h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Descending the anchor line, the dark shape of a ship slowly becomes visible below. This once proud freighter now sits upright in the sand 120 feet beneath the surface. Looking as if she were still sailing the seas, her calm demeanor belies her horrible journey to this watery grave. Serene now, her decks were once covered with screaming men facing death. Torpedoed by a U-boat in the middle of the night, explosions wracked her hull throwing sleeping sailors out of their bunks in total darkness. Panic ensues as the mad rush to escape this flaming deathtrap begins. Some escape, some do not.

Now she sits here in the silent calm of the sea bottom and witnesses the life around and inside her. She has become a refuge for fish that need to hide from predators. As a consequence, she is patrolled constantly by those selfsame predators looking for a meal. Fish may occupy this sturdy vessel now, but it wasn't always so.

Ships are all about people, and this ship is no exception. People built her, people sailed in her, people loved and admired her, people lived and died in her, and finally, people killed her. I feel that ships welcome the company of people even when they are resting in their final grave and can no longer serve their function. Is this anthropomorphic? Yes, but that's how I feel, I can't escape these feelings anymore than I can resist the urge to explore wrecks. In a way, I like shipwrecks more than I like ships. Shipwrecks are history, beauty, mystery, romance, and much, much more. Moving slowly along the ships railing, I imagine the sailors who leaned on it and dreamed of home while watching the moon rise over the horizon. Entering the wheelhouse, I imagine the captain guiding the ship through a narrow channel, his weathered hands moving the ship's rudder with precision born of long experience.

At last, the time has come to return to the surface, where this poor vessel will never go again. As I ascend the anchor line, the wreck gradually dissolves into the gloom. The surface is far above me and the trip back to the sunny ocean surface is all part of the experience. It's always with sadness that I leave a shipwreck but I know that I'll return.

People will sweep me out of the way to look at that work as people in a museum push through a crowd to see a magnificent work of art. Only more so.

Thank you jinx, your appreciation of my work is especially important as I admire your writing and wit. U

I am flattered in all the corners of my soul.

You should post that line on your home page, it shouldn't be lost