Hello again, R. L. Stein story club members. I'm Ivy, your host with the most,

and custodian of those strange and spooky tales from the hidden vault of R.L. Stein.

Today is another chilling tale. This historically eerie tale story club members might make you jump ship.

It's one I call the Demeter's last voyage.

And I'm going to read it to you directly from the diary of Gabriel Mueller, a captain's son at the turn of the century.

My name is Gabriel Mueller.

My father is the captain of the Demeter, a freight ship that left the shores of Varna in the Black Sea a few weeks ago and is bound for England.

We set sail at noon on July the 6th, 1893. Our cargo is silver sand and boxes of earth. It's now August, and I'm terrified.

I have made a few other passages with my father, on which we carried spices and other cargo.

This was one of the first times we carried boxes of Earth, which I thought was strange.

My father, Captain Muller, didn't think it's strange at all.

We have a crew of a captain, two officers, five crewmen, and me.

Someday, I want to be a ship's captain like my father.

He figured that I was 11 and old enough to sail.

Even though I am the captain's son, I don't get any special treatment.

I work alongside the men, helping with the sails, scrubbing the deck, and keeping a watch for land. My father started out his life at sea as a deckhand, and he thought that was the best way for me to learn.

But now, I'm afraid that all might be over.

You see, there have been some strange things happening aboard the Demeter.

First, one of our crew members, Abramoff, vanished about two weeks into our journey.

We searched the vessel from stem to stern, and we checked the hold twice. But no, Abramoff. Only those

strange boxes of earth, all in long wooden boxes that oddly resemble coffins. A problem any sailing ship has is rats getting into the cargo.

Often, a dog and a cat are kept on board for this purpose, and also as mascots to help keep

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