The RRS Lady Fortuna had been drifting for one hundred and eighty five years already, the only soul aboard was that of the former cabin boy, his spirit tethered to the vessel, still searching for the rest of the crew who had vanished one night and left him locked in hold. He died there eight days later.
The Fortuna has been spotted a total of seven times since it was first declared missing after failing to return to its original base. With every sighting it seems that the cabin boy is ageing alongside the vessel, getting taller as the rust spreads, growing a beard as the sheer density of barnacles begin to weigh Fortuna down.
She sits so low in the water now that the waves are forever brushing over her deck, stray fish glide across her and straight through the phantom feet of her last crewman. He still has a map in his hands, just as spectral and just as hopelessly confused as he is.
The last sighting was eight years ago, thirty or so miles off the coast of Adamstown. A cruise ship thought Fortuna was a live vessel, sea tossed with crew in need of rescue and launched a small recovery boat out to her. It wasn't until their recovery boat reached her portside that they saw the cabin boy was long dead and still moving.
He asked the recovery team if they'd seen his crew, naming them all in one unbroken breath and stating their last known location. Of course names have changed with the times and none of them had ever heard of the series of islands he'd named, nor heard of the missing crew.
It wasn't until earlier this year that someone found an old document from the early 1800's that named the islands and put them right on our modern map. Seems they sunk a few decades ago, allegedly inhabited but totally cut off from the rest of the world since the Fortuna left their shores.
Now we know these islands may not have sunk of natural causes, not since their location was matched to the midpoint of a sound known only as "The Bloop". With an estimated radius of five thousand miles and decidedly organic in its origins, the predicted size of this creature is around two hundred and fifteen meters.
Putting two-and-two together,one might assume that this creature surfaced some time in the last two hundred years, perhaps it only surfaces every two hundred years. Perhaps we are overdue a visit. Theories aside, the reality is that the Fortuna is slowly sinking and one day the two may meet again.
The Fortuna has been spotted a total of seven times since it was first declared missing after failing to return to its original base. With every sighting it seems that the cabin boy is ageing alongside the vessel, getting taller as the rust spreads, growing a beard as the sheer density of barnacles begin to weigh Fortuna down.
She sits so low in the water now that the waves are forever brushing over her deck, stray fish glide across her and straight through the phantom feet of her last crewman. He still has a map in his hands, just as spectral and just as hopelessly confused as he is.
The last sighting was eight years ago, thirty or so miles off the coast of Adamstown. A cruise ship thought Fortuna was a live vessel, sea tossed with crew in need of rescue and launched a small recovery boat out to her. It wasn't until their recovery boat reached her portside that they saw the cabin boy was long dead and still moving.
He asked the recovery team if they'd seen his crew, naming them all in one unbroken breath and stating their last known location. Of course names have changed with the times and none of them had ever heard of the series of islands he'd named, nor heard of the missing crew.
It wasn't until earlier this year that someone found an old document from the early 1800's that named the islands and put them right on our modern map. Seems they sunk a few decades ago, allegedly inhabited but totally cut off from the rest of the world since the Fortuna left their shores.
Now we know these islands may not have sunk of natural causes, not since their location was matched to the midpoint of a sound known only as "The Bloop". With an estimated radius of five thousand miles and decidedly organic in its origins, the predicted size of this creature is around two hundred and fifteen meters.
Putting two-and-two together,one might assume that this creature surfaced some time in the last two hundred years, perhaps it only surfaces every two hundred years. Perhaps we are overdue a visit. Theories aside, the reality is that the Fortuna is slowly sinking and one day the two may meet again.
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