Episode 30: 'The Sea Raiders' by H.G. Wells

 

 

I'm back from a recent trip to the south coast of England, the sand (actually shingle) still in my shoes, the salt still in my hair, and suitably inspired to narrate a classic seaside story by H.G. Wells - The Sea Raiders, replete with watery sound effects and musical seascapes.

Do you ever find someone has already said the thing you were going to say so much better than you could that there's no point in you saying it?  I do. That's why I'm going to quote from the (really rather good) Oldstyle Tales Press website* for a précis of the story:

"The Sea Raiders is a grisly forbearer of The Birds: a charming coastal town is terrorized when swarms of carnivorous squid take a liking to human flesh. In a scene that resembles JAWS – and one that challenges all Victorian standards of form – they capsize a rowboat filled with women and children on a seaside holiday… and shred them to bits. This is a wonderful and compact Man vs. Nature tale that brings out Wells’ concern that our unchallenged reign over the world could be very easily brought to an end."

I quite agree.

Moreover, H.G. Wells' journalistic style and eye for detail - he considered himself a journalist above all - finds the perfect match of form and subject here in a story which is concerned entirely with action and incident.  

I hope you enjoy this story and keep you eyes open for more to come.

Waving (not drowning),

Jasper

 

*Oldstyle Tales is an independent publisher that specialises in beautiful, annotated editions of classic horror and gothic fiction, illustrated by the hugley talented M. Grant Kellermeyer.  Not only do they produce handsome fine books, but their website is also a treasure trove of information and insight. Please check them out: https://www.oldstyletales.com/

 

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About the episode:

 

"The Sea Raiders" by H. G. Wells, first published in 1896 in The Weekly Sun Literary Supplement. It was included in The Plattner Story and Others, a collection of short stories by Wells published by Methuen & Co. in 1897.

Credit where credit's due:

 

End theme music:  The Black Waltz by Scott Buckley | www.scottbuckley.com.au Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

 

Incidental music:  

  

Music provided by "Vivek Abhishek" https://www.youtube.com/user/VivEKhsihbA/videos
Music used : "Shark Attack" originally composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek" https://youtu.be/2kECpZycm7Y
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Music used : " DR OCTOPUS " composed and produced by "Vivek Abhishek" Music link : https://youtu.be/FIj0adxQAv4 SUBSCRIBE us on YOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/3qumnPH Follow on Facebook : https://bit.ly/33RWRtP Follow on Instagram : https://bit.ly/2ImU2J 

 

"Partial Remains" (copyright free music) courtesy of z3r0 - Copyright Free Music: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD2iUVkyqfuAFvqpdWweTkw

 

"What Lies Beneath" https://youtu.be/Sd0dqgEYnqk (copyright free music used with permission) by Robert Austin Music (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_kRFO1BS8oYLfK7sTOVMw) 

 

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Sound effects:

 

https://freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/59355/*

https://freesound.org/people/soundscalpel.com/sounds/110393/*

https://freesound.org/people/julius_galla/sounds/434892/*

https://freesound.org/people/XfiXy8/sounds/467293/*

https://freesound.org/people/Garuda1982/sounds/554902/*

https://freesound.org/people/juskiddink/sounds/98479/*

https://freesound.org/people/gkillhour/sounds/267223/* 

*used under the following licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

All other sound effects sourced at Freesound.org

Thumbnail art contains elements from:

https://pixabay.com/photos/fantasy-octopus-sea-eyes-3063727/ (Pixabay user: https://pixabay.com/users/v_m-5053565/)

The recording was created using Audacity and BandLab. Podcast hosted by Anchor.