[GASPlNG]
CREWMAN: Captain.
-Captain. -Ridley.
Ridley, have you seen any other survivors?
No, sir.
Captain, my foot is caught in some of the wreckage.
-lt's pulling me under. -Hold on.
Ridley!
Ridley. Ridley.
No.
PlRATES [CHANTlNG]: More blood, more blood, more blood.
CAPTAIN: Delirious from nearly drowning, I saw it.
The Black Freighter.
The hell-bound ship's black sails against the yellow Indies sky.
I knew again the stench of powder and men's brains and War.
PlRATES [CHANTlNG]: More blood, more blood, more blood.
CAPTAIN: The waves about me Were scarlet...
...foaming, horribly warm in the Freighter's wake.
ln despair, I offered my weathered soul to almighty God...
.. .his mercy and his judgment.
[GULLS CAWlNG]
[GROANlNG]
When I awoke, I found myself upon a dismaI beachhead...
.. .with my men.
Pieces of my men.
lt was all I could do for her..΄
.. .though she had borne me through seas of bIood.
Her damp embrace had prevented me from driffing beyond reach .
Yet this small comfort was all I could offer.
One of my crew lay ahead.
Birds were eating his thoughts and memories.
Away. Hya!
Hya! Get away.
[GRUNTlNG]
ln heIl, at Ieast the gulls are contented.
For my part' I begged that they shouId take my eyes.
Thus sparing me future horrors.
I thought of my famiIy ...
...my wife, my daughters.
VuInerabIe, unsuspecting.
Awaiting my return, only to be met by damnation...
.. .bearing down upon them.
Hey!
Over here!
Here!
Ridley.
A saiI.
RidIey had brought me a sail.
Perhaps this couId be my route back to Davidstown.
Everything I Ioved, everything I Iived for, depended on my reaching home...
...in advance of that terribIe Freighter .
The morning sun found me no less troubIed.
Further down the shore ...
...some of my crew had become infIated with gas.
[GROANS AND GAGS]
I shuddered at my own idea, attempting to banish this repuIsive notion.
Even in death, they sought to fuIfiIl their duty...
.. .making our vesseI more buoyant.
And I wouId do my duty to them in returning them home.
RudeIy jarring my men from eternal rest, and laying them in the bed I prepared...
...I hoped my wife and daughters might be tucked in by gentler hands.. .
.. .when their turn came ΄
[GRUNTS]
We shall get home together, my friend.
I waited for the tide .
Then, embarking, headed east.
East, across the night seas.
East, borne on the bodies of murdered men.
Hope can be a horribIe thing.
[THUNDER CRASHlNG]
[GRUNTlNG]
With the dawn came the guIls looking for breakfast.
Ridley.
[GULLS CAWlNG]
Get out.
[GRUNTS]
I was reminded that l, myself, had not eaten.
I know it is unappetizing' but it is all we have.
[GAGGlNG]
Whoever we are, wherever we reside, we exist on the whim of murderers.
I hardly recognized my old friend Ridley .
I could not bring myself to telI him he was a horribIe reflection...
...of his former seIf.
I really must get him home before ... . Before he gets any worse .
Before he succumbs.
I've heard that on Iess than a pint daiIy' a man might survive drinking saItwater.
RlDLEY: Captain?
What are you doing, captain?
I'm headed for Davidstown. That's What.
I need to Warn everyone.
[RlDLEY CHUCKLES]
You think you'll reach Davidstown in advance of the Black Freighter?
lsolation has made you mad, captain. Mad, indeed.
But We must try.
You are a fool.
You alone survived the Freighter's attack.
Fortune has smiled upon you, and you spit in its face .
Turn your wretched craft around and go far away, as far away as you can.
No. No, my family. I must protect them.
The Black Freighter is already there.
Your Wife , dead.
-Your children, dead. -Shut your mouth.
You have failed your family, like you have failed your crew.
[CANNONS BANGlNG AND CREW SHOUTlNG]
[PlRATES GROWLlNG]
You'll end up dead like them. You give your life in vain.
I give my life in nobility.
[CACKLlNG]
Even if I fail in my attempt, I take solace in the fact that I will see...
. ..my family again in heaven.
RlDLEY: Heaven?
Oh, there is no heaven, captain.
Believe me, sir.
I would know by now.
[THUD]
Huh?
Know this, my friends.
Hades is wet.
Hades is lonely.
[SHOUTS]
[GRUNTlNG]
And in that instant, we knew each other.
[SHARK GROWLlNG]
[SHARKS GROWLlNG]
I'm sorry, my friend.
[GROANlNG]
My raff had grown increasingIy grotesque ...
...refIecting my own transformation.
