In 1894, American writer Francis Marion Crawford published the popular novel "The Upper Berth."
"Mr Crawford's weird story of the Upper Berth is no doubt one of the best ghost stories we have had .... It is a novelty in the literature of supernatural. Crawford treats his subject a vigor and a realism that will make the flesh of ordinary reader creep and will stir the nerves even the most hardened and skeptical."
Every now and again, the smell sea water permeates the air, as if the cabin had been flooded and never properly repaired. The porthole opens repeatedly in the night with no conceivable reason. And the last few passengers who have slept in the upper berth have run through the ship like men possessed to throw themselves into the ocean. Mr. Brisbane, resident of the lower berth, and the ship's captain wait up all night to get to the bottom of the mystery... and neither will ever sail on that boat again.
