An Eerie
Encounter
By
Kay H.
Harriman Nelson and his
command staff are having a meeting to make preparations for Seaview’s next
mission. They were undertaking an important scientific mission examining the Antarctic
Circumpolar current looking for effects of global warming and evidence of
climate change in the Southern Ocean.
“Admiral, I have never heard
this term. What exactly is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current?” asked Lee.
“Well Lee, the Circumpolar Current
results from the
The Admiral lapsed into a
lecturing mode as he explained; “Gentlemen from the few measurements taken in
the past it seems to indicate that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current strongly
influences both regional and global climate changes by carrying vast amounts of
water and heat across the oceans.”
He looked thoughtful then
asked, “Lee,
remember the request from the group of Australian Scientist? Weren’t they requesting to use Seaview to
study sea mounts along the Macquarie Ridge early this year?”
Lee replied, “Yes sir, if I
remember correctly, their proposal request the use of Seaview for 2 weeks. If you remember Admiral with our heavily
scheduled commitments there was no way that we could
accommodate them? I thought you were
trying to fit them in next year’s schedule.”
Nelson nodded his head at
Lee indicating that he was correct. “You
know the Circumpolar Current is in the general area of the Macquarie
Ridge. What if we extend the cruise by
10 days? We have some flexibility in Seaview’s schedule this way could combine
2 paying trips into one and accommodate the seamount study sooner. I have always been curious about these
“oceanic oases”. They are unique in the fact they
stand proud of the surrounding seabed and tend to concentrate water currents
and they can have their own localized tides and eddies. The diversity and
exceptionally localized distribution of species living in these unique
communities are acknowledged and some of these species may be extremely
long-lived some maybe
more than 100 years. As
the cold, nutrient-rich, deepwater moves up along the steep sides of the
seamount specialized hotspots of marine life develop in the vast realms of the
open ocean.”
Lee
glanced at Chip “Admiral
do you have a copy of their mission proposal.
I vaguely remember they wanted to collect a number of samples. I would like to double check the number and
type for diving purposes. Aren’t the
seamounts at different depths? We would
probably need to use the Mini-sub and the FS-1 depending on the type of sample
collection and depths. For the shallower
collections we can use divers, but I need to determine how many extra dives we
need to carry out this mission. Do we
need to plan for any mapping and or photography of the seamount region?”
Nelson
thought for a minute and picked up his phone to call Angie on the
intercom. “Angie, please bring me the
file on The Australian Department of the Environment and Water Resources (DEW)
group proposal.”
A
few minutes later Angie knocks on the door and enters. “Admiral here is the file you requested. Do you need anything else?”
Nelson
took the file and smiled at Angie “No, thanks this is all I need.”
As
Angie walked out the door Nelson turned and joined Lee and Chip at the
conference table.
“Lee
give me a minute to review their proposal. Seaview is scheduled to sail in 10 days, Dr.
Rafaela of National Oceanographic Partnership Program affiliated with the
University of Miami Rosenstiel School and his team should be arriving by the end
of the week. Chip that will allow you
plenty of time to perform security checks on any equipment they are bringing. It will also give me time to check with Dr. Wilkerson of the DEW.”
Nelson
picked up his phone and called Angie again. "Angie, please setup a
teleconference with Dr. Wilkerson of The Australian Department of the Environment and Water
Resources for
me. Please indicate to him the teleconference will be to discuss the
availability of Seaview within the next several months for their seamount
project and request he have whoever he needs on his staff, present for the
call. Check my schedule for available times; also check Lee and Chip's
schedules as well. Due to the differences in time zones from
After
Nelson hung up he looked at Lee and Chip, ”Gentlemen
please review the seamount proposal and prepare any questions that you have
about the project. We can get any answers during the
teleconference. Their party will probably include some scientists with
experience in underwater photography as well as some certified divers. We
can use their divers along with Seaview divers for the sample
collections. All of the Circumpolar Current measurements and sample
collections should be covered by the flying sub, the mini-sub or though Seaview
collection ports. Even if something unexpected arises a lot of the
seamounts are in the same area, so we could combine the sample collections if
necessary."
Lee thought for a minute. "Chip;
please make sure to schedule a competency check of their divers after they come
on board. Also let Jamie know, so he can schedule a physical for
them. We should have several days to complete these requirements after we
pick them up before we reach the seamount region. Admiral, are you going
to need any additional personnel on board, since the usual personnel operating
the collections with the FS-1, mini-sub and the Seaview collection ports
generally do a lot of the diving? Is their anyone specifically from the Institute staff or the
backup crew that you want included?"
