A Comprehensive Retelling of the Obra Dinn's Tragedy

An unnecessarily exhaustive transcription of the tragedies that befell the Obra Dinn, the fates of its crew, and why.

Introduction

I'm quite fond of this game, but after rushing a bit through my initial 6-hour playthrough I felt I still needed to consolidate the details in my head. I thought I'd bring myself some closure by transcribing the entirety of the game's events in gratuitous detail, to clear up some confusion and also to see if I found any discrepancies with how y'all interpreted some of the more arcane segments.

Note there may be minor discrepancies with the fates listed and how you might've filled them out: The game accepts multiple fates for several characters, when their death is ambiguous or the result of multiple occurrences.

Obvious spoiler warning. This is literally as spoiler-heavy as it can possibly get, it's a total retelling of like 90% of the game. I would only recommend you read this after completing the game, it's really worth hunting throughout memories for the clues instead of just going to a walkthrough.

Prologue

In 1803 the Obra Dinn is set to embark for Asia, making a stop at Cape Hope. The ship had a crew 51 strong and with 9 passengers, most notable among them a pair of Formosan royals and their two guards.

The Formosan passengers were transporting an important chest holding some sort of magic that helped bay monstrosities at sea. A conspiracy to target the chest and its owners and the mishandling of the situation afterwards would result in a terrible set of incidents leading to the demise of 57 souls.

Chapter 1: Loose Cargo

Before setting off, a tragic incident occurs while the Obra Dinn is still in port.
As cargo is being loaded onto the ship, the first two deaths happen: A rope holding a pallet of cargo comes loose and crushes Samuel Peters, and a stowaway hiding in a barrel on the same palette is killed by the fall. Nathan, Samuel's brother, comes to blame fellow seaman Lars Linde for the accident.

Chapter 2: A Bitter Cold

About halfway to the Canary Islands a pair of Indian seamen begin suffering fatal symptoms from a lung disease in the middle of the night. Around this time most of the crew are asleep, save for the three Russians - This memory provides vital information for identifying a dozen or so crew members. Solomon Syed dies in his hammock, and Renfred Rajub passes away shortly after.


As Renfred is hauled off to be placed in a coffin, the three midshipmen help the butcher Emil O'Farrell slaughter a cow for its beef. The less experienced Charles Hershtik vomits after doing his part.

Chapter 3: Murder

As the ship approaches the Canary Islands, a plot boils to steal the chest the Formosan royals are guarding. It is indeterminate whether it was planned from the start or concocted mid-way and if the conspirators also initially planned to kidnap the royals. The conspirators are the 2nd mate and his steward Edward Nichols and Samuel Galligan, the two Russian seamen Aleksei Toporov and Alarcus Nikishin, Irish seaman Patrick O'Hagan, and Chinese topman Li Hong.

2nd mate Edward attempts to steal the chest at night, knocking out Hok-Seung Lau in the cargo hold. Musician Nunzio Pasqua hears the commotion and investigates, and is unwittingly murdered.


Instead of stealing the chest that night, Edward frames Hok-Seung for Nunzio's murder. Captain Robert Witterel mentions that Hok-Seung confessed to murdering Nunzio - The most plausible explanations to me were that either Li Hong purposefully mistranslated the Formosan's statement to get him executed or that he confessed to take the heat off of the other Formosans. Regardless, he is sentenced to death by firing line: Seamen Patrick, Aleksei, and John Naples miss, but Henry Brennan fires the single, fatal shot.


The night of the execution, the conspirators smuggle the chest out and kidnap the royals Bun-Lan Lim and It-Beng Sia. In the process they end up incapacitating Lars and midshipman Peter Milroy, also stabbing helmsman Finley Dalton through the leg. Edward, holding Bun-Lan hostage, is threatened by topman Timothy Butement. Timothy is shot off the side of the ship and ends up dangling off of a rope afterwards, his lower leg somehow remaining there for the rest of the journey.

Chapter 4: The Calling

The conspirators begin rowing away from the ship in two of its lifeboats, hoping to reach the Canary Islands before the Obra Dinn can catch up. Bun-Lan warns It-Beng that the chest cannot fall into the ocean - It contains a shell that attracts great danger, and the magic necessary to repel it. The Chinese conspirator Li catches a bit of this conversation and warns his crewmates. He gets spiked through the torso by a mermaid for his troubles, with the spike narrowly missing It-Beng.


