The Open Boat and Other Stories

Stranded at Sea With Three Others - Survivor The Open Boat is a short story by American author Stephen Crane (1871-1900). First published in 1897 it was based on Cranes experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida earlier that year while traveling to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent. Crane was stranded at sea for thirty hours when his ship the SS Commodore sank after hitting a sandbar. He and three other men were forced to navigate their way to shore in a small boat; one of the men an oiler named Billie Higgins drowned after the boat overturned. A volume titled The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure was published in the United States in 1898; an edition entitled The Open Boat and Other Stories was published simultaneously in England. About the Author: American author Stephen Crane began writing early in life and was already a published author by the age of sixteen. Get Your Copy Now.