INNSMOUTH, MA - A violent storm raging over the Massachusetts area has brought disaster to the once-peaceful fishing town of Innsmouth. For a full eighteen hours, gale-force winds, torrential rains and thirty-foot waves lashed the seaside hamlet, causing immense property damage and loss of life. With the subsiding of the unnatural weather, a new catastrophe became apparent to the ravaged townspeople. Such were the fury of the elements that they had caused the massive Antarctic research vessel Helcaraxe to run aground, colliding with and actually crushing the town's local chapel.
"Folks hereabouts din't tek kahndly te strangers," lisped the distraught Obed Marsh, a local resident and (apprently) pillar of the innsmouth community, "Bet ah kin tell ye, this ain't bin nethin' nech'ral! Outta the angry skee it fell, fell reet onteh the chapel, and tek'd many o' our folk beck te the bosom o' the greet one!"
While no accurate census has ever been taken of the quaint coastline township, it is known for a fact that many of the local residents are today unaccounted for. Many are believed drowned, local testimony of "They wen' bek inte the sea, whar it be safe," seeming to bear this out.
Authorities have been tight-lipped in regard to the crew of the stricken vessel. Initial reports suggest that they are in a state of shock, many catatonic, others deeply disturbed. Unconfirmed rumors abound as to unidentified personnel who may have been found on board. We are assured a full statement from the Naval Defence Department is fothcoming.
The Antarctic Research Board are reportedly mystified by the Helcaraxe's presence in US waters, as the vessel's last reported whereabouts were believed to be deep in the Southern Indian Ocean, something now believed to be an impossibility. The vessel's navigational and communications difficulties are currently being attributed to the fierce and unprecedented violence of the electrical storms in the area -- but authorities have not ruled out the possibility of sabotage or other criminal activity.
"It be the end fer ye and all yer kin'" hissed Marsh emotionally, holding his family close, a tear running down one clammy cheek, "They be cemmin' bek now, beck te claim the earth as theer oan! Ye're doomed! DOOOOOOOMED!"
A moving portrait of a people brought closer together by disaster.
(Marine Captains and alcohol abuse - page 4)
Additional reporting and translations by Jason Waite
