 The report caused a sensation and spurred the author to write a narrative version of the events . The short story first appeared in the June 1897 issue of Scribner 's Magazine . A second and lesser story , " Flanagan and His Short Filibustering Adventure " , based upon the same shipwreck but told from the point of view of the captain , was published in McClure 's Magazine in October 1897 . " The Open Boat " was published in the United States by Doubleday & McClure in April 1898 as part of the book The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure , which included additional works by Crane such as " The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky " , " Death and the Child " , and " The Wise Men " . The English volume , published simultaneously with the American one , was titled The Open Boat and Other Stories and published by William Heinemann . Both editions included the subtitle " A Tale Intended to Be after the Fact . Being the Experience of Four Men from the Sunk Steamer ' Commodore ' " , and were dedicated " To the late William Higgins and to Captain Edward Murphy and Steward C. B. Montgomery of the Sunk Steamer Commodore " . 