[GROWLlNG]
[THUNDER BOOMlNG]
Adriff, my darkest imaginings welIed up unchecked...
...spilIing from brain to heart like black ink.. .
.. .impossible to remove.
The vesseI had sureIy reached Davidstown already .
I pictured quiet streets overrun by the fiends from the Black Freighter.
My wife , my children, most certainIy dead.
My crew, dead.
The beast I ride on, dead.
PlRATES [CHANTlNG]: More blood, more blood, more bIood.
GlRL: Father?
lt can't be. Oh, Lord, it can't be.
Father, help us. Please.
CAPTAIN: Wait.
I'm coming.
Hurry, my dear.
Wait. Anyone but them.
Anyone.
I'd swaIlowed too much seawater.
I'd swaIlowed too much horror΄
God has damned me.
God has damned us aIl.
Truly, life is heIl and death's rough hand our onIy deliverance .
I can endure no more.
I want to join my famiIy desperately.
[GASPlNG]
Why does death pass me by?
Davidstown?
Davidstown.
I was only miIes away.
By now the town was overrun.
The fiends imagined themseIves safe from me .
But now I was home .
And revenge would be mine .
[HORSE WHlNNlES]
No, not the brigands from the Black Freighter.
The man I recognized, a moneylender from Davidstown.
With Davidstown certainIy captured...
.. .why wouId this scoundrel and his wench be alIowed free passage ...
...for this midnight tryst?
Had he coIlaborated?
Had he betrayed my peopIe?
-My family? WOMAN: Come and get it, babe.
Here.
[WOMAN MOANlNG]
[GASPS THEN SCREAMS]
CAPTAIN: My heart grew cold.
Was my wife comforted before her execution΄ ΄ .
.. .while this colIaborator and his pirate masters sneered?
My decision was hurried, but not difficult.
MONEYLENDER: Who are you? What?
[CAPTAIN SHOUTlNG]
CAPTAIN: His head burst, as if pressurized by the guilt within.
[WOMAN SCREAMlNG]
[GAGS]
A buccaneer's whore deserves no pity.
Two figures had ridden here .
TWo must ride back.
A pirate sentry.
I trotted unhurriedIy to avoid suspicion.
Their violation did not stop with the good people of Davidstown...
.. .but had cut deepIy, infecting my beloved homeland.
My Davidstown was not as I last saw it.
Already it was afflicted with the curse of the Black Freighter.
Soon, I wouId venture amongst evil men, butchers who now reside in my home...
...and make them fear me .
Upon my return home , I found the streets conspicuousIy silent.
I entered my former residence noiseIessly.
Careful not to rouse the pirate butchers occupying it from their debauched slumber.
Unaware that death was amongst them...
.. .they wouId know its dark embrace without ever understanding why .
[PlRATE GROWLlNG]
One , however, was awake . Frantic.
Lest he should raise alarms. ΄ ΄
.. .I set upon him as he entered the night-wrapped chamber.
No pirates come , but something worse.
[GlRL GASPS]
Father?
CAPTAIN: I look up into faces familiar, save for their terror΄
Through puffed and bloodied lips, she mouthed my name .
My love, why?
CAPTAIN: There came an understanding so large...
...it left no room for sanity.
So I ran.
MAN: What's happened to her?
You.
CAPTAIN: The knowledge of my damnation paced me ...
...shouting, celebrating its awful victory.
My deduction was fIawless.
The Black Freighter was heading to Davidstown.
-lt should have arrived. MAN: He went that way!
[GASPlNG]
CAPTAIN: EventuaIly, I came to a dismal black ocean...
...stretching endlessly before me .
How had I reached this appaIling position with love...
...only Iove, as my guide?
The moneylender floated at my feet.
Noble intentions had led me to atrocity.
The righteous anger fueIing my ingenious, awfuI scheme was but deIusion.
Where was my error?
Planning to resume my flight, I raised my head and saw her.
The vesseI seemed to be waiting, not hovering to strike.
And graduaIly, I understood what innocent intent brought me to...
.. .and waded out beyond my depth.
The unspeakabIe truth loomed unavoidably before me ...
.. .as I swam towards the anchored Freighter .
lts dark and lurching mast fiIled alI my vision.
All my weIl-meaning pIans had come to this.
The world I tried to save was lost beyond recalI.
A rope snaked down.
Sputtering, I grabbed it.
[PlRATES CHEER]
And from the decks above, a cheer went up...
.. .both gross and black, its stench affronting heaven.
There had been no pIan to capture Davidstown.
They'd come to wait untiI they couId collect the only prize they vaIued.
CIaim the onIy souI they truly wanted.
[PlRATES GROWLlNG AND CACKLlNG]
I was a horror.
Amongst horrors must I dwell.
[ENGLISH SDH]