It Comes - Part 1 Poem by David Harris

International Marine Biologist Conference 1958
Dr Roger Maitland addresses representatives from 31 countries.
Excerpt from his address:
We live in a world that teems with life where new species are being discovered every year. Our oceans are uncharted in the deeper depths. No one knows what might live down there; it is only when something surfaces from the gloom that we discover a more.


June 1979
The cargo ship Sulu Spray was steaming north,
it bulged with cargo from stem to stern.
The moonlit waters were calm.
The Sulu Spray’s radio operator
was talking to another ship within its vicinity.
Suddenly the radio died and the ship vanishes.
There was no mayday signal.
The Sulu Spray disappeared
as if it had never been there.

Coast guard planes were launched
as soon as the alert was raised.
Ships in the proximity of the Sulu Spray
moved quickly to the scene
and started a search for survivors.
As the hours passed,
the outlook looked bleaker.
With no wreckage or debris found.
After a week, the search was eventually called off
and the fate of the Sulu Spray
became just another mystery of the sea.

Two weeks later off the coast of Jamaica
the luxury liner The Princess on a Caribbean cruse
reported nothing unusual
as it sailed through the night time waters.
From the shore, its lights could be seen in the distance
and its music could be heard drifting across the calm waters.
Then everything went quiet
and there were no lights to be seen.
The Princess, her passengers and crew
were never seen again.
Another maritime tragedy
where no wreckage or debris was found.
Yet another mystery to be added
to the ever growing number of vanishings at sea.

July 1979
The lifeboat bobbed in the water
with no hands to steer or guide it.
Abandoned and adrift
when The Wiskom Sail spotted it.
The skipper launched one of his own boats
to collect it when he found
it belong to the Sulu Spray.
As the Wiskom Sail’s crew came along side it,
they were amazed to find someone inside,
the sole survivor of the Sulu Spray.

Taking him barely conscious on board
the Wiskom Sail’s medical officer advised
they get him to the nearest port.
Adrift for over four weeks
the survivor was weak and dehydrated.
All he kept mumbling was of a blue light
and then everything suddenly fell into darkness.
He would then open his eyes and scream in terror.


To Be Continued

25 September 2009