Eyes In The Dark

[EDITORS' NOTE: After crossing the Pacific Ocean in a light balsa raft, explorer Thor Heyerdahl recounted his adventure in his popular 1948 memoir Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft. In this excerpt, Heyerdahl has a close encounter with mysterious sea creatures.]

When night had fallen and the stars were twinkling in the dark tropical sky, the phosphorescence flashed around us in rivalry with the stars, and single glowing plankton resembled round live coals so vividly that we involuntarily drew in our bare legs when the glowing pellets were washed up round our feet at the raft's stern. When we caught them we saw that they were little brightly shining species of shrimp. On such nights we were sometimes scared when two round shining eyes suddenly rose out of the sea right alongside the raft and glared at us with an unblinking hypnotic stare. The visitors were often big squids, which came up and floated on the surface with their devilishly green eyes shining in the dark like phosphorus. But sometimes the shining eyes were those of deep-water fish that only came up at night and lay staring, fascinated by the glimmer of light before them. Several times, when the sea was calm, the black water round the raft was suddenly full of round heads two or three feet in diameter, lying motionless and staring at us with great glowing eyes. On other nights balls of light three feet or more in diameter would be visible down in the water, flashing at irregular intervals like electric lights turned on for a moment.

We gradually grew accustomed to having these subterranean or submarine creatures under the floor, but nevertheless we were just as surprised every time a new version appeared. About two o' clock on a cloudy night, when the man at the helm had difficulty in distinguishing black water from black sky, he caught sight of a faint illumination down in the water that slowly took the shape of a large animal. It was impossible to say whether it was plankton shining on its body, or whether the animal itself had a phosphorescent surface, but the glimmer down in the black water gave the ghostly creature obscure, wavering lines. Sometimes it was roundish, sometimes oval, or triangular, and suddenly it split into two parts, which swam to and fro under the raft independently of one another. Finally there were three of these large shining phantoms wandering around in slow circles under us.

These were real monsters, for the visible parts alone were some five fathoms long (30 feet), and we all quickly collected on deck and followed the ghost dance. It went on for hour after hour, following the course of the raft. Mysterious and noiseless, our shining companions kept a good way beneath the surface, mostly on the starboard side where the light was, but often they were right under the raft or appeared on the port side. The glimmer of light on their backs revealed that the beasts were bigger than elephants but they were not whales, for they never came up to breathe. Were they giant ray fish which changed shape when they turned over on their sides?

They took no notice at all if we held the light right down on the surface to lure them up, so that we might see what kind of creatures they were. And, like all proper goblins and ghosts, they had sunk into the depths when the dawn began to break.

-This story was taken from the book Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl, 1948. It appears in the book Chicken Soup for the Ocean Lover's Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Wyland.

The Mersey Mermaid

Is there any truth behind the mariner's tales of merfolk? Over 70 per cent of the Earth is covered in water, and many scientists believe that all life on this planet originated in the sea. When a human being is developing in the womb the fetus actually grows a set of gills and a tail at one point, and biologists think this is an indication of the early aquatic origins of mankind. Many babies are born through waterbirth nowadays, because a new born baby breathes amniotic fluid in the womb until it's born, and the shock of breathing in air makes the child cry. You may have also seen how new born babies can instinctively swim underwater. If you take this further, it may throw some light on why humans like to holiday on beaches by the seaside, and why mankind has always been fascinated with the exploration of the sea. Now, could there be a missing link between us and sea creatures? The following strange story suggests that there is. In 1848, a 25-year-old Liverpool sailor named Richard Mattaign boarded a huge ship called the Ocean Monarch at Liverpool. The ship was bound for the United States, but when she was passing within six miles of the Great Orme, off the coast of North Wales, tragedy struck. An immigrant passenger aboard the Ocean Monarch mistook a ventilator for a chimney and lit a fire which soon spread throughout the ship. People panicked and dozens crawled along the bowsprit at the front of the ship to escape the flames, while others were burnt to death. Some were forced to jump into the raging sea. Richard Mattaign staggered onto deck suffering from smoke inhalation, then fell over the ship's rail into the sea. Hundreds perished in the tragedy. Survivor Richard Mattaign awoke and saw a full moon in the sky. He felt week, and he looked around and found himself being pulled along in the waves. A woman with a very pale complexion and long black hair had her arms under his arms, and she was swimming through the waves. Richard Mattaign thought he was hallucinating and passed out. When he regained consciousness, he was on a beach at Hoylake. Standing over him was a naked woman. It was the woman with the pallid face who had rescued him from the sea. It was a sultry August night, and Mattaign didn't feel cold. He felt weak, but he got to his feet. As he did, the strange woman backed away from him, then ran in the moonlight down the beach to the sea. Mattaign said: 'No, wait, who are you?' And he watched as the woman walked into the sea. She kept walking until her head dipped under the waves. Richard Mattaign was convinced he had been rescued from the shipwreck by a mermaid, and he told people but they thought he was mad. The only person who believed Mattaign was an old sailor named O'Connell, because he said he had seen what he called 'the people of the sea' when he lived near Black Rock, off the coast of Leasowe. The legend of the Black Rock mermaid goes back into the mists of time, and for hundreds of years, people have heard the sound of a submerged bell ringing beneath the waves. It's said to be the bell of a church that sank in medieval times. Mattaign journeyed to Leasowe and secured employment there, and his behaviour became increasingly odd. He said he had met the mermaid who had saved him as he was bathing in the sea. Strangely enough, several other people did see him on several occasions with a woman, who would always vanish. Mattaign said the mermaid was guarded by a seal and a long swordfish which had attacked him until the woman of the deep called it off. This swordfish had a blue diamond shape between its eyes. Mattaign ended up in the sailors home, where he related his tales about the merfolk. He said that one day, he saw a cloudy disturbance in the water, and three men appeared out of the waves. They took the mermaid back to depths of the sea, and he never saw her again. Just before Mattaign died he asked to be buried at sea so he could be reunited with the mermaid he loved, but Mattaign was put in a pauper's grave. Strangely enough, a month after he died, a huge swordfish was caught near Perch Rock. It had a distinctive blue diamond-shaped blaze pattern between its eyes. Possibly a coincidence, and perhaps Mattaign invented his tales of the mermaid. We may know more one day.

The Wind Has Such a Rainy Sound

...He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
-Deuteronomy 31:8b

The wind has such a rainy sound

Moaning through the town,

The sea has such a windy sound,—

Will the ships go down?

The apples in the orchard

Tumble from their tree,—

Oh will the ships go down, go down,

In the windy sea?

-Christina Rossetti