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  • Aluminum Christmas Trees: The tough as iron sub commander who did not hesitate to shoot his crew when they expressed sympathy for the dead sailor "of Italian or Greek" appearance with the ivory charm, saying he was a hapless "victim of the unjust war started by English pig-dogs". This is consistent with 1914 atmosphere in Imperial Germany, as there was a wave of anti-British hysteria back then, which pushed many young men to enlist voluntarily before they were conscripted.
  • Complete Monster: Lieutenant-Commander Karl Heinrich, Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein, commanding officer of the U-29 during World War I, is introduced sinking the lifeboats from a freighter he's torpedoed, making it clear he's done this many, many times before. When the supernatural begins to interfere with the crew of his ship, causing them to experience feelings of guilt and remorse over the lives they've taken, Heinrich has those affected scourged, before escalating to shooting anyone who objects or mutinies. Killing almost the whole of his crew, and aiding his executive officer in committing suicide, Heinrich dies alone on the ocean floor, a victim of his own evil as much as the supernatural.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: The depiction of the Captain can call to mind the outlook held by some high-ranking Nazi officials during World War II. This is likely coincidence, since the story was written in 1920, and Lovecraft died before the war actually started.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Serving on a German U-Boat during World War I must have been bad enough, but imagine being trapped in a submarine with no way out after its systems fail and it begins sinking. Furthermore imagine that scenario plus a Captain willing shoot you just for considering the one chance you have to survive because he finds it dishonorable.
    • Also imagine that you suddenly started seeing corpses you knew floating by the portholes of the submarine, or being called upon by an unknown entity driving you to open the airlock while several miles beneath the ocean surface.
  • Values Dissonance: Lovecraft's cartoonish portrayal of German navymen comes off as very jingoistic and xenophobic by modern standards. It was pretty normal for the time, though.

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