As the conspirators realize their predicament, It-Beng begins to escape his bonds to follow Bun-Lan's orders and head for the chest. Alarcus is grabbed and dragged into the ocean while Patrick is spiked through the throat.


It-Beng rushes forwards and stabs the rogue steward Samuel in the side of his neck. While attempting to stay low Bun-Lan is instead clawed in her face and neck. Edward resorts to cowering in the bottom of his lifeboat in fear as Aleksei is pulled by his arm into the sea.



It-Beng finally manages to open the chest and reaches in, exposing its magic and neutralizing the mermaids. In the process his arm is melted to the bone.
The bodies of Li and Patrick have been lost at some point between this memory and the last.


Edward realizes the imminent danger is gone and pulls the mermaids onto the lifeboats, two of them grasping valuable shells. As the Obra Dinn catches up the remaining Formosan Chioh Tan shoots Edward from below the deck, either as revenge for his actions or to prevent him from bringing the mermaids on-board.

Chapter 5: Unholy Captives

The ship has begun turning back towards England or towards the Azores, likely due to the deaths of the Formosans. After Edward is shot, seaman Hamadou Diom restrains Chioh and he is brought up top to explain himself. He describes the importance of the shell, but immediately afterwards he and Hamadou are spiked by the mermaids as they are hauled on-board.


As seamen begin hauling the mermaids down to the lazarette, the ship cook Thomas Sefton joins to observe and comment about them. As he observes a shell, a mermaid retaliates by fatally striking him in the face with their tail. The captain's steward Fillip Dahl runs towards the other end of the ship to intercept the mermaids before they can be thrown into the lazarette.


The mermaid's retaliation unbalances the seamen and sends them tumbling down, resulting in William Wasim being crushed between the bed and a wall at the end of the staircase.


Fillip slices off part of seaman John Naples' leg to intercept the mermaids. As he's restrained, Fillip warns the captain that the mermaids are cursed must be thrown overboard to avoid disaster. Robert ignores this and instead has him chained up in the lazarette, by the mermaids and the chest. John dies to his injury despite the best efforts of the surgeon and his mate, with his severed leg remaining in a corner on the other side of the cargo deck.

Chapter 6: Soldiers of the Sea

In the midst of a thunder storm, terrible spider-crab riding beasts have begun boarding the ship. Topman Huang Li is struck by lightning as he climbs the rigging, falling to the deck below as two beasts climb up port and starboard.


As he climbs down the rigging, topman Nicholas Botterill is stabbed by a beast. Most everyone above-deck has begun to realize their predicament and starts fleeing below-deck, either to acquire weapons or to hide.


As crew members scramble down the decks, the beasts begin heading for the lazarette. As they descend through the gun deck, 4th mate John Davies approaches from behind and his steward Davey James watches from cover. Carpenter's mate Marcus Gibbs attempts to catch the beast's attention, hurling an axe towards it. The beast retaliates by slaughtering him with spikes, also catching carpenter Winston Smith in the shoulder as he attempts to dissuade Marcus.


In the center of the orlop deck, one of the beasts simultaneously decapitates topman Jie Zhang and the surgeon's mate James Wallace. Two of the midshipmen engage it with swords and the third, Charles, hurls a lantern at it to set it on fire. The butcher Emil retreats holding a spear, while behind him ship steward Zungi Santhi crawls away with a spike in his back.
Gunner Christian Wolff hands out guns from the armory to the bosun and his mate Alfred Klestil and Charles Miner. Gunner's mate Olus Wiater opens the bow-side door to the cargo hold.
Above, John and topman Omid Gul attempt to engage the other beast as it heads down, and Nathan drags Winston behind a wall as he takes the spike out of his shoulder.


The midshipman Charles has climbed on top of the beast, managing to restrain it as the two of them burn to death. Emil has been spiked several times to a nearby wall. Peter stabs the beast a final time, while Alfred and the surgeon Henry advance and Winston and Nathan descend the staircase. Zungi continues to crawl towards the port walk and the nearby purser Duncan McKay hides in his office. William and the bosun's mate Charles take cover from the other beast approaching bow-side.


The surgeon Henry attempts to save Emil, but he bleeds out before anything can be done. Zungi continues to stumble through the port walk to find cover, at this point having removed the spike from his back. Peter extinguishes the burning beast and his crewmate's corpse while fellow midshipman Thomas Lanke watches. Nathan opens the stern-side door to the cargo hold as an injured Winston takes Alfred's blunderbuss.


