Ocean Elements
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The world was a place of many mysteries. The oceans of the earth were vast, and their secrets were deep. It took time for humans to learn what they could about the waters around them. There were still things that remained undiscovered in the endless expanse of the ocean floor.
And there were those who feared the unknown—those who saw a dark power at work below the surface, waiting for mankind to make an unwise move so it could rise up from the depths once again to destroy all life as it had once done.
It wasn’t only ancient myths and legends that gave credence to the belief. In fact, one scientist believed he’d been given a glimpse into the truth of what lurked down below when he’d accidentally caused a volcanic eruption.
While on an expedition to find oil deposits beneath the sea off the coast of Norway, he’d inadvertently triggered a geothermal vent that had sent plumes of molten rock high above his boat and onto the deck. When the smoke cleared, the team found a strange creature living inside. It resembled something between a lobster and a snake with tentacles instead of arms or legs.
They named it ‘the Leviathan.’ After being brought aboard the ship, the crew discovered it was very fast-moving and highly aggressive—it would not be taken alive and it was killed by having its heart pierced through the eye socket with an arrow made from flint.
Once dead, the corpse of the monster was placed in the hold of a small fishing boat, where it stayed until a year later when the fisherman was able to successfully return it home. The creature was preserved in a thick layer of ice before being put on display in a museum in Oslo.
It remained there for several decades before mysteriously disappearing, along with a few other specimens that had also been collected from the same expedition.
In the years since many others have tried to replicate that success—but none had ever come close. Scientists had speculated that the species might be able to survive without oxygen, or perhaps they needed some sort of protection from the water’s intense radiation.
No one knew much more than that—except maybe for the fisherman who’d first caught sight of the creature. He hadn’t mentioned anything else about the strange beast except that it had appeared and disappeared suddenly—as if it didn’t like to stay long in one place.
A new generation of scientists had just finished conducting a series of experiments aboard an ocean exploration vessel called the Ocean Explorer II. They’d gone deeper into the ocean than any human had previously dared, and returned with samples of the strangest creatures they’d ever seen.
Some had tentacles while others had fins, but all of them shared certain characteristics: They moved quickly and effortlessly through the water and seemed to be able to see in almost total darkness.
Their research proved nothing conclusive, however. The specimens were either too young or too small to know much about their abilities, although the captain of the ship did mention something interesting about one particular specimen that had survived long enough to be measured.
The creature appeared to be growing larger with every passing day—almost as if it was trying to escape from whatever trapped it there in the ocean’s depths.
After the scientists finally came back above ground, they reported what they’d learned to the United Nations, where they were met with mixed reactions. Some believed the scientists should keep the secret about how well their specimens could swim underwater—others wanted to immediately send out a rescue mission to find out why these bizarre creatures would want to leave such a beautiful home and risk drowning by returning to the land.
But the most important question that no one wanted to ask was—what were these creatures doing here? Why had they left their ocean homes behind to live on dry land?
***
Titanic Disaster
It’s difficult for me to believe what I’ve just read—a tragedy as great as the Titanic disaster couldn’t possibly have happened in this day and age… But then again, my father’s story is from long ago, and so perhaps that explains his confusion over what really happened.
Still, it makes me wonder about all the other stories he’s told me throughout the years, because they all seem unbelievable, too.
As I read about the sinking of the Titanic on the Internet, I can feel the pain of loss that must have gripped people at the time—all those lives lost and not even a trace of them recovered. Even more disturbing are all the theories surrounding what went wrong that night so long ago.
Was it the iceberg that caused the disaster? Or was it some other reason entirely, such as poor seamanship or a collision with another ship? And if it was one of these things, which one caused the greatest loss of life?
I don’t remember hearing any of these questions discussed at school. At least not in class. All we’re taught in history is that the Titanic hit an iceberg, it sank, and 1,517 souls died. That’s it. There are no other theories, no other details, nothing but a single event in a sea of facts. So when I hear the name Titanic and think about what happened, that’s all I need to know.
And yet my father’s tale about a strange creature surviving the disaster makes me wonder about the true nature of the tragedy. What if there was something else that wasn’t explained—something that might explain what truly happened during that awful night so long ago?
