"The Lonely Man of the Ocean" is another non-supernatural story: a maritime adventure and a tale of harrowing survival that's rather topical, given the state of current events.
Young, newly-married Christian Loëffler sets sail for Brazil seven days after his wedding (Why? The story doesn't say). Alas for Christian, the Invincible is stricken by the plague. If you've followed the news about the COVID cruise ships from early 2020 (and a few from this year, too), you can guess that things won't go well for the passengers and crew....
The story first appeared in The Monthly Magazine, Volume XI (New Series), February 1831. The author of the tale is credited only as "T.C.A.," a set of initials that I can't further identify. I did, however track down two other tales by this mysterious author:
"The Wife of the Polish Patriot" also appears in Volume XI of The Monthly Magazine, a few months later, in April 1831. This story of the courageous Aimée Ladoinski's escape from Moscow after the French invasion of Russia is supposedly true. In fact, the tale of Aimée Ladoinski later shows up (verbatim) in the 1854 collection of women's biographies, Heroic Women of History, (compiled) by Henry Clay Watson. The book's title page claims the book is "By Henry C. Watson," and the chapter on Ladoinski is an exact copy of the version in The Monthly Magazine. However, Watson cannot be "T.C.A.", because he was born the year the story originally appeared. I'm still fairly sure the account is fictitious.
The excellent adventure romance "The Demon Ship--The Pirate of the Mediterranean," appeared in the Monthly Magazine, Volume X (New Series), December 1830. This pirate tale is the best and most fun of the three stories I've mentioned, and was popular enough that it appeared in several literary reprint magazines in the early part of 1831. The printer/publisher James Brydone released the story again around 1839 as one of his series of numbered chapbooks. Unattributed and unsourced, of course.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are other stories by "T.C.A." in the pages of The Monthly Magazine. These tales of adventure and near-death experiences seemed to have been quite popular in early nineteenth century British literary journals. John Howison published quite a few of them in Blackwood's Magazine in the 1820s, and "T.C.A." might very well have filled the same role for The Monthly.
If anyone with better academic resources than I have can discover the identity of "T.C.A.," I'd love to hear about it. In the meantime, enjoy these three stories of adventure and survival.