Stephen Crane authors ‘The Open Boat’ with Craig being hired by Compass Media to create it’s illustrations. This short story was first published in 1897.  It was based on Crane’s experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida earlier that year while traveling to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent. Crane was stranded at sea for thirty hours when his ship sank after hitting a sandbar. He and three other men were forced to navigate their way to shore in a small boat; one of the men, Billie Higgins, drowned after the boat overturned.

Craig dramatic paintings vividly portray scenes of survival, solidarity, and the conflict between man and nature.