SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: TRIP TO MONTEREY

 "Trip to Monterey" by Bert David Ross  (from Short Stories, March 25, 1947)

Short Stories magazine had a long career, under several different titles, from 1890 to 1959.  For much of its early years it was basically a monthly reprint magazine ("25 stories for 25 cents").  With issue #238 (March 1910), it switched to a standard pulp-sized magazine, concentrating more heavily on adventure stories.  In 1914 the title changed to Short Stories with Keith's House Plans, and included a 16-page section of house plans by Walter J. Keith (1866-?; I could not find a date of death, but I sincerely believe he is no longer with us).  (From January 1899, Keith had published, under several title, Keith's Magazine of Home Building; it was absorbed into The Journal of Home Construction in 1910, which later became Ideal Homes in 1911.  I have no idea what Keith's connection with Short Stories; but this time the magazine had been published by Doubleday, Page & Co. for four years.)  By July of 1915, the clunky title was gone, as well as Keith, and the magazine reverted back to Short Stories.  In 1921, the magazine began a twice a month schedule, publishing on the 10th and 25th of each month.  With issue #756, the magazine switched publishers to Short Stories, Inc., and Dorothy McIlwraith, who had edited the magazine beginning the previous year, remained the editor.  In late 1938, Short Stories, Inc. created a subsidiary, Weird Tales, Inc., and took over publication of Weird Tales magazine; McIlwraith was also named editor of Weird Tales with its May 1940 issue.  Short Stories went back to monthly publication in April 1949.  Both Short Stories and Weird Tales ceased publication in September 1954; although both were later revived (Weird Tales much later than its one-time stable mate, giving it the sobriquet "the magazine that would not die")  Short Stories sprang back with a new publisher, Codel Publishing, in 1956 for six somewhat irregular issues, ending in December 1957.  In February 1958, American Short Stories Corp. took over the publishing helm, issuing the magazine on an every two months basis; they changed the title to Short Stories for Men, and the magazine size to a large pulp (from July 1953 to February 1959, the magazine had reverted to digest size), before dying an undignified death with the August 1959 issue.  Over its 59-year history, the magazine published 1114 issues.

"Bert David Ross" (Gilbert C. Ross, 1888-1947) was an office worker, insurance salesman, and professional gardener.  The first of his ten professional stories appeared in Short Stories for June 25, 1944.  All ten of his stories were published by Dorothy McIlwraith, eight in Short Stories, and two in Weird Tales.  In April 1945, Ross and a few other local writers formed the Writer's Club of Bremerton (Washington), for which he served as its first president.  In 1946, he taught creative writing in night school classes; later that same year he move to California, where he died in Santa Clara on March 30, 1947.  His writing career had lasted just three years.

'Trip to Monterey" as a rather by-the-books adventure story, salvaged by interesting detail.  Doug Torgason is a no-nonsense, down on his luck fisherman stuck in Morro Bay with money.  If he can make it to Seattle in the next few days, he has a chance of signing on with his friend Stud will give him a job on his purse seiner (a fishing vessel that uses a large net to catch fish).  But how can he get there with no funds before Stud sets sail?  Doug happens to be standing next to the Mabel M--, a salmon trawler that had was owned by an incompetent sailor named Blount; Blount had already had several accidents with the vessel due to his ineptitude.  Blount, however, struck on a new idea for making money -- he would charter the boat out for pleasure cruises.  The boat, shaky as it was, could easily hold ten passengers, but for this day, he had booked a party of twenty to sail to Monterey -- a dangerous trip, with gale storm warnings already issued.

The deck hand Blount had hired never showed up.  Actually, he had never intended to; he had sailed earlier that day on another boat, deliberately leaving Blount short-handed.  Blount then hired Doug to serve as deck hand.  Against his better judgement -- a storm was coming, the boat was in bad repair, and would be carrying twice as many passengers as was safe, and blount carried only three life jackets -- Doug agreed; this would get him closer to Seattle and he would be able to hitchhike the rest of the way in time to meet up with Stud.

Among the passengers was the most beautiful woman Doug had ever seen, a dark-haired, imperious Spanish beauty named Dolores.  Also along was her boyfriend Tommy, who came along because a blonde named Elaine had asked him and he wanted to make Dolores jealous.  Dolores was jealous and threatened to push Elaine overboard; Dolores was serious.

From the beginning the voyage was in trouble.  Blount did not know how to navigate in the storm and kept making dangerous mistakes.  The waves and the yaw threatened to swamp the boat.  The passengers were tossed about and many became sea sick; Blount himself was looking not all too well.  Blount had not bothered to tie a rope around the deck stanchions for the passenger safety.  While Doug was doing that, the boat veered and yawed sharply.  Running to the cabin he saw Dolores desperately trying to steer the boat; Blount had died at the wheel.  By now, it was suicide to try to make it to shore, and the open sea equally spelled doom.  Doug's only chance was to try and steer the boat south, away from Morro Bay, Monterey, and Seattle.

Of course Doug saves everyone and how he does it makes up the rest of the tale.  But he has lost his chance to sail with Stud.  Since Doug is the hero of the story, things eventually turn out well for him, in a kind of deus ex machina fashion.

Not a great story, but a fast and interesting read with a decent protagonist.  It makes me wonder what Ross could have accomplished had not his career been cut off so soon.

The March 25, 1945 issue of Short Stories can be found on Internet Archive.  Also included in that issue are stories by Wyatt Blassingame, Philip Ketchum, Hapsburg Liebe, Frank Richardson Pierce, Caddo Cameron, and Steve Hail, along with a poem by S. Omar Barker and part of a western serial by peter Dawson -- a pretty decent lineup.