The Sea Raiders

H.G. Wells – 1896

I’m not sure but I would guess that this short story by H.G. Wells could have been an influence on H.P. Lovecraft with its mysterious creatures ascending from the depths of the ocean to wreak havoc on mankind.  On a remote section of coastline in Devon, a man comes across a horrifying sight; a human corpse being devoured by a handful of gigantic globular squid-like cephalopods.  At first assuming them to be spineless scavengers at worst, he attempts to scare them off with a few stones but is shocked when they chase after him with tremendous speed and power.  He escapes and returns with a rescue party in a boat.  Arriving at the shore where the monsters were seen, the men spot an entire shoal of them just under the water, ready to attack.  The best any of them can surmise is that the beasts must normally reside in the darkest recesses of the ocean and may have, by chance, come across the remains of a drowned sailor, developed a taste for this new meat and come looking for more.  Though brief, the story bears many of Wells’ hallmarks; provincial folk coming face-to-face with bizarre phenomena, reports of strange events traveling about the land via word-of-mouth and newspapers, and most importantly, the appearance of heretofore unimaginable beings that pull the rug out from under mankind’s sense of contentment and superiority, as also depicted in novels like The War of the Worlds (1898) and The Food of the Gods (1904).