As in other of his tales, Irving here combines a supernatural subject with a matter-of-fact narration. The reader is allowed to suspend disbelief partly through the framing of the tale, which is recounted by the fictional narrator Geoffrey Crayon, who has heard it from an old Cape Cod whaler, who claims to have memorized it from a manuscript written by a neighbor. Thus, the tale is several times removed from its source, with no one to vouch for its authenticity. The phrase “it is said” is used frequently, and once the reader is told that the facts “have become confounded by a variety of historians.” Although the tale ends with a claim for its veracity (“The truth of it is not to be doubted”), readers can believe or not as they wish.