The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward

"The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward" is a short story by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, part of their Boojumverse setting that combines elements of the Cthulhu Mythos and creatures from Lewis Carroll in a space opera setting. The story concerns an attempt by the Arkhamers, a spacefaring sect of seekers of forbidden knowledge, to salvage a hospital ship that was once a living spaceship called a boojum. It was first published in audio form in two parts on the podcast The Drabblecast.
The story won the 2013 Locus Award for best novelette.
==Characters==
*Cynthia Feuerwerker: A space doctor. After she is kicked off the liveship Richard Trevithick over "allegations of malpractice and unlicensed experimentation," she takes a job on the Arkhamer archive ship Jarmulowicz Astronomica. 
*Thomas Wandrei: A senior Arkhamer scientist. Described as "a bald old Arkhamer whose jowls quivered with every word he spoke. His skin was so dark [one] could just about make out the patterns of tattoos against the pigment, black on black-brown."
*Hester Ayabo Jarmulowicz: An Arkhamer crew member who studies extradimensional creatures "like boojums and cheshires and the dreadful bandersnatches." She is described as "tall and skinny and iron-black."
*Julia Filomela Fiorenzo: An disgraced Arkhamer doctor, following in the footsteps of Herbert West.
*Martha Patterson Snead: Feuerwerker's predecessor on the Jarmulowicz Astronomica. Described as "not very tall, wiry, freckled skin." Feuerwerker suspects she neglected her patients for her research.
*Doctor Belafonte: Patterson's predecessor.
==Ships ==
===Boojum Liveships===
*Charles Dexter Ward: An ambulance ship, killed and then reanimated by Julia Filomela Fiorenzo.
*Richard Trevithick: Named for a British engineer who invented the first working steam locomotive.Wikipedia, "Richard Trevithick".
*Lavinia Whateley: Said to have "vanished without a trace after pirating a cargo of the Mi-Go's canisters of disembodied brains" (a story told in full in Bear and Monette's "Boojum")
===Arkhamer Ships=== 
* Jarmulowicz Astronomica: A "cumbersome, centuries-accreted monstrosity."
* T.H. White: One of the Jarmulowicz Astronomica's two landing crafts, a "lumbering scow." Named for the author of The Once and Future King.
*Caitlín R. Kiernan: The Jarmulowicz Astronomica's other landing craft, "an incongruously sporty little skimmer." Named for the weird fiction writer.
* Burlingame Astrophysica Terce
===Other Ships===
*Veronica Lodge: A "sleek, busy tug."
*Calico Jack
== Publication History==
After first airing on the Drabblecast podcast, "The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward"'s first print appearance was in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (St. Martin's Griffin, 2013), followed by The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 26 (Robinson, 2013). It has been anthologized in Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror (Dark Regions Press, 2015) and New Cthulhu 2: More Recent Weird (Prime Books, 2015), as well as Chiral Mad 4: An Anthology of Collaborations (Written Backwards, 2018).
==References==
Category:Sarah Monette works
Category:Elizabeth Bear works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works