As Christian and Olus continue to grab armaments, the last beast descends from the gun deck. William, Alfred and his mate Charles engage it with firearms while Omid and Robert attack it with swords. As Zungi leans against a wall in the port walk, he is shot through the other side by a stray bullet from the bosun's mate.


The last monster has made it to the bow-side cargo hold staircase. Omid and Charles chase it from above, while seaman Alexander Booth and topman Maba approach from below. Nathan stabs it from below the staircase as it grabs onto Alexander's spear.
Winston has crossed the cargo deck and confronts the beast at the bottom of the staircase. After it stabs him multiple times, he returns the favor with the full force of his blunderbuss.

Chapter 7: The Doom

Recognizing the danger they're in, multiple crew members attempt to escape the ship after dark. As Lars attempts to join Nathan, Alexander, and and Duncan on the lifeboat, he is clubbed by Nathan as vengeance for Samuel's accidental demise.


On the gun deck level of the bow, artist Edward Spratt is crushed to death by the kraken while defacating. Omid looks on at the deserting crew members while the 4th mate and his steward John and Davey observe Lars' corpse.


As the crew sees the kraken, multiple crew members begin to engage it from below deck. The gunner Christian directs several crew members to fire the cannons. After one of the cannons is lit, the kraken grabs it along with seaman Abraham Akbar through its portal, crushing the two together and latching Christian and seaman George Shirley to its barrel.


The cannon fires, obliterating Christian and George, crashing through the right wall and knocking a nearby cannon loose.


The 3rd mate Martin Perrott and his steward Roderick Andersen descend to investigate the commotion, as well as the two remaining midshipmen. As the kraken rocks the ship, Martin warns his steward to find his footing. Roderick is crushed by the loose cannon into the wall behind him.


By this point the crew has begun engaging the kraken above deck, with Olus and John delivering firearms up and Maba wielding a sword up top. Peter, who was likely delivering gunpowder or intending to blow up the kraken's tentacles, is grabbed by the kraken. Thomas attempts to pull him back with a rope but the gunpowder explodes, severing a tentacle and killing Peter. The ship bucks portside, stumbling the spectators and sending Omid falling off the rigging and into the waves below.


After Maba stabs the kraken through a tentacle, it grabs him and tears him in twain. The kraken tosses the lifeboat containing Nathan, Alexander, and Duncan into the air and sends them into the water below. Charles and topman Leonid Volkov attack the kraken with spears, with Leonid throwing his into a tentacle. Martin and John wield rifles against it and Olus tosses one to Alfred.



The captain's wife, Abigail Hoscut Witterel wanders out of her cabin in search of her husband. Martin warns her to get back inside, but she is hit by a mast wielded by the kraken as 1st mate's steward Paul Moss and the remaining passengers Emily Jackson and Miss Jane Bird watch. Olus has fallen over and takes aim with a pair of flintlocks. The helmsman Finley is grabbed by the kraken and pulled into the water, and topman Wei Lee is swept off of the rigging. Alfred's arm is torn off by the monster and his mate Charles, whose spear is stuck in a tentacle, is torn apart shortly thereafter. Topman Lewis Walker drags Maba's upper half away.

Chapter 8: Bargain

The events of this chapter break the normally chronological order of the book's parts, happening around the time of The Doom and before the start of The Escape.

After finishing his dinner, Fillip breaks free of his restraints. He opens the chest and reaches inside, having his arm vaporized and retrieving a final shell for the trouble.


While the kraken is attacking the ship, Robert has locked himself in the lazarette and threatens the mermaids. He shoots the first mermaid and stabs the second as they refuse to cooperate. Either this action, the captain's tossing overboard of the mermaids' two shells, or both are responsible for driving the kraken off.

After the kraken has left, Martin heads down to the lazarette to free the last mermaid with Paul and Davey. As he opens its enclosure, he is spiked multiple times. However, before he dies he gives it the shell that Fillip has been holding and he directs the stewards to send it back into the sea. In return, the mermaid ensures the Obra Dinn makes it home - The shell's distant glint can still be seen port-side when the chief inspector boards it.


Before disembarking, the surgeon Henry heads down to the lazarette. Before he and Paul head out he lures a monkey into the lazarette and shoots it, so the chief inspector may learn what occurred inside using its death.

