Valborg

(Swedish Valborg.)

While the name Walpurgis is taken from the eighth-century English Christian missionary Saint Walburga, Valborg, as it is called in Swedish, also marks the arrival of spring.
-copied from here.

"Two days from San Francisco, they encountered a fog bank. When the early November night had fallen, there was no visibility beyond the rail, and the Valborg made her way at reduced speed."
-Poul Anderson, Murder Bound (New York, 1962), i, p. 1.

There are several evocative/atmospheric words and phrases:

San Francisco, with its many connotations but also the by now familiar setting of Anderson's detective novels;

fog and November night, both appropriate for Chapter One, page 1, of a mystery novel;

Valborg, suggesting Valhalla and turning out to mean Walpurgis.

The scene is set.

The bow lookout wears a pea jacket, in fact "huddles" in it. On the deck, there is "murk," hatch covers crouch and king posts are "gaunt." (p. 2) Is the viewpoint character about to see a ghost? Read on.