What if it weren’t just an ordinary shipwreck, but rather something far more sinister that had taken place beneath the waves? Something that had caused the worst maritime disaster in history?
I know my father has been talking about this for years, and I’m always skeptical whenever he starts another story. It feels like he tries to tell me about something so amazing that I’ll never let him live it down if I say it isn’t true. I’ve learned to tune out whenever he gets that way and pretend I understand what he’s saying.
Then after he’s done talking, I make sure to repeat what he said to someone else, and they get the same reaction from me. “Yeah, right.”
The next morning I decided to call my father and see what he knows. If anyone can help me figure out what he’s talking about, it will be him. After all, he claims to have met the captain himself—and he doesn’t exaggerate when he talks about the captain.
“Hello?” His voice comes over the line a moment later, and I hear only a slight hesitation before he answers.
“Hey, Dad! You up yet?”
He laughs. “Not quite,” he says. He sounds excited; he must be glad that I called. I wait patiently for him to continue, knowing full well that once he starts talking, it’ll be hard to stop him.
“Well, last night I met someone who told me about—”
His words come out fast and furious, leaving me little chance to interrupt him—but I do anyway. “Wait… Who?”
There’s a pause on the other end of the line. I hear his footsteps as he walks away from whatever phone he’s holding. A moment later he comes back on the line. “Sorry, it seems that someone else is listening in on our conversation. Are you still there?”
I laugh. I guess that’s just what happens when you call your dad from work. “Oh, yeah, I’m here. Just hang on a minute… Yeah, I heard you. It’s okay, though, I don’t mind. Go ahead.”
Another short silence passes before his voice comes through the phone again: “…he was telling me about this story… about how he was on the Titanic… and…” His words trail off, and I realize he’s waiting for me to tell him to keep going. I sigh.
“Go ahead, Dad,” I encourage.
He takes a deep breath, and then speaks slowly: “Well, as I was saying, the captain of the boat was a tall, thin man with long black hair tied behind his head… he seemed to be in his thirties or maybe even late twenties…”
He pauses, looking at me with a mixture of surprise and frustration as if he expected me to have already asked him what the hell that means.
“I didn’t mean anything by it!” I say quickly.
This only makes him pause for a few seconds longer. I can almost feel the wheels spinning in his head as he tries to figure out why I would react that way. But finally, he nods and continues his tale.
“…and he was wearing a red suit with a white shirt underneath and dark shoes. The guy was really old-fashioned and had these large glasses that magnified his eyes. He looked like a very serious man.”
He stops again and glances over his shoulder as if expecting someone to walk into the room. I smile and nod encouragingly.
When he looks back at the phone, he says, “So this strange captain—the one who told me all about the Titanic—told me that they were returning from America after dropping off supplies at some island somewhere… And apparently, he’d gone to visit his son in England because he was sick with some sort of lung infection…” He takes a moment to take another deep breath.
“Anyway, this captain was heading home after stopping by his son’s house in England to check on him and then dropped by the Titanic in New York City to drop off supplies and pick up some passengers…”
Another pause. His voice sounds different now: slower, quieter. There’s definitely more emotion in it.
“…it turned out that the captain was a member of the crew who helped build the Titanic itself… And the captain’s son was actually the man who designed its hull—that’s how he got the job—and his name was Bruce Ismay… and…”
His story picks up speed; I can see him smiling as he tells me the rest. He’s excited as he describes how the ship went down, and the people who were lost—all except those who escaped to the lifeboats. I listen intently as he tells me about Mr. Ismay being rescued and then taken into police custody.
When he finishes his story, he’s still smiling. “You know what was weird?” he asks quietly. “The guy knew everything that happened.”
My heart sinks into my stomach. “What do you mean?” I ask hesitantly.
There’s another long pause. “He said he knew exactly what happened,” Dad continues, “everything that led up to the ship sinking … right down to the details that nobody else knows about.”
I swallow, my throat suddenly dry.
“And he told me everything, too …” My dad takes a deep breath and lowers his voice as he says the rest. “He told me that Bruce Ismay was the first person to go overboard.”
The End