Chapter 9: Escape

After the kraken has left, a one-armed Alfred is taken below deck. John and Olus hear out his dying words, while Robert and William head up top and Thomas ascends from the orlop deck.


Paul boards the passengers Emily and Miss Jane, the surgeon Henry, and Davey onto the last remaining lifeboat, but Leonid attempts to stop them and engages Paul in a sword fight. William and Henry Brennan approach from portside, while Robert ascends the starboard staircase holding up his flintlock and Lewis climbs up over the side of the ship. Leonid stabs Paul in his chest.
Below on the gun deck Olus confides in John his plan to mutiny, while Thomas eavesdrops from behind a nearby wall.


Robert aims his flintlock at Leonid and commands him to stop. As Leonid attempts to climb overboard, Emily avenges Paul by shooting his killer through the chest. Their lifeboat safely makes it to Morocco after they're cut loose.
After hearing Olus' plan, Thomas scrambles away and attempts to warn the captain of the mutiny.




Olus chases after Thomas and stabs him in the back. In response, John struggles with Olus and ends up shooting him through the head with a flintlock. Hearing the commotion, William and Henry Brennan begin heading back down. Lewis dumps the bodies of Paul and Leonid overboard.


Seeing that John has shot Olus, Henry Brennan clubs him from behind. Thomas crawls towards his cabin and William heads after him.


Thomas bleeds out in his cabin, expressing his attempt to save Peter before he dies. William calls for Henry Brennan to bringing him the surgeon's kit, to no avail.

Chapter 10: The End

Robert has locked himself in his quarters. William and Henry confront him at his door, while Lewis climbs above. When told to hand over the shells, Robert opens the door and shoots William through the chest.


Henry confronts Robert in his quarters, and after a brief exchange the two struggle. He stabs Robert in his shoulder and has his neck sliced open in retaliation. Lewis climbs down to the railing from above.


After their struggle, Robert catches his breath and removes the spear from his shoulder. Lewis sneaks up and stabs Robert in his side, getting his skull caved in immediately after.


Robert sits down and reloads his flintlock. After confessing his regrets to Abigail, he commits heart shoot.

Final Notes

There are certain details I'm uncertain of, which is part of why I decided to make this. Most of these have been resolved thanks to the fine commenters below <3

• The circumstances around John Naples' death are vague, specifically as to how his leg ended up across the ship. Someone has theorized that the monkey hid it, which is the most plausible explanation to me.

Any further thoughts on the more arcane deets of this tale would be appreciated.

Closing Note

It took a good four and a half hours to put this together, but I'd be lying if I said I was doing this for any other reason than to not do my homework instead. If you have any thoughts or felt anything went differently from how I've interpreted, let me know below.

[Collector]

my biggest problem is the plot hole that i see during 'murder'. Henry is the one that had the pocket watch before us, and clearly knew how it worked from the usage of his monkey in 'bargain', so why didn't he use it for the murder of Nunzio? if he is unable to use it himself, why would he assume the inspector could?
My only thoughts are that he did use it, but not until after the execution, when it was too late to clear Hok-Seung's name, but not to late to reveal Nichols's scheme, and this discovery becoming public might have been what pushed Nichols to kidnap the royals, take the chest, and the rowboats in the manner that he did.
meanwhile the only reasons that he couldn't use the pocket watch but could assume the inspector could would be either the watch itself requires a suitable time gap before it can be used, or the watch requires lack of presence of the user at the location (IE because he was on the ship at the time of the murder, he couldn't use the watch to see it)

[burning.phoneix]

@Cute Little Baby: The Obra Dinn was heading to Asia, only stopping at Cape Town. That's why the Formosan royalty was on the ship. As to why the Chest was in England in the first place. That I do not know. Maybe the English seized the chest and its treasure in the past and the Formosans went to England to retrieve it?

[maetiax]

About the shell in the chest:
My take is the Formosan royalty found / stole the shell from the mermaid folks in the past, and that's why one of the mermaids did not have a shell. (The quicksilver might be a last-line of defense against ignorant thieves.) The ocean folks have been searching for the shell ever since to no avail until the theft by Second mate brought the shell inside the chest close to ocean water, which gave out its location. The mermaids might be some sort of royalty / oracle in their culture that can wield the power of the shells and thus the crab riders / kraken tried to save them, guided by mermaid voice or shell magic.
Among the chaos Third mate somehow realized the ocean folks just want the shell and not the lives of the crew, and therefore returned the remaining shell to the last mermaid and freeing her back into the ocean, fulfilling the mermaids' long quest, which is a big enough deal for the mermaid to personally shepherd the ship's return.

