Original subtitles

(wind whooshing)

- [Narrator] Presenting "The Veil"

and Boris Karloff.

- How do you do?

The story you are about

to see actually happened and is completely documented.

It's one of those strange events

that seem to defy all explanation.

They lie behind the veil of human knowledge

and yet they happened.

Science has many terms or labels

for these strange occurrences,

but no explanation.

As yet.

But then not too long ago,

they had no explanation for a bolt of lightning

ora falling star.

They too seemed to come from behind the veil.

(dramatic music)

Our true story tells of a strange event

and it takes place aboard the sailing ship the Vestris.

In 1828, sixteen days out of Plymouth and Boston bound.

J I'm off for the morning train !

J Across the raging main L

J I'm off to my love with a boxing glove L

~ Ten thousand miles away I

JS Oh, blow ye winds, heigh-ho I

J A-roving I will go 2

J I'll stay no more on England's shore 2

J So let the music play-ay 2

J I'm off for the morning train !

J Across the raging main L

J I'm off to my love with a boxing glove L

~ Ten thousand miles away I

(crew laughing)

(ominous music)

- Morning, Mrs. Norrich.

It's nice to see you on deck again.

- Are you feeling better, my dear?

- l was just saying to the captain

how lucky the weather has been for your first voyage.

'Tis not often we get it as good as this, ma'am.

- We are going to plot our position, Mary.

Come and see how much closer you are

to those cousins of yours in Boston.

- Itis a happy ship you're on, ma'am.

And ‘tis no wonder, with such fine sailing as we've had.

- That's where we are!

And very good too.

Come over here, Mary.

Come on, lass.

That's our position.

Don't you think we've come a long way in sixteen days?

- There's still a long way to go.

- Yes indeed, ma'am.

But at the rate we've been going,

it won't be long before we get there.

Eight bells already. (bells chiming)

Excuse me, ma'am.

- I'll leave the course for the next watch

and I'll be ready for my dinner.

49 degrees, 37 minutes north latitude,

35 degrees, 13 minutes, 20 seconds west longitude.

Come three points south.

There.

Now I'm ready for my...

my dinner.

I'm famished!

Oh, Mary, many is a time I've wished you onboard my ship

with me, and here you are at last.

You brought good luck with you, lass.

Never have I known such winds.

(bright music)

(bell clanging)

(Mary groaning)

- What is it, Mary?

- 'Tis nothing.

- It's foolish to say it's nothing.

Is it some pain you have?

- tell you, 'tis nothing.

- You didn't eat your dinner again tonight.

For days, you haven't eaten enough to keep a bird alive.

It's not like you to be like this, Mary.

- Like what?

- For days I haven't seen ya smile.

You seem lost in some melancholy world of your own.

Are sure you're not sickening for something?

- Would I not say So, if l were?

- Well, if it's nota pain in your body,

it must be a pain in your mind.

(clattering)

You're hiding something from me.

You've never done that before, Mary.

Is it the sea?

- [ hate it.

- Aye, it does affect people that way sometimes,

'til they get used to it.

The monotony of seeing nothing but water.

- No, it's not that.

It's something deep down.

A cruelty.

- Oh, come now.

There's no more cruelty in the sea

than there is on the land,

with its storms and its fires.

I'll tell ya something about the sea, lass.

When she takes life,

she does so a lot more mercifully than does the land.

- It's the voices that come from it.

- Voices?

- Day after day.

Even in my dreams I hear them.

7 [Robert] Saying what?

- ! don't know. (Suspenseful music)

1 don't know. They...

They seem to threaten me with something.

- [Robert] Ach, you're being fanciful.

- That's what I tried to tell myself.

They grow louder every hour,

as if the threat were coming nearer.

It's cold in here.

Where is my shawl?

- The sea's getting on your nerves.

It did on mine.

It'll pass.

- [ must have left it in the chart room this morning.

- You talk about getting your sea legs, huh!

Getting your sea mind is much more difficult sometimes.

(tense music) (ship creaking)

(door clicks)

(footsteps tapping)

(eerie music)

- Who are you?

Agh! Agh!

(dramatic music)

- What's going on here, Mr. Lloyd?

- l heard her cry out, sir.

I came in and found her like this.

- All right, Mary.

You're all right now, lass.

(Mary sighs) What happened, Mary?

- Someone was in here.

- Who?

Who was in here?

- Aman. A stranger.

- All right, back to work.

(footsteps thump)

- It must have been your fancy, ma'am.

There's nobody there.

- All right, Mary.

You're all right now.

Come on, come with me.

(eerie music)

We'll get out of here.

- Tall and thin. (liquid pours)

- But there was no one there.

- He wore a jacket with a hood over his head.

And when he turned and looked at me,

his face was like that of death.

His eyes were full of suffering.

He tried to say something to me.

- 'Twas but your fancy, lass.

Come now, take a sip more of this.

- 1 saw him as plainly as I see you!

Why would I lie to you?

(knocking)

- Who's there?

- Mr. Lloyd, sir.

- Oh, come in Mr. Lloyd.

Heh.

Help me persuade my wife

that there was no one in the chart room.

