Related quotes: International Marine Biologist Conference 1958...

It Comes - Part 1

International Marine Biologist Conference 1958
Dr Roger Maitland addresses representatives from 31 countries.
Excerpt from his address:
We live in a world that teems with life where new species are being discovered every year. Our oceans are uncharted in the deeper depths. No one knows what might live down there; it is only when something surfaces from the gloom that we discover a more.

June 1979
The cargo ship Sulu Spray was steaming north,
it bulged with cargo from stem to stern.
The moonlit waters were calm.
The Sulu Spray’s radio operator
was talking to another ship within its vicinity.
Suddenly the radio died and the ship vanishes.
There was no mayday signal.
The Sulu Spray disappeared
as if it had never been there.

Coast guard planes were launched
as soon as the alert was raised.
Ships in the proximity of the Sulu Spray
moved quickly to the scene
and started a search for survivors.
As the hours passed,
the outlook looked bleaker.
With no wreckage or debris found.
After a week, the search was eventually called off
and the fate of the Sulu Spray
became just another mystery of the sea.

Two weeks later off the coast of Jamaica
the luxury liner The Princess on a Caribbean cruse
reported nothing unusual
as it sailed through the night time waters.
From the shore, its lights could be seen in the distance
and its music could be heard drifting across the calm waters.
Then everything went quiet
and there were no lights to be seen.
The Princess, her passengers and crew
were never seen again.
Another maritime tragedy
where no wreckage or debris was found.
Yet another mystery to be added
to the ever growing number of vanishings at sea.

July 1979
The lifeboat bobbed in the water
with no hands to steer or guide it.
Abandoned and adrift
when The Wiskom Sail spotted it.
The skipper launched one of his own boats
to collect it when he found
it belong to the Sulu Spray.
As the Wiskom Sail’s crew came along side it,
they were amazed to find someone inside,
the sole survivor of the Sulu Spray.

Taking him barely conscious on board
the Wiskom Sail’s medical officer advised
they get him to the nearest port.
Adrift for over four weeks
the survivor was weak and dehydrated.
All he kept mumbling was of a blue light
and then everything suddenly fell into darkness.
He would then open his eyes and scream in terror.

To Be Continued

25 September 2009

poem by David Harris
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It Comes - Part 2

(It is suggested that the reader reads Part 1 first)

August 1979
Seven fishing boats set sail
into the evening on the South China Sea.
Before the midnight chimed
all seven boats vanished without trace,
no wreckage, debris or survivors were ever found,
it was if the fishing boats had sailed
into oblivion on a calm moonlit sea.

Countries around the world wondered
when the next tragedy would strike
as their navies and fishing fleets sailed the seas.
The seas at night were becoming
more dangerous than normal
especially south of the equator.
Top scientists and marine biologist
gathered for an urgent meeting in Mexico
to see if they could figure out
what was happening to the ships.
Their only clue was the last words
of the survivor of the Sulu Spray.

They discussed patterns to any of the disappearances,
only one seemed prevalent in that all
the ships disappeared at night.
No strange sightings were reported
in the areas during the days or nights
before or after the disappearances.
As the meeting went on into the night
the Grafton Bay reported a blue light
moving at speed beneath the water to local coast guard
before it too vanished
and like the rest left now wreckage, debris or survivors.

At the meeting, many theories were being forwarded
of a deep-sea creature of unknown origin.
They were scoffed at as being too fantastic to be true.
If they were true why hadn’t there been
any reported any sightings of such a creature.
The creature if it existed had to be
as big as or bigger than any ocean going tanker
to enable it to sink large ships.
Then there was the question of wreckage,
there has been none.
From any ship, there is always debris,
but there has been nothing.

Just as the meeting was about to close
news came in about another ship lost.
A ship two miles away reported seeing
what they described as long waving arms
and a blue light just prior the ships disappearance
from their radar screen.

26 September 2009

To be continued

poem by David Harris
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It Comes - Part 3

(It is suggested that the reader reads Parts 1 and 2 first)

Several marine biologists
now suggested that a giant squid
could be the creature that they were looking for,
but could not explain the blue light.
As a precaution to the present dangers below the equator,
ships were requested that they find suitable ports
to stay in overnight.
Naval Air forces from most countries
searched the seas at night and day
hoping to spot whatever was causing the disappearances.

Dr Roger Maitland of Oxford,
marine biologist now retired
studied the reports on the news.
He looked at charts
and read what the survivor of the Sulu Spray
had mumbled incoherently repeatedly.
He had his own theory about the creature,
but no proven facts.
He believed their might be evidence
on the lifeboat of the Sulu Spray,
evidence overlooked when it was first examined.

