Character guide

Wolf Larsen

major

Also known as Larsen, the Wolf, Mr. Wolf Larsen

Larsen commands the schooner with tremendous virility and mental strength that wall him apart from every man aboard, playing with hunters as a man plays with puppies or probing them with cold curiosity. His rages may be experiments, his cruelties may be poses, but the loneliness beneath them is real, and he knows it. He is the force that strips Humphrey of his softness and the mind against which every ideal in the book is tested.

Humphrey Van Weyden

major

Also known as Hump, Van Weyden, Mr. Van Weyden, Sissy Van Weyden

Van Weyden begins as a man of mind and idea, revolted by the cleansing of decks and the handling of men, yet aware of a toughening he cannot call anything but wholesome. Under Larsen's destructive criticism his faith in human life survives, but his faith in abstraction does not, and he learns to look closely at life as it is lived. His slow emergence from the realm of mind into the world of the real is the spine of the story's early arc.

Maud Brewster

major

Also known as Miss Brewster

Maud Brewster arrives in the stern sheets of a strange boat, the fifth occupant of a vessel that should have held only sealers, and immediately becomes the axis of a new tension aboard. She watches Wolf Larsen's schemes from the break of the poop, excluded from the violence yet forced to hear it through the bulkhead, and her presence reorders Humphrey's loyalties and fears. Her composure under Larsen's voice and her refusal to be merely a passenger make her the counterweight the novel needs.

Thomas Mugridge

supporting

Also known as Mugridge, Tommy, Cooky, Mr. Mugridge, the Cockney

Mugridge flits through the cabin like a ghost, daring only a cubbyhole stateroom, yet blossoms into blithering self-importance the moment Wolf Larsen invites him to play Nap. He hints at being a gentleman's son gone wrong, a remittance man paid handsomely to sling his hook, and ignores Humphrey as though unable to see him. His obsequiousness and his petty cruelty toward those weaker than himself make him the ship's most pitiable and most contemptible small tyrant.

Johnson

supporting

Also known as Mr. Johnson, the sailor Johnson

Summoned before Wolf Larsen, Johnson answers with unalterable slowness that his work is done well and that he says what he thinks, appending "sir" to every speech even as he refuses to bend. His quiet courage, his flush at the slur on his English, and the mate's clenching fists around him mark him as a man about to be made an example. He is the human fiction of righteousness made flesh, and Larsen intends to test what such a fiction is worth.

George Leach

supporting

Also known as Leach

Leach approaches Humphrey at night with a low question about the coast and the distance to Japan, and Humphrey's heart leaps because he knows exactly what the man intends. By morning the boat, the water breakers, the grub boxes, and both men are gone, and Wolf Larsen paces the deck like an angry lion. Leach's escape attempt turns the Ghost into a hunter of its own crew and pulls the story toward the wreck that will change everything.

Louis

supporting

Also known as old fat Louis, fat Louis

Louis is the old, fat sailor whose cautious lips barely touch the liquor while his shipmates howl and curse Wolf Larsen into their cups. That restraint makes him one of the two men the captain can still depend on, and he spends the night at the wheel while the Ghost runs blind through fog without lights or lookout. His folk wisdom and comic bulk mask a survivor's instinct for when to revel and when to hold back.

Johansen

supporting

Also known as poor Johansen

Routed from the cabin after one night of shouting battle orders in his sleep, Johansen is foisted on the hunters' steerage, where his nightly bellowing becomes a running grievance. He embodies the brute-force discipline of the Ghost: a man whose authority rests on violence because nothing else is recognized aboard. His demotion quietly reveals how expendable even the ship's officers are under Wolf Larsen's caprice.

Harrison

minor

Also known as Harris

Sailor who attempts to escape the Ghost with Leach and Johnson.

Death Larsen

supporting

Also known as Larsen, Captain Larsen

Death Larsen commands the Macedonia and shares with his brother a reputation for ruthless efficiency on the sealing grounds, though the two are bitter rivals rather than allies. He exists in the novel first as a rumor and a threat, the one force Wolf Larsen seems to reckon with seriously. The feud between the brothers gives the Ghost's lawless world a larger geography of violence, hinting that even Wolf answers to someone.

Kerfoot

minor

Hunter on the Ghost who participates in seal hunts.

Henderson

minor

Hunter on the Ghost, killed during a storm.

Jock Horner

minor

Also known as Horner

Hunter on the Ghost, known for his skill and quiet demeanor.

Latimer

minor

Hunter on the Ghost, survives the voyage.

Oofty-Oofty

minor

Also known as Oofty

Kanaka sailor known for his strength and exotic appearance.

Smoke

minor

Sailor on the Ghost, involved in the mutiny plot.

Kelly

minor

Also known as one Kelly

Irish sailor on the Ghost, often grumbling.

Standish

minor

Also known as the hunter Standish

Hunter on the Ghost, dies during the voyage.

Charley Furuseth

minor

Also known as Furuseth

Humphrey's friend who introduces him to the sea voyage.

Nilson

minor

Hunter on the Ghost, dies from illness.

Yonson

minor

Also known as Mr. Yonson

Swedish sailor who is brutally beaten by Wolf Larsen.

Matt McCarthy

minor

Also known as McCarthy

Sailor who briefly appears in the forecastle.

Winters

minor

Sailor on the Ghost, mentioned in passing.

Parsons

minor

Sailor on the Ghost, part of the crew.