- Why do you keep saying there was no one there

when I say l saw him?

He was writing on that slate.

STEER NORTHWEST (tense music)

Is there nothing on it?

Well? Is there writing on it?

Steer northwest.

Steer.

North.

West.

This is not your handwriting, Robert.

- No.

- Is it yours, Mr. Lloyd?

- No, ma'am, it is not.

- Or one of the men's?

- One of the men write like that?

Why, most of them can't write at all, ma'am.

- Are you so sure now that it was just my fancy?

- If there was someone in there,

he must have slipped out before you got to Mrs. Norrich.

- A stowaway, sir?

I'll soon find out. - Aye!

Come now, my dear.

You take a rest.

We'll get to the bottom of this. Come on.

(gentle music)

(knocking)

Keep your voice low, Mr. Lloyd, she is sleeping.

- 1 searched every nook and cranny in the ship, sir,

and there's not a trace of anyone.

- Did you question the men about the writing?

- l!even made those who can write the words,

but nobody knows anything about it.

And I'm sure they're speaking the truth.

- Mr. Lloyd, before I ask you for your solemn word

that you did not write this, I will give you mine,

that I did not do so.

- As the good Lord is my witness, sir,

I did not do that writing.

- Then either there was a stowaway aboard

and he slipped out before you got there

and jumped overboard...

Ah! But what sense does that make?

- But nobody can stay hidden on this ship

for sixteen days without leaving a trace.

- Or else my wife in her disturbed state of mind...

But if she did, it's the first time she's ever written

in this hand.

- [had the same thought too, sir.

But why should she write that?

Even she knows that to steer northwest

is to take us out of the line of shipping

and into the ice floes.

- Aye, there's no sense in that either.

- What's to be done now, sir?

- What else but wait ‘til the truth of the matter comes out.

I'll keep this here.

- Aye aye, sir. There's another one in the chart room.

- Yes.

(eerie music) Yes.

Yes.

Yes, I hear you.

Yes.

Steer...

North...

West.

(ominous music)

- We've had sixteen days fair weather, sir,

so I suppose we can't complain.

- Closed in far too quickly for my liking.

l warrant you've never seen fog close in that fast.

- True enough, sir. (thudding)

- Wait, did you hear that?

- Something is moving there!

- Who ts tt?

- Who the blazes are you?

- Robert.

- What on earth?

Mary, what are you doing here?

You'll catch your death of cold.

- 1 had to come to ask you.

- Ask me what?

- If you've changed course to northwest?

- What nonsense is this?

Come on, back to your bed this minute.

You must have taken leave of your senses.

You're acting like a child,

leaving your warm bed go into the cold air.

- Robert, you haven't answered me.

Have you changed course?

- What did I tell you? You're shivering.

Here, swallow this down.

- Robert! - Swallow this down at once.

(coughing) (glass cracks)

Oh darling, I...

I'm sorry I didn't mean to speak harshly.

Here, come and sit down.

I didn't know you were in pain.

- Oh, it's not the pain, Robert.

l saw him again.

That man.

- Where? In here?

- In my dreams.

He kept saying over and over,

steer northwest.

- 'Twas only a dream.

- The look on his face,

it was like a soul in torment.

And his voice!

Oh Robert, you must do as he says.

You must, Robert, you must.

- Your hands are burning.

There's a fever in your eyes.

- Robert, there's more to this than just a dream.

- I tell you, it's nothing but the fever in you.

- And I tell you, that if l have a fever,

it is because of this, not because I'm sick.

Is there nothing I can say to make you believe me?

- What can I do to make you see sense?

I'm warning you, Mary.

There's no doctor aboard here to help

if you should fall really ill.

And that's what you'll do

if you don't throw off this wild fancy

and look after yourself.

- And I'm warning you, Robert,

if you do not obey the writing on that slate,

you'll bring sorrow to all of us.

- Do you know what'd happen if I did that?

I'd be taking this ship and every soul aboard her

into the mortal danger of the ice floes

that come south at this time of year.

Do you expect me to do that just

because my wife sees things

that aren't there and has dreams?

- Robert, I saw that man.

l have heard a voice and you have seen the writing.

There's something at work here.

Some power beyond my understanding.

1 don't know what it Is.

But I do know more surely

than I've ever known anything in my life before

that if we do not obey,

we will pay for it in bitter sorrow.

- Mary, put yourself in my place.

1 can't do it. It would be unreasonable.

- You don't understand, Robert. You don't understand!

I can do no more.

It's In your hands now.

(ominous music)

(bell clanging)

- How's Mrs. Norrich, sir?

- It could be the intestinal fever she's sickening for.

A pain in her side, I've seen it before.

She's half-crazed with that writing.

1 don't know what to do with her.

- Aye, it's been on my mind too, sir.

And it's strange, this fog coming down out

of a clear sky like this,

like a sign.

- You mean to say you think there's something in this?

- Well now, sir, they do say that us Welsh do feel things.

Ha! Superstition, they call it.

But the trouble is, the people who talk like that,

they don't explain.

Like where that writing came from, for instance.

And this fog too.

Have you noticed now how the wind has veered

around to the southeast, sir?

