Stephen Crane was a journalist, and “The Open Boat” draws inspiration from events that were both historical and personal: Crane’s experiences as he sought to cover the growing conflict between Cuba and Spain in the 1890s. With Cubans beginning to rebel against their colonizers, American ships like the Commodore tried to bring weapons to the rebels with varying degrees of secrecy. On December 31, 1896, Crane boarded the ship as a reporter. The ship crashed and took on water. A wave broke the captain’s arm, and the people on the vessel—Crane included—had to leave on dinghies. Crane estimates he was on his small craft for 30 hours with the hurt captain and an oiler.

Crane turned his personal experience into an article for The New York Press and then translated it into a fictionalized story, also featuring a hurt but noble captain and an oiler. Even the man on the beach relates to Crane’s experiences; in real life, a man on the beach took off his clothes and hurried into the surf to help save Crane and the others.

While the story preserves personal details, it omits the historical context. Crane leaves out the battle between Spain, Cuba, and, later on, the United States.