The Ghost Ship by Richard Middleton

<p>The Ghost Ship by <b>Richard Barham Middleton</b></p><p>Richard Barham Middleton was born in 1882 in Staines then in Middlesex, but since 1965 part of Surrey. It calls itself Staines upon Thames now.  I checked the 1864 map and then it was a small town surrounded by fields and woods. Even now looking at the satellite, though I see is is a much bigger urbanisation there is still some nice green land around it. But I digress. He died in 1911 in Brussels by suicide <br/><br/>(<b>If You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In Here</b> - You could buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/tonywalker or join as a Patron for exclusive content here: https://www.patreon.com/barcud)</p><p>He was educated at Cranbrook school and then went to work as a bank clerk between 1901 and 1907 but lived, the Wiki says ‘affected’ a Bohemian lifestyle at night and joined a club called The New Bohemians. He knew Arthur Machen who much admired his work and wrote a preface to the collection of stories in which I found <em>The Ghost Ship</em>. It’s available on Gutenberg for free. He became a magazine editor but really wanted to be a poet. He met Raymond Chandler who was put off writing almost because Middleton was so talented and he thought he’d never match it. His most famous poem is <em>The Bathing Boy</em> which is a paean to a beautiful young man swimming. </p><p>He made very little money as a writer and lived in poverty. He moved to Brussels and aged only 29, he killed himself by drinking chloroform just after his birthday. </p><p>We have done his winter ghost story, <em>On Brighton Road</em> which is short but good. The <em>Ghost Ship</em> is his most famous ghost story and, unlike <em>On Brighton Road</em> is humorous.  In his biography by Henry Savage, Middleton is said to have claimed he had a pirate for an ancestor who was hanged at Port Royal. But Savage notes that Middleton was not diligent with facts. <br/><br/><b>If You Appreciate The Work I’ve Put In Here</b></p><p>You could buy me a coffee </p><p><a href='https://ko-fi.com/tonywalke