The Doom that Came to Dunfield

"The Doom that Came to Dunfield" is a short story by the British-born author William Meikle.
==Synopsis==
A think-tank for the British government develops what they believe to be the technology to render a battleship invisible, and dispatch the necessary materiel to a remote bay off the coast of Newfoundland to test their theory.
Upon arrival, the first test is a failure, with the machine only running for a few seconds before shutting down. Soon thereafter, however, the strange occurrences begin. The walls and decks of the ship become semi-liquid at random, swallowing men whole - or worse, partially - before hardening once more, and clouds of thick fog which dissolves living flesh and seems predatory in its behaviour appears.
As the crew dwindles, the head scientist hatches a plan to modify his machine to "switch off" these phenomena. This appears to be effective for a time, and a lone lifeboat manages to escape, although it is pursued by a tendril of the malevolent fog. However, as the ship sinks, this last lingering effect also dissipates.
==Characters==
*Duncan, a senior scientist on the project with specialties in Human Biology, Chemistry and Applied Mathematics. It is uncertain if Duncan is his first or last name.
*Professor Muir, the man in charge of the project, a brilliant and unconventional scientist.
*Captain Squire, commander of the test ship.
==Publication History==
"The Doom that Came to Dunfield" was published in the 2017 collection Home From the Sea: Tales of Lovecraftian Terror.
==Trivia==
*Despite containing no direct references to Lovecraft's work or the Cthulhu Mythos in general, Meikle's inclusion of "The Doom that Came to Dunfield" in the collection Home From the Sea: Tales of Lovecraftian Terror would seem to indicate that he believes it to be in the spirit of Lovecraft's work. The appearance of incomprehensible entities from another plane of existence (the fog clouds) may offer some support to this conclusion.
*"The Doom that Came to Dunfield" appears to have taken at least some inspiration from the conspiracy theory of the Philadelphia Experiment (which is directly mentioned in the story, although the ship's name is given incorrectly). The legend goes that in the 1940s the United States government experimented with turning the destroyer USS Eldridge invisible, with some of the side effects being the same as those described here.
*The title of the story is somewhat confusing, as it is unclear whether the "doom" that came was to the ship (which is never explicitly named) or to the bay in which the experiment took place.
Category:William Meikle works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works