There She Blows

There She Blows

By M. Harris



“Call me Shaara,(don’t you dare call me Ishmael) I went out to sea to see Moby-Dick. The Pacific was quiet and placid. The boat was silent. Trying to allay their fears Starbuck, the chief mate, Stubb, the second mate and Flask the third mate were in their bunks on their computers, writing on Writing.com.

(The true story is about the whaleship Essex that was attacked by a sperm whale at sea and sank.)

There is no truth to my story, except about the true author, Herman Melville, who wrote a book called “Moby-Dick or, The Whale.” I still see Gregory Peck strapped to the side of the great white whale as he swims away and lives. That is the whale lives. Peck’s dead. And hear the words as Starbuck screams to Captain Ahab, “Moby-Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him.” Written in first person narration by Ishmael, I mean Shaara, Moby-Dick crippled Ahab; he gnawed off his leg. An arm of another ship’s captain had gone to Dick and another sailor had lost his whole life to Dick. Moby-Dick is a cannibal. Moby’s friends are Humpback, Blue, Bryde’s, Gray and of course, Shamu the killer whale (orca) or overgrown dolphin that killed his trainer. Or I think!

Brave Shaara was sun bathing on the wooden deck. Who needs whales? Any whale watching trip is a crap shoot; you may see one – you may not. She saw Delta and Dawn, two humpbacks yesterday and after all, how many whales can a girl view? I mean watch.

Crews were trying to maneuver boats beside her boat, so there were a bunch of boats surrounding Shaara’s boat all trying to view a whale in their boat. The point is there are more boats than whales and the whales are sick and tired of being watched. Even Ahab had a ship.

In a recent interview with a bull whale, he told me (while singing) that his cow and baby couldn’t go to school for whale watchers in the Pacific getting in their way. He is a resident killer whale (orca) but the transient killer whales feed almost exclusively on marine mammals or seabirds. His transient friend said if humans really wanted to watch him that he’d be hungry today. His favored prey is harbor seals, sea lions or porpoises. Don’t worry, he said humans don’t even taste good. He’s 70 years old and still has teeth. He also travels alone and wears an overcoat. We call him the Godfather. There is a dark side to the killer whales called the off shore killer whales. Little is known about them. The Godfather said, “It is best that you never know them.”

Martha’s Vineyard shows up in the story, so Melville can sell more books, as home to Flask the second or third mate. Who cares if he’s second or third? The first mate is Starbuck. Yes, I’ve been wondering that too. Where did Starbucks get its name? Melville also throws in Romeo and
Juliet with his Queen Mab statement. My O My! What a name dropper!

Now, if Elijah told you, “Don’t board that ship. The Pequod is doomed.” Would you get on board?

Hopefully, Shaara’s boat is her Harvard and her Yale or at least her community college. If she didn’t get a wealth of information out of this “Whale Watching Adventure,” then I am here to give her some Moby-Dick intelligence.

Melville even throws Christmas into the story as the Pequod leaves Nantucket on a cold Christmas Day. Biggest selling day of the year, I’d throw Christmas in my story too. If you can’t sell it at Christmastime, it can’t be sold.

Melville loses Ishmael at some point so if I lose Shaara at some point, don’t judge me. Shaara is not a biblical outcast as Ishmael, but a star at Writing.com. If Shaara digresses from this story at some point, don’t worry Shaara, I own this computer. I’ll type you back in. We’re going to write this story about whale watching on a boat in the Pacific ocean, in the first, second, third or fourth person. I’m a Newbie. I’ve got it under control.

Now, have you noticed stupid questions on The Writer’s Cramp? Who in their right mind would ask a woman, “New to the Cramp?”

Shaara, did you know that Sophie is jealous of you. She said so, right on the front page of The Writer’s Cramp and she added a “smiley face” to it. She called you “my regular Saturday judge.” That means I’ll be judged every day of the week.

Now, back to “Whale watching on a boat in the Pacific ocean.” Did you know that the North Pacific humpback whale population is the largest it’s been in over 40 years? That’s all I’ll say about that. I think Sophie said rate this 13+. If she’d said 21+, I could have said more.

The what-cha-ma-call-it, Uh, word count is now at 834. Did you know that I wouldn’t even be on the Writer’s Cramp if Sophy hadn’t written the “How to Enter the Writer’s Cramp for newbies who are not sure how to enter the Cramp…?” Sophie taught me all that I know. I get a pain/cramp every time I think about it.

I should have written a poem. Where’s Moby-Dick when you need him? Have you noticed the hyphen in “Moby-Dick?” Melville put it there. Did you know the origin of the name Moby-Dick? Jeremiah Reynolds said in the New York Knickerbocker Magazine in May 1839 that “The meaning of the name itself is quite simple: the whale was often sighted in the vicinity of the island of Mocha, and ‘Dick’ was merely a generic name like ’Jack’ or ‘Tom’ – names of other deadly whales cited by Melville in Chapter 45 of Moby-Dick.” The article also mentioned the sketch of Mocha Dick of the Pacific. Interesting, Huh!

I’ve got to stop. I’m at 998 words. Whew!

Word count = 1000