Sea Curse

‘Sea Curse’. A tale that starts with a village tragedy. A local girl who lives with her elderly aunt has been seduced and deflowered by a swaggering, drunk sailor.

In despair, she drowns herself in the ocean. The sailor mocks her aunt over the girl’s washed-up body on the beach. The old aunt retaliates by putting an awful, terrible curse upon the sailor and his mate…and from that moment, the wheels of awful destiny are put into motion.

Howard listed this as a short story and as ‘Sea-Curse’ in a letter (#101″) to Tevis Clyde Smith. He also made the notes:

action old formula—wronged girl, curse, vengeance of sea

He sold it to Weird Tales for $17

• WEIRD TALES VOLUME 11 NUMBER 5, Popular Fiction Publishing Company, May 1928
• THE HOWARD COLLECTOR #4, Glenn Lord, Summer 1963
• WEIRD TALES VOLUME 47 NUMBER 3, Weird Tales, Los Angeles, Winter 1973
• WAVES OF TERROR: WEIRD STORIES ABOUT THE SEA, Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1976
• THE DIVERSIFIER, VOLUME 3 NUMBER 4 (#20), C. C. Clingan, May 1977  
• MARCHERS OF VALHALLA, Sphere, 1977
• MARCHERS OF VALHALLA, Berkley, January 1978
• THE HOWARD COLLECTOR, Ace, April 1979
• LE TERTRE MAUDIT, NeO, November 1985 (French)
• LE TERTRE MAUDIT, Fleuve Noir, October 1991 (French)
• ЧЕРНЯТ КОЛОС (ČERNJAT KOLOS), Beva Press, 1992 (Bulgarian) 
• YORICK FANTASY MAGAZINE #16/17, Yorick Fantasy Magazine, September 1993
• SEA-CURSED, Barnes & Noble, 1994
• EONS OF THE NIGHT, Baen, March 1996 (restored text)
• WEIRD TALES: SEVEN DECADES OF TERROR, Barnes & Noble, 1997
• CURSE OF THE OCEAN, North-West, 1998 (Russian) 
• ORRORE A FARING TOWN, Il Cerchio Iniziative Editoriali, April 1999 (Italian)   
• AED TÄIS HIRMU, Fantaasia, March 2003 (Estonian)  
• SHADOW KINGDOMS, Wildside Press, December 2004
• SHADOW KINGDOMS, Wildside Press, November 2005
• LA CASA DE ARABU Y OTROS RELATOS, Ediciones Jaguar, 2005 (Spanish)  
• THE WEIRD WRITINGS OF ROBERT E. HOWARD Volume 1, Girasol Collectables, January 2006
• SHADOW KINGDOMS, Wildside Press, November 2006  (2nd printing)
• FANTASTIC ADVENTURE STORIES V1N2, Pulp Tales Press, August 2007
• THE HAUNTER OF THE RING & OTHER TALES, Wordsworth Editions, September 2007
• THE HAUNTER OF THE RING, AND SEA CURSE, Dodo Press, February 2008
• THE HAUNTER OF THE RING & OTHER TALES, Wordsworth Editions, 2008 
• THE HORROR STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD, Del Rey, October 2008
• THE SAGA OF FARING TOWN, Robert E. Howard Foundation, June 2009   
• THE HORROR STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD, Tantor Media, Inc., March 2010 (audio)
• VOLK DER FINSTERNIS, Festa Verlag, March 2010 (German) 
• ZAMBEBWEIN KUU, Tampereen Science Fiction Seura, 2010 (Finnish)  
• THE HORROR STORIES OF ROBERT E. HOWARD, Subterranean Press, March 2011
• ROBERT E. HOWARD’S SAVAGE SWORD #2, Dark Horse Comics, May 2011 
• WOLFSHEAD AND OTHER STORIES, Jame-Books, August 2012 
• ROBERT E. HOWARD’S SAVAGE SWORD VOLUME 1, Dark Horse Comics, January 2013   
• LES OMBRES DE CANAAN, Bragelonne, February 2013 (French) 
• ROBERT E. HOWARD’S COLLECTED WORKS, Jame-Books, February 2013    
• ROSTO DE CAVEIRA, OS FILHOS DA NOITE E OUTROS CONTOS, Martin Claret, July 2013 (Portuguese)  
• LES OMBRES DE CANAAN. LA PIERRE NOIRE, Bragelonne, February 2014 (French) 
• THE FEARSOME TOUCH OF DEATH, Ulwencreutz Media, July 2014 
• I FIGLI DELLA NOTTE. RACCONTI DELL’ORRORE VOLUME 1, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, March 2015 (Italian)    
• БЕЗЫМЯННЫЕ КУЛЬТЫ: МИФЫ КТУЛХУ И ДРУГИЕ ИСТОРИИ УЖАСА (NAMELESS CULTS: CTHULHU MYTHOS AND OTHER HORROR STORIES), AST, August 2016 (Russian)    
• DECA NOĆI I DRUGE PRIČE, Filip Višnjić, December 2019 (Serbian)  
• RATTLE OF BONES & OTHER TERRIFYING TALES, Clover Press, July 2020    
• THE NECRONOMICON: TALES OF ELDRITCH HORROR FROM THE MASTERS OF THE GENRE, Arcturus Publishing, August 2021 
• THE HAUNTER OF THE RING (NECRONOMICON BOXED SET), Arcturus Publishing, November 2021  
• ROBERT E. HOWARD AND WEIRD TALES, Dennis McHaney, November 2021 (excerpt only)