Report of Miss Victoria Whitnell
In the matter of Mr Pym and his Experience on St Damion Island
Prepared Tuesday, May 10, 1870
For the League of the Golden Clematis
Following the list of questions developed, Mrs Cuthbert and Miss Whitnell endeavoured to question Mr Pym about his experiences with the expedition to St Damion Island and events thereafter. The questioning took a little over three hours and was witnessed by Dr Siannaig of Bethlehem Royal Hospital.
To start the session we used general questions that we hoped would not upset Mr Pym unduly as we had been warned that once he was upset it was very difficult to get any information other than detailed descriptions of his apocalyptic visions.
Here then is Mr Pym’s narrative as best we were able to piece it together:
He identified up to five factions that were involved in the following events. Though it is highly possible that two or more of the groups could be conflated into one with further research. Those involved included:
Archeological Expedition: Professor Gordon, Miss Gordon (the professor’s daughter), Mrs Goodlaw, Mr Pym, and various unnamed people.
The French: probably the crew of “la Majeste”
The Demons: possibly the French
“Her” and the “City”: Residents of the island. “Her” seems to refer to a specific woman in power at the city.
“They” possibly the French. This reference was very unclear and might have referred to several of the groups above in different contexts, however, it sounded like Mr Pym meant something specific by this that I could not discern.
The travel to the island was uneventful. The island is a mountain that rises from the sea. I did not determine if it is volcanically active. Lieutenant Pellew may know the answer to that. Pym speaks two languages, English and some Arabic..
It should be noted here that Mr Pym has no ability to remember things that happen to him from moment to moment, however, when he speaks about the past he is able to recall a fair amount and some of that in great detail. The expedition set up camp near a dry riverbed. It was here that Pym had discovered the original artifact over twenty years ago. He had kept it as a good luck piece all these years. I was not able to get a clear description of the artifact itself from Pym.
The expedition worked for several days and uncovered many potsherds but nothing to match Pym’s original find.
They were surprised at the end of that time to receive visitors from a city up on the mountain. They had not known that the island was inhabited. They were invited up “Her” city. Some members of the expedition accepted the invitation while others remained at the dig. Pym seemed to indicate that he met and married someone in the city at this time. Further questions about the woman caused him to say that “They” took their names away and that he couldn’t remember.
Pym former profession was as a cartographer. He had drawn maps of the dig but they were taken away by the demons. Once we finished our conversation we procured paper and stylus and Pym was able to recreate his map of the dig area for us.
At some point he returned to the dig from the city. An “Angel” appeared and took some members of the expedition up into the “Behemoth”. Parsing this information I infer that he and seven members of the expedition were taken up to “la Majeste” it is very unclear as to wether this was voluntary or involuntary. I presume that the Angel was one of the boats of la “Majeste” (which can be raised and lowered from the Areofrigate by means of a pulley system) and the Behemoth was “la Majeste” herself.
At this point Pym’s answers became even more confusing and cryptic. By his account, killing took place. A leviathan rose from the sea to engulf the warship below while lightening from the mountain rained from the sky and turned the Behemoth into a pillar of fire. I asked if there was any triggering event for the violence that Pym could identify. Pym said no, however, Mrs Cuthbert correctly identified that Pym thought I was talking about a gun rather than a specific event. Further questions elicited more detail about the attack. Pym remembered that he and the other men of the expedition had been imprisoned on the Behemoth and had broken out of the room the French were using as a brig when the ship was attacked by the mountain. The men fought their way to a life boat but were out-numbered and under-armed and only Pym made it to the life boat alive.
As noted earlier, at the end of the interview we were able to provide Mr Pym with the materials to replicate his map. He was able to remain focussed on this task with very little prompting, and, as a result, we now have a map of the area in which the dig took place.
This summary was reviewed by Mrs Cuthbert and Dr Siannaig and their comments have been incorporated within.
Respectfully Submitted,
Victoria Whitnell (Miss)
Suggested Letter to Miss Chigwidgeon
Miss Chigwidgeon,
It gives me great pleasure to inform you that Sir Cosmo Cowperthwaite instructs me to provide you with a small stipend from his accounts on the following terms: £1.00 per week for the duration of your employment with Sir Cosmo or his estate.
Sir Cosmo reserves the right to alter or withdraw this grant at his convenience.
He further instructs me to thank you for your loyal service.
Sincerely,
Edwin St. Wode
Secretary to Sir Cosmo
Proceed to Wooster is in charge!
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