Chapter 1: Baleen
For 75 years or so she crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean in search of adventure. She loved, lost, and feasted her way across the cold ocean. But, it was finally time for her to find a place to retire. She had gotten “too darn old,” and she needed a place to hang her large, whale-sized hat.
She had a place in mind — a place she hadn’t seen for a decade or so. All she could remember was that there was plenty to eat there and she might even reunite with a singing partner or two from her childhood pod.
She searched for what seemed like forever, gliding effortlessly through the dark, open ocean quietly singing along the way to keep herself occupied. Small fish visited her, providing a bit of much-needed scrubbing. She was one of the most massive animals in the world, so everything always seemed so inconsequential to her.
Then, she remembered something that was almost as big as her. A sunken ship right near where she planned to retire, and she precisely recalled where it was.
She was so excited to have remembered her way that she covered roughly 1,000 miles in less than three days, coming up to the surface periodically to gulp another 1,000 gallons of fresh air from time to time.
Then, in the distance, she saw it — the outline of the sunken ship! Surprisingly her first thought about the wreck was about how sad it was. Such a fantastic craft, built by man to bring people to faraway places, was now left to lay on the seafloor, forgotten by time.
As she approached the weary vessel, things didn’t look as she remembered them. She recalled a lonely vessel, torn in half by hurricane winds, abandoned, and hollow, its pieces strewn across the featureless sea floor. A wreck. As she absorbed the space she realized that this catastrophe had, over time, become a veritable garden of Eden.
Crabs scrambled horizontally across the poop deck.
Eels peeked out of portholes.
Small fish darted between the coral-crowded mast.
Big fish stalked small fish through anemone gardens on the stern.
Tube worms waved hello from below the decks.
Bivalves of all kinds had their filters on full-blast.
Rays slid along the starboard side of the ship, looking for snacks.
Starfish dotted the lush landscape, lounging amid the vegetation.
Indeed, it was a sight to behold — colorful and beautiful. It became clear to Baleen that the ship’s loss had become something new and exciting. Like life above the water, living below the tide was cyclical, and she understood that she was nearing the end of hers. Like the warping wood of the once-proud clipper ship, she could feel her aging body getting tired. Where she once had strength, she now had resolve and experience. With her last bit of power, she swam to the surface and took one last gulp of fresh air.
She knew that this would be her last.
She reached her destination, and as her old naval friend had done, it was finally time for her to retire. But first, she had to sing one last aria — her final performance. At first, her song opened with an astoundingly high note, capturing the audience’s attention immediately. High tones melodically transitioned to deep, complex ones, matching the depths that she had traveled over her long life. She sang of her childhood and her children. Her acoustic legacy filled the hollows of the ship and bounced off of every nook lining the sea floor until finally, the opus came to a thunderous halt.
Her body silently bowed in exhaustion and floated lifelessly toward the ocean surface as the audience rose to their feet to give a standing ovation.
Thanks for reading the first chapter of Whale Fall
Continue to Chapter 2 (Free on Medium!)
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