The narrator Humphrey Van Weyden, 35, is aboard the Martinez outside of San Francisco Bay, having traveled from Sausalito to visit a friend. The day is extremely foggy. Humphrey stands at the bow and admires the beauty of the fog without immediately realizing the danger it poses to ships. He reflects on his recent academic work published in the Atlantic; he is a literary scholar of American literature and wrote about Edgar Allan Poe. For his next essay, “The Necessity for Freedom: A Plea for the Artist” (2), Humphrey is inspired to include a discussion about how men exist in different spheres of knowledge to the greater benefit of all.

One of the crew members comes onto the deck and joins Humphrey. He begins to explain the danger of the fog and, when distant fog horns begin to blow, “translate[s] into articulate language the speech of the horns and sirens” (3) as two ships threaten to collide. A whistle sounds, calling the Martinez to action. The crewman is angry because the other boat is proceeding through the fog recklessly, “tellin’ the rest of the world to look out for him because he’s comin’ and can’t look out for himself! [.