The Sea-Wolf tells the story of a soft domesticated protagonist an intellectual man named Humphrey Van Weyden forced to become tough and self-reliant by exposure to cruelty and brutality. The story starts with him aboard a San Francisco ferry called Martinez which collides with another ship in the fog and sinks. He is set adrift in the Bay eventually being picked up by Wolf Larsen. Larsen is the captain of a seal-hunting schooner the Ghost. Brutal and cynical yet also highly intelligent and intellectual he rules over his ship and terrorizes the crew with the aid of his exceptionally great physical strength. Van Weyden describes him as individualist hedonist and materialist. Larsen does not believe in the immortality of the soul; he finds no meaning in his life save for survival and pleasure and he has come to despise all human life and deny its value. Being interested in someone capable of intellectual disputes he somewhat takes care of Van Weyden whom he calls "Hump" while forcing him to become a cabin boy do menial work and learn to fight to protect himself from a brutal crew.