"Let me think about it, Lee. I may want to add some people, but
let's wait until after the teleconference to see how many people Dr. Wilkerson
is bringing. I also need to check with Drs. Abernathy and Rafaela to see
if they need to bring any staff with them for the Circumpolar Current portion of
the mission. By combining the two missions we may run into space problems
depending on the amount of equipment and the number of people each group
needs. I am hoping that our crew can handle the majority of their needs.”
Seaview
sailed on the tide 10 days later with Dr. Mari Rafaela from National Oceanographic
Partnership Program and Dr. Cedric Abernathy from the University of Miami
Rosenstiel School on board. The admiral had arranged for one of the extra labs to
be setup for their use during the mission. Seaview was to start
collecting samples concerning the Circumpolar Current at its southern most
point and then proceed to
Admiral Nelson requested
Cookie to serve dinner in the nose the first night out to welcome the scientist
aboard. Seview’s command staff including
Dr. Jamieson joined the admiral along with Drs. Abernathy, Rafaela, Wilkerson
and their staff for a fantastic dinner of pork tenderloin, served with a brown
rice walnut stuffing and a Santa Fe Corn Casserole. For dessert everyone enjoyed cherry pie
topped with French vanilla ice cream.
****
Several days later they
reached the area of the smokers and suddenly the ocean became very cloudy with
sediment as a new chimney was forming.
Seaman Ed Chang, who was stationed as lookout in the observation nose
suddenly, called out “Mr. Morton, I see a ship dead ahead.”
Lee who was working at the
chart table mapping out the next planned course changes tracking the seamounts
called out, “Helmsman all stop.”
The helm responded. “Aye,
Aye, sir. All Stop.”
Chip glanced at Lee then
asked, “Kowalski anything on sonar?
Ski turned his head and
looked at the Captain and XO, “No sir, the scope is clear.”
Lee turned to Patterson on
the hydrophones, “Pat did anything show up on your scope.”
Pat looked up and
responded. “No sir.”
Lee called out to the
lookout. “Chang, do you still see the
ship?”
“No sir, I just saw it for a
minute then it just disappeared. It was
strange, sir. It just appeared for a
second then it was gone.’’
Lee glanced at Chip and
looked back at Ski and Pat. “Did you
notice anything unusual at all?” Ski and
Pat both shake their heads. Ski starts
to say something as they hear footsteps coming down the stairwell.
Lee recognizes the footstep
and turns toward the stairs as Nelson steps off the last stair he asked, “Lee
why are we stopped?
Is there a problem?”
“I am not sure, sir. The nose lookout reported seeing a ship, but
nothing showed up on sonar or the hydrophones.”
Nelson walked over to
sonar. “Kowalski are you sure nothing
showed up on the scope?”
“Yes sir, as I started to
tell the Skipper, they only thing I saw was the pattern we see with the debris
as the smoker chimney begins to form.’
Nelson nodded his head and
turned to Lee. “That’s why I came forward.
Dr. Abernathy informed me that they had picked up the formation of a new
chimney just a few minutes ago and wanted to know if we could stop and spend a
few minutes mapping the area and collecting some water samples.”
“Chip you take the con.
Since we’re stopped assign a team to start collecting water samples from the
area. Admiral let’s go talk with Seaman
Chang.”
Nelson and Lee walk over to
the observation “Okay Ed, can you describe what you saw?” Lee asked softly.
Seaman Chang shakes his head. “Skipper, I’m not sure anymore. Maybe I imagined it, nothing makes sense.”
“Take you time Ed, just
describe whatever you remember seeing”, encouraged Lee.
“Well sir it was eerie. It reminded me of an old sailing ship, you
know like a Clipper ship with sails. The
sails were unfurled like it had a strong wind blowing behind it. It just showed up suddenly then
disappeared. I thought we were going to
hit it when I called out. It was right
in front of us. Skipper, I must have
imagined it, because that type of ship wouldn’t be underwater. It should be on the surface. What’s happening to me?”
“Ed, settle down, we will
figure it out.” said
the captain.
Nelson motions to Lee, “I
have an idea.” He walked over toward the
control room and motions Chip over. “Mr.
Morton have Chief Sharkey go to my cabin and bring me
the book on my desk.”
Chip nods his head and
walked over to the Chief who was standing near the sonar. “Chief go to the
Admiral’s cabin and pick up the book from his desk and take it to him.”
A few minutes later Sharkey
comes down the spiral staircase into the nose “Admiral here’s the book you
wanted. Is there anything else, sir?”
asked Sharkey. He was hoping to hang
around and find out what was going on.
