A lone ship sits in open waters. She would rest here tonight, there is activity aboard her deck, but she’s never bothered especially not tonight as the ocean has captured her attention once more. Moonbeams bounce off the tranquil waters, as gentle waves caress her bow.
“It’s a fine night when you’re not rushing from isle to isle, finally we can talk again” Said the ocean.
“It has been a busy day for me, but any day I spend exploring every inch of you brings me joy” she said
“I cannot lie,” whispered the ocean “Of all who sail across me I prefer you best, I remember seeing you built in Manchester, your first voyage around the Horn…even that regretful day.”
“Let us not speak of it.” She interrupted
Before either could continue the sound of gunpowder exploding intruded.
“The boys are just being rowdy” she assured sea, who had begun to rock her now.
“How long will you allow them to desecrate someone as fine as yourself, I can help you rid of them” the waters coaxed. “A strong wave would wipe your decks clean”
Pondering she replied “They are really not that bad, they scrub me free of barnacles and have filled me with unimaginable treasures” she boasted now
“Are treasures worth the blood that pours into me from your deck?” the ocean questioned.
She had no response for it was true, her sailors were murderous vile and greedy pirates. Since they had captured her from the merchants in Africa blood shed on her hull and gold filled her holds, but she remained un phased. In her stern slept the most wanted man in all Europe responsible for more pillage and plunder than history had previously seen. The glimmer however, the feeling of solid gold and precious stones lining her innermost parts, of exotic cloth flowing from her rigging was intoxicating.
“Farewell for tonight my dear waters. I shall not have you speak ill of my crew any longer.” The ocean remained quiet from then on, heartbroken for the ship he loved seemed to be truly lost.
Raising anchor from the coast of Lagos she groaned under the weight of her load. Even her previous crew had never brought on this much or type of cargo. The glamorous wanton pirates had been killed in a duel against an obnoxious English War Galleon. They had left her broken, stripped of her wealth even her soft sails had been replaced with something coarse but durable. They ran her now and the shine from her deck was now gone replaced with a dull red stain, the very deck on which hundreds of bodies gathered the weight of their pain and suffering was more than she could bear. Even the devilish pirates never used her to create such carnage or sorrow. Now she was transporting the new source of wealth. Misery did not begin to describe her new demeanor, she loathed those who ran her ragged across the Middle Passage.
“Ocean if you had truly loved me like you said I implore you deliver me from this hellish existence!” She cried out “Though I had love the freedom to cruise your waters above and see new lands, it pains me now this triangular route of horrors.”
The Ocean remained silent as moonbeams struggled to pierce through dark clouds.
Six weeks later she was on her way back to Lagos. Filled with weaponry, mirrors and other trinkets. There was no sign of moonbeams as the night sky was blackened by clouds. Strong winds pushed against her to the brink.
“Darling I have heard your cries and I can end this once and for all.” The ocean whispered suddenly
“I will accept my fate for that fortune is worth more than my current course,” she retorted “I regret not my life of glamour with the pirates however I detest what I have become what they have made me into, I’m ready to join you for eternity as many have done before, to lose my ability to tread above these waters is to grant freedom to so many others” “So shall it be” said the ocean quietly.
The currents suddenly became intense and drew her faster and faster into the whirlpools center. The crew cried out and tried their best to not share her fate. The ocean was relentless and sucked her in before anyone had chance to escape. In an instant she found herself under the waves and sinking deeper in that which she loved and loved her, here she would forever able to talk to her love and escape the clutches of humanity who had never loved her as the ocean did but used her to create profit and pain. Moonbeams bounced off the ocean as she settled below where eternity would meet her.
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