Maitland spoke to his colleagues
about his theory and if he was right,
this may only be one of many of these creatures
that might strike at anytime.
The only way to be sure
would be to examine the lifeboat quite thoroughly.

Knowing Maitland’s reputation
and how desperate the situation was getting,
the authorities holding onto the lifeboat of the Sulu Spray
granted him permission to examine it.
No one gave him much chance of find any evidence
as others had examined it before and found nothing.
Unlike the rest, Maitland knew what he was looking for,
and the places where it might be found.

With a magnifying glass and tweezers,
he examined the inside of the lifeboat
lifting minute samples to be studied
closer under a microscope.
In his laboratory a week later,
he examined what he had recovered.
Slowly he began to discover that his theory
was revealing several surprising results.
The creature was a new species
from the evidence he had recovered,
a mutation from another species, possibly two.
The cause of the mutation was yet to be discovered.
He had arranged to reveal his results
to an international committee made up
of marine biologists and scientists from every country.

26 September 2009

To be continued

poem by David Harris
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It Comes - Part 4

(It is suggested that the reader reads Parts 1,2 & 3 first)

Dr Roger Maitland moved
to the microphone to start his address.
He cleared his throat and then spoke
in a soft but commanding voice.
Ladies and gentlemen,
many of you have voiced theories
about the disappearances of the many ships.
I have now the evidence of the creature,
which is causing the carnage on the seas
and a possible explanation
as to why it only seems to attack at night.

At first the blue light that witnesses had seen puzzled me,
then it struck me that the light
might be a florescent lure.
It has been known for quite some time
that fishes from the great depths
use florescent lures to attract mates as well as food.
I believe that the creature is from the deep abysses yet uncharted. My theory is that as it travelled to the surface
its body expanded growing in size.
Something within its genetic make up
could have expanded it from eight feet to eighty feet,
a monstrous creature.

Shouts of impossible! Impossible!
Echoed around the room.
No creature known to man
could survive a decent from the deep abysses.
It would explode on the way up.
Remember the pressure Dr
is far greater the deeper you go.

I agree it seems impossible;
however, this giant creature does exist.
Maitland removed two small bottles
from his jacket pockets and held them up.
One contained a black substance
the colour of black ink
and the other a black jelly.
This bottle contains the ink substance
excreted by squids when they are attacked.
This second bottle contains the substance
I found aboard the lifeboat of the Sulu Spray.
I have examined the contents
and found that is has a similar genetic structure
to the ink excreted by squids and
also a similar genetic form
to those found in a spider’s web.
There were gasps of disbelief.
Are you trying to tell us a giant form of spider
is causing the ships to disappear?

26 September 2009

To be continued

poem by David Harris
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New Year

WHITE year, white year,
Muffled soft in snow,
A diamond spray whose gems are gone
Before their grace we know,
A crystal-coated spray whose hours
Melt when looked upon,
Hoarfrost stars and hoarfrost flowers,
White year!
Green year, green year,
Sweet with sun and showers,
A windblown spray whose blossoms bright
Are the seven-colored hours,
A dancing spray whose leaves are days,
A spray whose leaves delight
In azure gleam and silver haze,
Green year!
New Year, new year
From rosy leaf to gold,
A shining spray on the Tree of Time
Where myriad sprays unfold,
A spray so fair that God may see
And gather it, bloom and rime,
To deck the doors of Eternity,
New Year!

poem by Katharine Lee Bates
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It Comes - Part 5

(It is suggested that the reader reads Parts 1,2,3, and 4 first)

Dr Maitland shook his head,
“I am saying the elements
in the structure of the gel
are similar to that produced by a spider.”
“Then what are you implying then Dr? ”
“That the creature is a mutated form of cephalopod
that has accidentally surfaced in search of food.
Living in the darkness, it will feed at night.
As we know, the ships have disappeared in the darkness.
My theory is that the creature ejects the gel over the ship.
The substance with its sticky nature
virtually gules everything from floating away,
hence no wreckage or debris.
It then drags it down into the depths
to a place to devour it at it leisure.”

“We know that giant squids exist and have evidence of that.*
We also know that they live
a thousand feet beneath the surface.
This creature I believe lives
at a far deeper depth
and that over the centuries
mutated to its present form.”

“How are we going to stop such a creature
if our ships are vulnerable to attack?
Submarines would be just as vulnerable to a similar attack.”

