None of them knew the color of the sky. Their eyes glanced level, and were fastened upon the waves that swept toward them. These waves were of the hue of slate, save for the tops, which were of foaming white, and all of the men knew the colors of the sea. The horizon narrowed and widened, and dipped and rose, and at all times its edge was jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks ……
Thus begins Stephen Crane’s classic short story, ‘The Open Boat.’ The story is almost as much fact as fiction. While running guns to revolutionaries in Cuba, the SS Commodore sank after hitting a sandbar off Ponce Inlet, Florida. Crane, part of the filibustering expedition, found himself in a small open boat with three other men for 36 hours in high seas.
Last weekend, Professor Paul Sorrentino, the nation’s pre-eminent Crane scholar, spoke at “Stephen Crane Day” at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse And Lilian Place, not far from where Crane came ashore. Crane died of tuberculosis at the age of 28.