The Timeslip Terror

This timeslip happened before WWII but I cannot get the exact date. It happened to an undergraduate student, Arthur Frewen. He was spending Easter at some barracks near to Helvick Head in Ireland and had decided on this particular evening, to sleep in the open. Not long after he had fallen asleep, he woke up due to feeling cold and a mist surrounded him.

It was in total darkness that he decided to try and find shelter. He came across a light, of what he thought was a cottage. He made his way to the light and, as he got closer, he discovered the light was coming from the open hatch of a boat.

Arthur looked down the hatch and saw an older man, who was mending a fishing net, across a table. The man saw Arthur and beckoned him inside the boat. He gave Arthur a bowl of soup and said that Arthur could spend the night in the cabin at the end of the boat. The man took Arthur to the cabin and left him. Arthur had his sister’s red school scarf on him so decided to hang it on the cabin door. As he was doing this, he heard the man walking back up the passageway and it was then Arthur felt threatened, so he bolted the cabin door.

The man was trying to open the door to the cabin, whilst shouting, “Open the door and let me in!”. Arthur was filled with fear so looked at how to escape and ended up smashing the skylight and fled from the boat.

When he finally got back to the barracks, he told the guards and wanted them to go back to the boat in the daylight. When enough guards agreed to go with him, they made their way to where the boat was. When they got there, they all saw the boat, but it was an old wreck, but it was clearly the boat Arthur had been on several hours before. The timbers of the boat were slimy and there were many rats scurrying around. As they all looked over the boat, Arthur found his sister’s red school scarf, still hanging on the cabin door!

It wasn’t until later on that Arthur was informed that 70 years ago, the owner of that boat was hanged for the murder of an undergraduate, just like Arthur had been when the timeslip happened.