“The air forces are the only means
we have at our disposal without risking more lives.
We would have to fight it from the air.
As it is a predator of the darkness,
they will have to search at night.
First to locate it and then destroy it.”

Naval air forces were launched each night
and a massive search was begun.
Civilian night flights over water
were asked to report any strange blue lights
emulating from beneath the seas.
A month passed without any sightings.

On November 4th 1979,
an Australian Coast Guard flight to New Zealand
noticed a blue light moving quickly
beneath the surface of the water.
The pilot radioed his position and followed it,
up dating the position every ten minutes.
From land, the Coast Guard flight was tracked by radar
and its position radioed to naval fighters within the vicinity.
At 11: 55 pm moments after its last report,
the flight disappeared from the radar screen.

3 October 2009

* Note:
The largest squid was caught in fishing nets off New Zealand in February 2007. The Colossal Squid measured 33 feet and weighed 1,091 lbs. It is believed that there are larger ones than this still undiscovered.

To be concluded

poem by David Harris
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The Wreck of the Barque Wm. Paterson of Liverpool

Ye landsmen all attend my verse, and I'll tell to ye a tale
Concerning the barque "Wm. Paterson" that was lost in a tempestuous gale;
She was on a voyage from Bangkok to the Clyde with a cargo of Teakwood,
And the crew numbered Fifteen in all of seamen firm and good.

'Twas on the 11th of March, when a violent gale from the southward broke out,
And for nine days during tempestuous weather their ship was tossed about
By the angry sea, and the barque she sprang a leak,
Still the crew wrought at the pumps till their hearts were like to break.

And the pumps were kept constantly going for fourteen long hours,
And the poor men were drenched to the skin with sea spray showers;
Still they wrougnt at the pumps till they became rather clogged
Until at last the barque became thoroughly water-logged.

Oh! hard was the fate of these brave men,
While the water did rush in from stern to stem,
Poor souls,'twas enough to have driven them frantic,
To be drifting about water-logged in the Atlantic. At last she became unmanageable and her masts had to be cut away,
Which the brave crew performed quickly without delay;
Still gales of more or less violence prevailed every day,
Whilst the big waves kept dashing o'er them, likewise the spray.

And with the fearful hurricane the deckhouse and galley were carried away,
Yet the thought of a speedy deliverance kept up their courage day by day,
And the captain prepared for the breaking up of the ship without dismay,
And to save his rations he reduced each man to two biscuits a day.

The brave heroes managed to save a pinnace about fifteen feet long,
And into it thirteen of the crew quickly and cautiously did throng,
With two bags of biscuits and a cask of water out of the tank.
And for these precious mercies, God they did thank;

Who is the giver of all good things,
And to those that put their trust in him often succour brings
And such has been the case with these brave men at sea,
That sent Captain McMullan to save them and bring them to Dundee.

When once into the pinnace they improvised a sail into a tent,
Which to the crew some little shelter lent;
Still every day they were drifting towards the coast of Greenland,
Yet they hoped in God that speedy deliverance might be near at hand.

And as every day passed by they felt woe begone,
Because no sail could they see on the horizon;
And they constructed a sea anchor to keep the boat's head to sea,
And not withstanding their hardships they stood out bravely.

And on the 19th of March a ship hove in sight,
Which proved to be the "Slieve Roe" to their delight;
Then they hoisted a signal of distress when they espied the "Slieve Roe,"
But it was not seen on account of the wreck being in the water so low.

But as soon as Captain McMullan knew it was a signal of distress,
Then heroically and quickly his men he did address,
He cried! come my men keep the ship close to the wind,
And let's try if we can these unfortunate souls find.

And as the "Slieve Roe" to them drew near,
Poor souls they gave a hearty cheer;
Then they were immediately taken on board,
And they thanked Captain McMullan for saving them, likewise the Lord.

Then a crew from the "Slieve Roe" were sent away,
For the two remaining members of the crew without delay;
The Captain and a Sailor, together with a cat and a pet dog,
Which had been the companions of the sailors, and seemed as frisky as a frog.

And when they had all got safe on board,
With one accord they thanked the Lord;
And Captain McMullan kindly did them treat,
By giving them dry clothing and plenty of meat.

And for his kind treatment unto them he deserves great praise,
For his many manly and kindly ways,
By saving so many lives during the time he has been at sea,
And in particular for fetching the crew of the "Wm. Paterson" safe to Dundee.

poem by William Topaz McGonagall
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The Ship That Never Returned

On a summer's day while the waves were rippling, with a quiet and a gentle breeze;
A ship set sail with a cargo laden for a port beyond the sea.