Allan Poe’s story “MS Found in Bottle” is a work of fiction that peculiarly portrays the sea with descriptions that are at times is stretched from reality (Poe, 1833). The most notable fictional element of the sea in the story is the description of a ghost ship with an aging crew. The narrator and his colleague encounter this strange ship while drifting south after bad weather wrecks their ship. The first strange occurrence on the voyage is the transformation of a calm evening into a tempest. A simoon hits their small ship killing everyone except the narrator and an old Swede (Poe, 1833).
The gigantic ship that they encounter is nothing that the narrator has ever seen about its size and the material used in its construction. The timber used for the construction of the ship was porous (Poe, 1833, p. 136), contrary to the material that would be used to construct a ship. Another peculiar characteristic is the obsolete mathematical instruments and navigation maps strewn in the ship. When the narrator comes face to face with the ship’s crew, they seem oblivious to his presence. Furthermore, a magnanimous wave that is thousands of times bigger than the ship awes the narrator (Poe, 1833, p. 133).
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However, some of the fictional elements of the sea described by Poe may not be strange for the current period. The massive ghostly ship that the narrator encountered may not be described as so by comparison to modern ships. At four thousand tons, modern ships eclipse the weight by hundred times. Thus, the fictional elements of the time are today's reality. Additionally, the ship's plunge into the sea could not be described as fictional by today's technological advancements. Currently, submarines can operate underwater and reemerge conveniently. However, Poe's story still maintains its horrific nature as seen in his vivid description of things that have never been witnessed before.
