| The Ferryman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | The Ferryman |
| Past Name | Unknown |
| Age | Unknown |
| Gender | Male |
| Eyes | White |
| Hair | None |
| Professional Status | |
| Affiliation | Hell's Army |
| Occupation | Cenobite; Servant of Leviathan |
| Previous Occupation | Fighter |
| Gashes | His Own |
| Personal Status | |
| Status | Unknown |
| First Appearance | |
| Debut | Clive Barker's Hellraiser #13, "The Ferryman" |
| Portrayal | |
The Ferryman is a Cenobite in Hell's Army. He once served as a champion fighter, that was pitted against captured African Americans aboard the ferry Dixie Shadow in illegal fighting games. At some point he was eventually taken to Hell when his boss solved a Puzzle Box and was made into a Cenobite.
History[]
1930s[]
The Ferryman, when he was still human.
According to local legends, Harmon Taylor was a politician and High Klansman of the Klu Klux Klan in the 1930s and a distant relative of John Mattfield. According to family folklore, legends suggest that he had hidden a fortune of treasure - a treasure that Samuel James Boyd would later become obsessed with obtaining. Taylor purchased the riverboat, The Spirit of the South, and overhauled and converted it into a ferry, and renamed it Dixie Shadow - a name better suited to its intended purpose, as a floating house of horrors. Taylor led midnight raids across the countryside and captured black people to take onboard the Dixie Shadow as entertainment. The ferry would head for deep water and women were raped, beaten and thrown overboard. Taylor held what he called 'The Games' - games held in a mock-coliseum on the main deck: an arena of hopeless carnage for the blacks forced to fight and die there. But Taylor always saved the best for last, his champion, the Ferryman - a self-flagellant disciple of pain who could crush a man's skull with his bare hands. Taylor delighted most in turning captives loose on a deserted island to hunt them down like fair game. It was on such an outing, they say, that he discovered a puzzle box. Following the discovery of the box, the Dixie Shadow was discovered the following day - abandoned - and Taylor and all aboard had vanished. All, except for one totally deranged black child, who had been in a sanitarium ever since. She was the last to have handled the box.
Since then, the remnants of the Dixie Shadow had been left lying beached among the reeds in a local cove - nothing but a rat-infested hulk now. Most folks avoided her like the plague and even kids wouldn't play there. But despite being a derelict vessel, there had been numerous disappearances and sightings of the Dixie Shadow on the water - looking like new. Some local legends said its hellish horn sounded each time it claimed another victim.
1992[]
Sam Boyd was a politician in Georgia and a former High Klansman. A senatorial candidate, he was under investigation by the F.B.I. for his involvement in racist activities. He still held his racist beliefs but felt the modern weapon was political power. Sam's defence fund had run out of money and when he heard the Feds were on the way he went in search of Taylor's Treasure. Sam visited Mattfield and made him tell the legend of the Dixie Shadow. Mattfield felt Sam was overreacting to the F.B.I.'s investigation and felt the crisis would eventually pass. Despite thinking the legend of Taylor's treasure an 'old wive's tale', he told Same the legend. He claimed to have seen the Dixie Shadow on the water and heard its horn, but Sam refused to believe him. Sam threatened to kill him if Mattfield did not tell him where to find the Old Woman.
Sam attacked the Old Woman until she told him where to find the Box. Sam explored the Dixie Shadow and shot his Lawyer who tried to flee. Sam then found the puzzle box and solved it - summoning The Ferryman Cenobite and his Gash. The full truth was then explained to Sam, when the Old Woman was revealed to be an Eremite - a guardian of the Puzzle Box. When Taylor had solved the Puzzle Box and summoned the Cenobites, she had been left behind in the form of a 'deranged child' - spreading the legend of Taylor's 'treasure'. The Ferryman then ripped Sam's chest open and tied him to the Dixie Shadow's steering wheel.
When the F.B.I. agents spoke to Mattfield he claimed to have not spoken to Sam in years. As they were speaking, Mattfield heard the tortured wail of an old-time ferry's horn roll over the river. Renewed with the promise of fresh blood, the Dixie Shadow, once again, put for the deep, deep waters - of Hell.
Description[]
As a Cenobite he is large, grey skinned and dressed in leather. He has hooked wires coming out of his shoulder that constantly tear at his own flesh and he has two large, metal hooks protruding from each hand instead of fingers.
Appearances[]
- Clive Barker's Hellraiser #13, "The Ferryman"
Gallery[]
