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Another hurricane erupts amid this darkness, and the men observe a gigantic black ship riding on the crest of a large wave. The force of this ship’s descent into the water rocks the narrator’s ship and hurls him onto the unknown vessel. He quickly hides in the hold, where he observes the ancient mariners on the ship speaking an unrecognizable language. Growing braver, he explores the captain’s private cabin, in which he finds the paper for the present manuscript. He proposes to enclose the manuscript in a bottle and toss it to sea.

The narrator then recounts a chance event in which he playfully dabbles with a tar brush on a folded sail. When spread out, the sail reads DISCOVERY. This event causes the narrator to examine the ship more closely. He is unsure of the ship’s purpose, and its timber is oddly porous. Moreover, the members of the crew seem incapable of seeing the narrator. Even the aged captain pays him no attention. The narrator continues on the ship in eternal darkness and soon discovers that it is heading due south, perhaps destined for the South Pole. As the excitement of discovery fills the crew and the narrator, the ice suddenly breaks apart to reveal a powerful whirlpool. The pull of the vortex is too powerful for the ship to resist, and it is sucked into the sea’s black hole.

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