[maetiax]

Thoughts:

About John Naples:
When the mermaids were started to get brought down into the ship, Ship Steward runs deeper into the ship (see the memory where cook gets struck by tail). My conjecture is he is convinced the mermaids are going to bring more troubles to the ship and went to grab a sword to kill the mermaids. He might have taken wild swings with the sword aiming at the mermaid and instead cut off John's feet. Some crews might have continued taking the mermaid into the lazarette while others subdued steward.

[Cute Little Baby 😚]

There are many questions that were still left unanswered in this, mostly because it would be impossible to deduce, but I am still left wondering. My biggest question is why, why would the Formosan royalty even want to go to Cape Town in the first place and why would they bring the chest? If they were aware of the magic it possesed then why would they bring it? Also why not just go to Cape Town by boat through the Indian Ocean, instead of going to Falmouth on the other side of the world? It is clear that the Obra Dinn is a trade ship and not part of the navy, the only reason there are gunners present in the first place is because of pirates.
Im also still confused about the power of the shells. So there is the first one in the royalty's chest that the mermaid things want as they have the other two, but does the chest enhance the power of the shell with the quicksilver? Also, did the captain know about the shells power before the boat ever embarked?

[NotoriusBEN]

Just finished this game myself.

Another plausible timeline of events for Chapter 8, the Bargain:

Shortly after Filip Dahl is confined to the Lazerette at the end of Chapter 5, he manages to break open the lock on the Formosian treasure chest. Being greedy, he dips his arm into the, unknowingly to him, boiling mercury and fishes out the radiant seashell, and dies of his injuries.

This seashell is the catalyst/beacon that begins Chapter 6. Given there is strange magic and creatures under the waves, it is possible they conjured the lightning strike as a distraction for their boarding party and subsequent kraken attacks.

During the events of the Doom, the Captain murder-hobos two of the mermaids and 3rd Mate Martin Parrotte strikes a deal with the third mermaid, to bring the Obra Dinn home and send back the kraken.

[Hecatomb]

The death of George Shirley is an interesting one. I initially thought his body was completely obliterated by the cannon, but it is also possible that he fell overboard, or was knocked through the porthole when the cannon fired. There is also a tentacle sneaking up behind him while he tries to free Wolff, so he may have been snatched off the ship by the kraken and either drowned or devoured. The game accepts both fates as correct.

It's difficult to work out exactly what happened to John Naples. Was he attacked by the stairs, with his leg falling to the side while he crawled to where the crew found him? Or did the attack occur there, with the monkey carrying the leg away? Also, why did Dahl attack him by hacking his leg off? The fate itself is easy to solve, but the circumstances leading up to it are not.

[Hecatomb]

There is strong evidence that the presence of the mermaids aboard the ship brought a curse. One of them killed the cook by slapping him in the face with her tail, leading immediately to another man falling down the stairs and breaking his neck. A powerful storm is raging at the start of Chapter 6 when the Sea Phantoms (as I call them) attack the ship, with a topman being struck by lightning just before the attack. It's unclear how much time passes between the crew defeating these attackers and the arrival of the kraken, but the locations of these events on the map suggest they may have occurred on the same night. At the beginning of Chapter 7, the weather seems to be calm during the first two deaths, with a second mighty storm appearing right after the kraken attack and dissipating after it retreats.

[Hecatomb]

In Chapter 3, the murder of Pasqua reveals that Hok-Seng Lau was unconscious, the chest open, and the shell inside. My interpretation was that Nichols clubbed Lau to find out what treasure the Formosan royalty was carrying, killed Pasqua when he was discovered, and then framed Lau for the murder. I agree with the speculation that Nichols' Chinese co-conspirator deliberately mistranslated Lau's account of events as a confession. The shells seem to possess an almost supernatural beauty, and Nichols was either magically influenced by it and compelled to steal it, or simply assumed it was of great value. Either way, his intention was probably to sell it and the chest on the Canary Islands. The Formosan royals may have interrupted the theft, leading to their kidnapping, or were taken for ransom.

[Dakka Puska]

I do believe the rope does not come loose but snaps, and suspiciously in two spots none the less. You can see a piece of rope in the air looking up.