The action takes place in the early nineteenth century. It begins on a cargo ship sailing from Batavia, Java, to the Sunda Islands. In a powerful storm, all the crewmen die, but two passengers—the narrator and an old Swede—survive. The ship remains afloat and the storm sweeps it southward until it collides with a gigantic black ship. The impact of the collision catapults the narrator onto the black ship. The rest of the action takes place on that ship...