Anchors

The water was like a sheet of glass spread across the crust of the earth. Still and silent they kept watch peering into the deepening blue.

The whaling ship and its crew were in the doldrums, an area of the ocean where two trade winds meet and the rampant winds settle down. Sometimes trapping sailing ships who need wind to travel for weeks on end. But this whaling ship had no worries for it was motor powered with plenty of fuel. The doldrums low-pressure area is at the equator where there are little clouds and no wind adding to the scorching sun at one of the hottest places in the ocean.

Sweat dripped off the sunburnt forehead of a crew member, as he sat on the stairs of the ship taking a sip of his warm rum. The boat smelled like fish, the men smelled like fish and they were hunting for fish.

Most of the men were sick and tired of this boat, the smell, the food, and the patient waiting; but knew it was for a good cause. Their cause.

Exploding out of the ocean was a massive fish. A bowhead whale had exited the depths into the clear blue sky. The men watched as if the beast slowed time, the sun highlighted every bend and curve of the whale. As it seemed to levitate for a moment the water came down like rain. Then the whale came crashing down sending towering waves toward the boat.

“Brace yourselves!” Yelled out one of the men with a cigar still in his mouth.

All the men grabbed hold of the boat and held on for dear life. All except the captain of the ship, who was distracted by the once in a lifetime view of this massive whale, a whale of unimaginable size. The captain didn’t securely grab the boat, thrown off his ship he went splashing into the unforeseen water. He disappeared into the darkness of the ocean as if his leg had a large stone attached to it. The ship was rocking back and forth as the men caught their balance. A few men were pale white in fear. A few were revved up with adrenaline.

“Captain!?” The elderly first mate yelled.

“He isn’t here?” Asked a crewman.

“Captain went overboard!” He answered.

All the men rush to the starboard side of the ship looking for him.

“There! There!” Yelled a young sailor.

The captain surged back up to the water and began to catch his breath. The captain is a man of bravery and curiosity, a still growing 25 year old with a long brown ponytail and a small goatee. He has been the captain of his fathers ship for the past two years hunting for whales. Minke and Fin whales are the whales that this iceland ship is allowed to hunt. But sometimes, the young captain has had the opportunity to take down a humpback, and he takes them down. Launching his explosive harpoons into the skin of the whale, strategically ripping a vital part of it off with the explosion, and in the end harvesting the prize. Making him and his crew large sums of money on the secret sales of the humpback whale.

This visit to the heat blasting doldrums was one of those believed opportunities as it was the cooler season and whales, specifically in this case humpback whales travel to warmer waters, the tropics near the equator.

“Captain you alright?” Asked the first mate.

The captain raised his hand as if he was about to use an excuse for his tumble into the water, when his eyes were drawn to the sky. He panicked in terror while in the water, unable to get the word out.

“The! The! THE WHALE!” The captain exclaimed.

The captain began to swim away from the ship. The crew looked behind themselves and up at the incomparable size of the freakish bowhead whale in absolute awe and disbelief. The whale fell onto the ship, immediately smashing through the decks as the beast weighed around 200 tons. She plunged into the depths as if the boat wasn’t there. Like a knife to soft butter.

The ship ripped in two small sections from the collision, sending pieces of the ship flying in all directions. It was absolute destruction from the weight of the animal, even though only about ⅓ of the whale landed on the boat. It was obliterated.

The white caps from the humongous whale re-entering the blue beyond rippled the waters as it swam below. The captain of the ship and its chef were the only survivors staying afloat on driftwood ripped from the structure of the boat.

They were both sent off the boat from the same wave. The chef was in the back of the boat dumping out his “yuck” bucket which contained the nasty liquids from the leftovers and messups of the meals from earlier nights. That’s when the wave pulled him off the back of the boat into the water. The waves from the whale gave the chef the opportunity to swim away from the huge wreckage.

Luckily for the chef and the captain a big enough section of the boat was ripped apart from the wreckage. The section drifted out to him where the chef took refuge. Waiting for the captain, the only other survivor. The captain only just nearly swam out of the way of the whale impacting the water.

“What the hell just happened!” Exclaimed the chef.

He wanted an explanation as the captain climbed aboard the driftwood. The chef didn’t have a good view of the whole situation from where he was in the water. He did catch a glimpse of it in the air and of course, the impact, but couldn’t believe his own eyes.

“That was the biggest creature on the planet.”

“That was a whale!?” In disbelief that he had thought correctly.

“Yes, a bowhead whale. Known to have the largest jaws in the animal kingdom.”

“Shit, well uh. What do we do now captain?”

The chef asked, hoping he knows something else he doesn’t.

“I guess, we just have to. Hope. Hope, that. That someone. Come. Comes along the way and saves us. Yeah, that–that’s the plan.” The captain said with a smile, seemingly out of breath.

“Ah, so we are totally fucked?”

“Yeah, yeah pretty much.”

They both stared at the wreckage floating in the now peaceful water. They laid atop the driftwood on the almost still water that clapped quietly on the ends of the driftwood.

“Just when I finished making some lunch, damn shame.” The chef groaned, taking off his hat. He wiped his forehead as he shook his head.

“I say, we play a game.” .

“What kinda game?” The captain said with exhaustion.

The chef smiled as he pulled three different colored stones out from his hat.

“Let me show you.”