An excellent reading! I had started reading the story in on home page (I use my rather old PlayBook to listen to the stories while doing chores, and download the episode via the browser so I can guess what I'm getting myself in for), and felt a little disappointed - the prose didn't work for me. But then I heard Mr. Stuart (Ian not Alsidair - and isn't that a bit cool with the father/son combo for Escape Pod and Podcastle?) take those same words, and make them work really well. I agree with our host that I want to head overseas just to hear this gentleman tell me all about Ghosts of York.
The story itself was pretty good, I enjoyed hearing the protagonist's viewpoint, and the story did a great job of keeping the tension on about what might happen. We all know the ship is doomed, so now the question is how does the main character deal with it. I was tickled with the Japanese reference and the possibility of hearing more about a Japanese understanding of the dualism or at least of the monster. But then he burnt all the correspondence, so little hope of that. I had suspected that it was Dr. Jekyll we were listening to, or at least a very similar Jekyll/Hyde type, so I was glad the reveal came before the end.
And then it got exasperating - I really felt the reference to Jack the Ripper was unneeded, and actually hurt the story. Aren't Jekyll and Hyde enough on their own? Perhaps Dr. Jekyll got the idea for the potion studying werewolves? Or maybe his uncle by marriage is Abraham Van Helsing? It doesn't add to the story of how Jekyll will deal with the ship going down.
And then I got really irritated (not irradiated) when Godzilla took out the ship. Maybe they should have had King Kong on a ship just behind them on the way to New York?
Does it make sense that the outro made me like the story less? I had already been annoyed with the throwaway reference to Jack the Ripper and then Godzilla, but then Dave reminded me of all the other mashups I dislike - Abraham Vampire Hunter, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and so on.
I've already gone on enough - the prose evoked excellent imagery and the reading - outstanding!