the world to believing in the existence of horrors beyond all explanation. Because we learn about the narrator through the journal he keeps on the ghost ship, he explains his journey with hindsight, casting judgment on his previous opinions. Thus, as he introduces himself, he emphasizes his rationality in an almost mocking tone, calling his total faith in science “a very common error of this age.” We watch his devotion to science break down as the narrator finds himself in situations that become less and less explicable. He initially devotes a lot of time toward scientific observation and deduction. He recognizes the signs of the Simoom and attempts to read the sea as best he can after the initial destruction on the ship. When first faced with the ghost ship, he tries to make sense of it by scientific inquiry, such as by examining the wood or observing the crew.

However, once he is forced to admit that the ship is supernatural, the way the narrator speaks of discovery is tinged with dread. He describes the ship as being on a doomed course for forbidden knowledge. He stops trying to read the weather and instead calls the ship’s treacherous path “horror upon horror.” He even begins to question his previous assessment of events, stating that the words simoom and tornado are “trivial and ineffective” labels to place on awe-inspiring and terrible experiences. He now finds the very idea of using scientific terminology to explain such things to be limiting, almost understating the fear they cause and their powerful effect. He begins to describe the setting poetically instead of with jargon, calling the waves, “a chaos of foamless water.” Instead of icebergs, he describes “ramparts of ice,” metaphorically comparing them to fortresses. In this way, he elevates a poetic, credulous view of the world over the scientific and rational. By the time he ceases his manuscript and abandons himself to the approaching whirlpool, he is fully immersed in the dread around him without question or attempt to explain.

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