- Mr. Lloyd, are you trying to advise me

to change my course to the northwest?

- Oh no, sir, that's for you to decide.

But I was thinking that

if we ran northwest before this wind,

well, just for a bit of course,

we might clear this fog.

- Might help her to calm down and see sense.

If there's nothing else.

Very well, Mr. Lloyd.

Get your sails trimmed.

- Aye-aye, Sir.

(tense music)

- I say it ain't right.

We gotta do something about it.

(crew clamoring)

- We're headed too far north

and that's not bad enough.

Having a woman aboard's bad luck.

We oughta go talk to the captain about it

and do something about it right now.

(crew shouting)

Come on now. Come on, let's go.

You know what we want.

Get back on course!

- This ship ain't headed for Boston!

- Get back where where you belong.

(crew clamoring) - What is it, Mr. Lloyd?

- Sir, they came up here before I could stop them!

- We got our rights!

(crew shouting)

- All right, men.

As soon as I get my wife over this attack,

I'll turn the ship around.

Now get back to what you were doing.

- Aw! - Look lively now!

(crew chattering)

- Get back where you belong!

How Is she, sir?

- Mortal sick.

1 don't know what the end of this is going to be.

- [Sailor] Ice ho!

Three points off starboard bow!

- Diawch erioed!

Now there'll be no handling the men!

- I told you having a woman aboard

would bring us nothing but bad luck.

(tense music)

- Man, it can't be true.

- That's what you get for being so far north.

- It's an ice floe, sir.

And unless seeing things, I am,

there's people on it.

- You're right. There are three of them.

Mr. Lloyd, bring her around.

- Aye-aye, Sir.

- Two of you get ready to lower a boat.

- Here. Here!

We're saved!

They've seen us!

We're saved.

We're saved!

Here, wake up, wake up, wake up.

We're saved, they've seen us!

Look. Look.

Ahoy! Ahoy!

(crew chattering) - Haul her back, now.

- [Robert] Bring her up close to the ship.

- Come on, lad. - First one up.

- Yeah, give us a hand here, mate.

- Up with him. - Take it easy.

- All right, we gotcha, chum.

We gotcha. - Take it easy now!

- Easy.

- Lay him down there on the deck.

- Up with him! - You'll be all right.

- All right, sir. - All right, sir.

- Two of them are all right, sir.

All right, lads!

- Take these men below.

Get some grog from the galley, one of you.

- Aye-aye, Sir.

- Stand by to bring up the long boat!

- We'll soon have you fixed up.

What was the name of your ship?

- The Morningstar.

Hit an iceberg and foundered.

Of the thirty-five souls on board, we're the only survivors.

We were on that ice for a week.

God knows how ye found us, it was a miracle.

- Aye, you're right.

- As I was passing your cabin, sir,

l heard your wife call out.

- Well, you take care of this gentleman, Mr. Lloyd.

What you need first is a good hot grog.

We'll fix you up some dry clothes after, eh?

- Thank you, sir. Thank you for everything.

- You're very welcome, sir.

- Your friend's going to be all right.

They tell me he's coming round.

(Mary groaning)

- Mary.

I'll send back to the floe and pick up some ice.

It'll numb the pain.

There now, Mary lass, there now.

We'll get back on course

and pick up a ship with maybe a doctor on board.

- Sir, he is a doctor, a surgeon, one of the rescued.

- Are you really a doctor? - Yes.

But what seems to be the trouble?

- It's the intestinal fever, I think.

(dramatic music)

- 1 knew you would come.

- We'll have you all right in no time.

- You hear that, Mary?

- Robert.

Robert, this is the stranger.

That day in the chart room,

don't you remember?

- How long has she been like this?

- Four or five days.

- It was,

it was four days ago that I saw you.

- Can you do anything for her, doctor?

- Of course he can.

- Now don't you worry about a thing, ma'am.

I'll go get cleaned up.

- Now will you believe? - Yes, my darling.

Will she be all right? - Perfectly.

- Perfectly.

She's young and strong.

She'll be up and about in a week.

Now, I'll go see my other patient.

- Er, doctor before you go,

would you please write something on this slate?

- What?

The words are, steer northwest.

- Steer northwest?

1 don't understand. What-- - If you please.

(scribbling)

(ominous music)

- Doctor, four days ago,

words were written on the other side of this slate.

And by nobody aboard this ship.

Read them.

- Of course, there's no scientific explanation

for the events that you have just seen,

but they really did happen aboard the Vestris

and were reported by the American Ambassador,

Robert Dale Owen, over a hundred years ago.

Do we understand them? No.

Are they true? Oh yes.

Now, I have many more stories just as fantastic,

just as inexplicable, and just as true.

For instance, did you know that Mark Twain dreamed

of his brother's death the night before it happened?

Or that Lincoln had a premonition of disaster

on the eve of his assassination?

Have you ever heard of the house

that was attacked by a mountain?

Or the story we propose to tell you next week

of the fourteen-year-old girl

who actually went back twenty years in time

to become someone else, to find her own parents?

Won't you accept my invitation to join us next week

for another journey behind the veil?

(dramatic music)

(triumphant music)