Sharkey definitely did not like be left out of the loop. He always wanted to know what was going on.
Nelson waves the Chief away.
“No thanks, Chief return to your duties.”
He knew the Chief was curious about what was going on. While he
appreciated how tight a ship the Chief ran he wasn’t about to let him stay
around for this discussion.
After Sharkey had left Lee
glanced at the title of the book and raised and
eyebrow. “Sea Stories,
Myths and Legends, sir.”
Nelson chuckled. “I know Lee, but there are some beautiful
pictures of some classical paintings in here.”
He opens the book to a specific page and asked “Seaman Chang, take a
look at the photograph. Does the ship
you saw look anything like the painting shown in the photograph/”
Chang studied the photograph
of the painting. “Yes sir, that’s exactly what I saw. Skipper what’s happening to me.”
Lee gently stated, “Ed, I
would like to go the sickbay and have Doc check you out. Maybe something in the chimney formation
caused you to see something, we will figure it out so don’t worry about it.”
Nelson smiled. “I thought
you would have figured it out Lee. The
photograph is of a paining by Albert Ryder, which hangs in the Smithsonian
American Art Museum of the ghost ship the Flying Dutchman You know there have been many
reported sightings of the Flying Dutchman on the high seas in the 19th
and 20th centuries, but I have never heard of one underwater in fact there have
been many different stories regarding superstitions for the supposed phantom
which was called the Flying Dutchman. It
has been sighted in many different areas mainly during violent storms from
Nelson smiled as he asked, “Do you remember what the movie was last night Lee?”
“Yes sir, I think it was a
Gregory Peck movie called the Flying Dutchman.”
“Lee,
this is what I think happened, some how the formation
of the chimney created an optical illusion.
Ed saw something maybe just some of the debris swirling startled him and
his mind just created the vision of something he could relate it too. He has probably heard the stories about the
Flying Dutchman and since were in the area referred to in the movie last night
his mind just grasped on to the ship in order to explain what he saw”,
explained Nelson.
Lee grinned as he thought
about the admiral’s explanation. “It
would certainly make sense, sir. Let’s
hope that this time logic turns out to be fact!”
Nelson chuckled at Lee’s
heartfelt plea as he closed the book and took one more look out of Seaview’s
panoramic windows.
***
On
an evening near the end of the cruise Dr. Wilkerson and Dr Rafaela were enjoying
the view from the nose.
"Harry, I am so glad that you decided to combine the seamount study with my
current study. You know I was a little concerned in the beginning,"stated
Dr. Mari Rafaela as he glanced over to Dr. Richard Wilkerson. "Dick,
I had nothing against you, your team or the seamount project, but I just wasn't
sure how things would work out even though the Circumpolar Current ran close
the Macquarie Ridge in a number of areas
so in some ways it was logical to combine the two studies. The increase
in the mission length wasn't a concern, but I was afraid that your project might
take time away from the sample collections and measurements I needed. I was
also concerned that I would be limited on the number personnel, equipment and
space that would be available, by having two separate teams aboard. I
know I should have trusted you and your team Harry, to make sure everything
would work out, but when you wait so long to get the chance to fund a study
like this and know it is a once in a lifetime chance you just
want to make sure everything goes smoothly."
Dr. Wilkerson nodded. "Yes Mari, I
know what you mean. I was just excited that Harry approached us about joining
this mission. Our research results will allow us to present a better argument
to the governments of the area for better protection of the seamounts in their
regions. We will be able to explain the importance of the abundant sea life in
terms they will understand and appreciate."
The
scientists continued to discuss the individual aspects of their research until
Admiral Nelson interrupted. “It is getting late gentlemen and I need to check
on an experiment before I turn in tonight, you are both welcome to stay a
little longer and enjoy the view if you want too.” But both of the scientist
indicated that they were ready to return to their cabins for a good nights
rest.
Early the next morning,
Nelson received a call from Dr. Dominic Rowe of the National Trust of Australia
requesting some assistance. Apparently the
Calypso was supposed to pick up a box of rare Kroombit Tinkerfrogs from the
Rainforest along the
Admiral Nelson confirmed
that Seaview would be only too happy to help out. He smiled, as he couldn’t help thinking that
a box of frogs, was probably the least threatening visitors the Seaview had
hosted as guests!
Note: Thanks to Lillian for her usual fantastic job
of Betaing on this story. I really gave
her a challenge this time, but she stuck with me and deserved a big thank you.
<a
href="mailto:silverunicorn7@yahoo.com">Feedback to author</a>