Dead Calm (novel)
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Hardcover edition
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| Author | Charles F. Williams |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
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Publication date
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1963 |
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Dead Calm is a 1963 novel by Charles F. Williams. It was the basis for the unfinished Orson Welles film, The Deep , and was adapted for the 1989 film Dead Calm by Phillip Noyce. It is the sequel to Williams' lesser-known 1960 romantic thriller, Aground.
John and Rae Ingram, a honeymooning couple taking their yacht for a cruise through the Indian ocean, rescue a young man, Hughie, from a lifeboat. Hughie claims to have escaped from another vessel after its crew succumbed to food poisoning. John, a former naval officer, is suspicious of inconsistencies in Hughie's story and goes to inspect the sinking ship while Hughie sleeps. He discovers the captain, Russ, and another woman, Mrs. Warriner, alive and begging for help. Discovering that John has left, Hughie panics, takes Rae hostage, and begins sailing her boat away from the sinking ship.
On board the sinking ship, John learns that Hughie and Mrs. Warriner and Russ and his wife, Mrs. Bellows, were vacationing when Hughie suffered an agoraphobic reaction while diving with Mrs. Bellows and accidentally killed her trying to climb onto her shoulders. The realization of what he'd done resulted in Hughie suffering a psychotic break. Mrs. Warriner further tells John that Hughie, though a gifted artist, has the mind of a child, his emotional growth having been stunted by his overbearing father and a codependent relationship with an inappropriately affectionate mother. On board the Ingrams' boat, Rae is able to surmise this herself from Hughie's behavior and assumes the role of a caring mother figure in order to lull him into a false sense of security, while preparing to kill him with a shotgun John has stashed in their room.
Ultimately, John and Russ are able to sufficiently repair their boat and rendezvous with Hughie and Rae. When everyone is reunited, Hughie suffers a flashback and sees Russ as his father. Hughie throws himself and Russ overboard; although John attempts to rescue them, Hughie restrains Russ, causing them both to sink into the ocean and drown.
John gives a sympathetic psychological analysis of Hughie as he, Rae, and Mrs. Warriner see that a new wind has come in that will take them all home.
The book bears many similarities to the highly publicized 1961 Bluebelle murders, in which a former sailor murdered his wife and the crew of the boat he was captaining before intentionally scuttling it and escaping in a dinghy.
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