The Drowned World

The big paddleboat belongs to a man named Strangman, the leader of the freebooters and the driver of the hydroplane. Kerans, Beatrice, and Bodkin board Strangman’s boat, and he asks them when they are due to leave the area. Kerans is suspicious about Strangman, who possesses a “curious air of menace” (108). He answers cautiously while noting that Strangman’s skin is strangely pale for a man who seemingly spends so much time exposed to the sun in such a warm climate. Bodkin launches into a long explanation of his theory of neuronics and human memory, insisting that he, Kerans, and Beatrice are reassimilating into their biological past. They will remain in the London lagoon to achieve this, he says. Strangman is unimpressed with the theory. He offers to take the trio on a tour of the so-called “treasure ship” (110). Kerans presumes that, at one time, the paddle boat had been a gambling steamer but is now filled with the antiques and artwork that Strangman has looted from sunken cities. As Strangman leads them, Kerans becomes increasingly ill disposed toward him and his “looted relics” (112).

For two weeks, Kerans watches Strangman closely. Strangman watches over his team as they loot the buildings around the lagoon. At the same time, Kerans’s increasingly frequent dreams are beginning to “encroach on his waking life” (113). Drained, he withdraws further into isolation. The more time he is forced to spend with Strangman, however, the more the pirate seems to warm to him. Strangman arranges for a diving party. This is a social event, planned to bring together the trio of Kerans, Beatrice, and Bodkin. Strangman seems to hope that, through Kerans, he will be able to get closer to Beatrice. He is also increasingly curious about the old planetarium that Bodkin has submerged and maintained for a long time. Strangman believes that Bodkin is hiding “some long-buried treasure” and ignores Kerans’s insistence that the planetarium contains nothing more than Bodkin’s lost memories (115).

The following day, Strangman’s second-in-command, the Admiral, collects the trio for the party. Kerans sees the creatures around the lagoon, noting that the number of albino reptiles has increased since the arrival of the freebooters. The Admiral supervises the dive, in which the freebooters use underwater breathing devices and telephones to explore the submerged planetarium. They find very little, which irritates Strangman. Quietly, Kerans suggests to Bodkin that Strangman is seeking “the treasure” that Bodkin has hidden inside the submerged planetarium. Bodkin is amused to think of Strangman searching for this intangible treasure. Beatrice declines Strangman’s invitation to take a dive, saying that she is afraid of the sea. Kerans volunteers in her place. He dives into the water, which is warmer than he expected. While underwater, Strangman’s voice is piped into Kerans’s diving suit through the telephone device. Kerans reassures himself that Strangman would not try to kill him in this moment and then is spooked by his own reflection in a mirror. Gradually, however, he adjusts to the dive. Strangman urges him to look inside a safe, but Kerans removes the telephone device and goes to explore.

Kerans explores Bodkin’s planetarium. Inside, he wonders at the cracked dome and the light that sparkles through from above. As he explores, however, he realizes that his air supply has been cut. Kerans begins to slip into unconsciousness. He wakes up on the deck of the ship, with the Admiral performing CPR on him. Kerans finally comes to enough to splutter the name Strangman, who is standing nearby. He insists that he was not to blame, having warned Kerans not to “go down too far” (128). Strangman theorizes that Kerans deliberately placed himself in danger out of a desire to “become part of the drowned world” (129). Kerans spends the next few days thinking about this comment, wondering whether it is true. He cannot decide whether his desire to be part of the drowned world is suicidal or part of his unconscious “devolutionary descent” (150). Kerans represses these thoughts; neither Beatrice nor Bodkin presses him on the matter.

One day, Kerans is woken by the sound of Strangman’s hydroplane. Kerans is curious why Strangman has come to visit him, but Strangman insists that he has grown fond of Kerans. He invites Kerans to dine with him, claiming that there will be “fire-work displays, bongo drums and a surprise” (133). Kerans questions whether this is an elaborate farewell, but Strangman insists that this is only the beginning. A strange fascination with Strangman is all that has kept Kerans from traveling south already. Kerans accepts the invitation.

Strangman’s ship is lavishly decorated with his looted relics, and the stranded trio dresses elegantly for dinner. Sipping brandy, Kerans speaks to Strangman over dinner. He wants to know about the surprise, but Strangman jokes that the surprise is already in plain view—Kerans simply has not noticed it yet. Down on the deck, Kerans observes, the freebooter crew is peering into the lagoon. Kerans realizes that the water level is falling and that the buildings are rising up above them. This “total inversion of his normal world” confuses Kerans (140), while Bodkin mumbles about powerful pumps being used to drain the water. Strangman claims that swamp fungi have grown to form a wall around the lagoon; his men dammed the final point of influx, allowing him to drain the water and reveal a section of the submerged city. Bodkin recognizes their location: They are descending into Leicester Square, a formerly famous part of the West End of London. Kerans notices a change in Strangman’s demeanor. As the water drains, Strangman seems more callous. His manners and courtesy fade. The sight of the city shocks Beatrice, who likens it to “some imaginary city of Hell” (145). Beatrice needs the lagoon, she tells Kerans. He suggests that they travel south over the newly revealed silt flats. Studying familiar sights from his childhood, Bodkin refuses the offer to join them.

Just half an hour after the draining of the lagoon, the trio is able to walk the silt-covered streets of London. Strangman leads the freebooters as they pass the newly revealed cafes, cinemas, and shops. Bodkin points out to Kerans the planetarium where Kerans nearly died. He is initially fascinated but then leads Beatrice away, claiming that “the magic has gone” (147). They chance upon an alligator, but the freebooters shoot it. Strangman watches with “evil pleasure” and then presents Beatrice with the gift of a rhinestone necklace (148).

For several days, the trio and the freebooters wander the streets. Kerans feels increasingly disoriented, particularly at night. He spends most of his nights in Beatrice’s quarters and occasionally visits Bodkin, who urges him to take Beatrice and leave to “find another lagoon” (149). Kerans agrees but feels a strange need to stay, which he cannot quite explain. The following night, he discovers that Bodkin has vanished. Kerans assumes the Bodkin fled south to a different lagoon. Beatrice, like Kerans, has sunk into “a private reverie” (151). She attends Strangman’s nightly parties, dressed in looted jewels, and does not engage with anyone.

At one of the parties, Strangman informs Kerans that the freebooters fear him because they think he is “dead” (152). A freebooter named Big Caesar performs a song about Kerans titled “The Ballad of Mistah Bones,” though he is interrupted by Strangman leaping to his feet and pointing into the distance. He is pointing at Bodkin, who is carrying a small wooden box along the perimeter wall of the lagoon. A light is fizzing on a wire hanging from the box, which Strangman recognizes as a bomb. The freebooters rush to stop Bodkin and his bomb before it blows up the dam that holds back the waters of the lagoon.

Strangman is first to the bomb, which he kicks into the nearby creek. He draws his gun and chases after Bodkin. A short time later, he returns. Bodkin is seemingly dead. Strangman blames Kerans for Bodkin’s attempt to flood the city. He believes that Kerans should have foreseen what Bodkin would try to do. He is unsure whether he can continue to trust “mad biologists” (154). Despite Beatrice’s attempts to defend Kerans, the freebooters surround him. They kick him down, and an unseen person covers his face with a cushion as others beat him around the neck.