Terrell Adsit-Neuage
Approx. 1750 words
110 Victoria Street
Victor Harbor
South Australia
5210
SUBMARINE AND THE WHALES By:
Terrell Adsit-Neuage
A hard thump was heard throughout the submarine. It shook with
such a force that the sailors on board it were tossed around inside.
"What was that," the captain yelled out? officer quickly put up the
number two periscope. To her surprise it was a sperm whale that had
crashed into the side of the submarine. The sperm whale was giving
birth to a calf.
The submarine surfaced, The crew opened up the hatch and
climbed out onto the bridge.
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There was a large school of whales. Several of them were having
calves. The captain had the crew turn off the engines, she was afraid
that having the engines on might do damage to some of the whales,
The captain had children herself and knew the importance of a
peaceful environment in which to give birth.
It was quite a spectacular sight indeed. By the end of the
day there were three new whales. The submarine was on patrol in
the Atlantic Ocean at the time. The captain called into naval
command headquarters and received permission to stay in the area
that they were in.
The next morning several ships were observed to be heading
toward where the submarine was. The captain had the crew seal the
hatch, and she sounded the alarm for submerging. The submarine went
just below the surface and put up both the number two periscope and
the number one periscope. The ships that were appraching the school
of whales were part of a whaling fleet.
The captain and crew watched in shook as the whaling ships closed
in on the school of whales and harpooned them, including the mother
whales who had just given birth the day before. As the ships closed
in and harpooned the whales the crew from their ships brought the
huge sea creatures on board of their vessels. Before the day was over,
all but the calves were harpooned and taken out of the sea. The calves
swam around in the sea looking for their mothers.
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The day following the killing of the school of whales the
submarine was given orders to head for the North At]a ntic to
investigate the movement of warships from a foreigh contry.
The submarine turned on its motors; four huge electric
engines and two diesel generators to propel the boat through the
water, All day the submarine went north, traveling at a slow , for
a submarine, speed of only 15 kilometers per hour.
The three calves swam behind the submarine. They followed
through the watery of the North Atlantic. The whales dove deep into
the sea for food. A sperm whale when it's fully grown is able to dive
down to a depth of 1134 meters, almost as far down as a 300 story
building would go up.
Once, long ago, before they were harvested, whales would join
together in herds of well over one-thousand. When the whales were
attacked by the whaling ships, there were only ten adult whales.
Five females, and five bulls
The submarine continued on its tour of the Norht Atia ntic for
the rest of the year. Nothing too much had happened on their tour
as of yet. Seeing the whales six months earlier was the most
interesting thing so far. They had followed some hostel looking
warships earlier in the year, but the warships had turned and gone
back to their home base. No-one on board the submarnine was aware
of the whales following them.
The submarine was ordered to go to the pacific ocean. It was
going to be tested for deep dives. It was a new type of
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submarine– capable of going deeper than any submarine in the world.
It was at a depth of 5000 meters and was sitting on the floor of the
sea. The sea like the land has high and low places. There are
mountains in the ocean that are larger than the mountains on earth,
and valleys that are larger than the largest valley on the land. Where
the submarine was sitting was a long flat high hill, a continental
rise. Nearby was a very very deep area. It is the deepest place in
the sea; the Marianas Trench is over 11 thousand metres deep, more
than
twice the average depth of the ocean floor. A 2760 story building would
have been able to sit there. No-Pone had ever been that deep before. The
submarine was at its deepest possible position already. Any deeper and
it would be crushed by the water pressure.
It is very dark in the Marianas Trench. There, the huge giant
octopus live. No–one had ever seen one alive. In 1896 one had been
washed ashore in Florida in the U'.SA'. It is thought that it was
between 50 and 70 metres across. The giant octopus is the size of
a city block. Proof of these huge sea creatures are found by the large
circular scars found on the skins of some whales. Whales eat octopus,
but they are not known for going to any greater depths in the sea
than two kilometres. The submarine was especially built to go as
deep as the plain that it was sitting on, 5000 metres deep,. Most
submarines only go 1000 metres down before they are in danger of
being crushed by the seats forces.
The three sperm whales that had been following the
submarine had grown almost to their full adult size of 20
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metres, about four family size Hoidens long. Suddenly, they saw the
huge tentacles of a giant octopus climbing up the side of the Marianas
Trench' where it lived. The octopus was three times the size of the
whales' and one of its tentacles had already wrapped around the
submarine. The crew spotted the octopus: on their sonar. They tried
to break freep but another tentacle of the octopus was wrapping
around them* A torpedo was readied for launch* The biggest worry for
the crew of the submarine was its intercontinental ballistic
missiles with nuclear warheads. If the pressure hull of the boat
was damaged and the electronics on board disturbed' the missiles
could be launched by accident* One missile was capable of destroying
a large city' if they all exploded— this submarine carried 16 nuclear
missiles— there would be such an exlposion deep. in the sea that a
tidal wave with more force than over before would be created and
it would destroy a large portion of the earth's land.
The captain did not want to have a torpedo launched, because
the octopus was too close. There was no time to radio for help,
submarines prowl the depths of the sea alone* The huge octopus began
to drag the submarine along the side' of the mountain and into the
trench.
The submarine would soon explode from the pressure of the water
( the deeper into the sea — the higher the pressure)* In a final act
of desperation the captain ordered the firing
the smallest torpedo* The smallest torpedo was capable of
sinking an aircraft carrier. The torpedo shook the submarine as
it was launched', it hit the largest tentacle — that was
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wrapped around the back of the submarine. The impact broke the
octopus's grip on the submarine. The captain was able to have the
crew start the engines. Only three of them were working. She directed
the ship to surface- but it wouldn't budge there was another tentacle
holding onto the submarinei
The sonar readings on the screen showed more than just the giant
octopus* The three whales were diving to more than twice their normal
depths. An incredible battle began, the octopus was larger than the
three whales put together. Whales can only stay under water for 75
minutes before needing to surface to take in air. The tentacle that
was still hanging onto the submarine was biters off by a whale. The
other tentacles quickly reached out toward the submarine. The whales
fought the octopus and as soon as the submarine was freed the three
whales shot streight up% toward the surface. The submarine's crew
begged the captain to fire torpedoes at the monster. She refused and
told the crew that they had been the invaders and it was not their
place to harm any living thing, unless they were directly threatened*
It was when they surfaced that the crew discovered the damage
to the submarine. Both number one and number two periscope had
been broken off* The radar antenna' and radio antenna had been
broken. The missile hatches covering the intercontinental
ballistic nuclear missiles were also
damaged. There was a hole in the hull of the submarine, water was
starting to pour in faster than the crew could pump it out.
Off in the distance whaling ships were patrolling the
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miraculously survived both the octopus attack, and the incredible
depths that they had gone down too had released a huge amount of
water through their spouts. The water shot up4 went over a kilometre
into the air. The whaling ships raced toward the whales.
The ore on the submarine could not use their radio. They saw
the whaling ships headed toward the whales that had saved them.
It was the same whaling ships that they had seen kill the mother
whales in the Atlantic Ocean the year before. A crew member had to
use flags and flares to communicate with the whaling ships. When
the ships came near the submarine, the captain sounded loud sirens
and horns. She spoke through a loud speaker. She told the whaling
ships that if they didn't turn around and leave the area she would
torpedo them.
The crew on the whaling ships paniced, they put out an
international distress call. For the rest of the day there was a
stand off between the nuclear powered submarine and the fishing
boats. The three sperm whales continued to swim around the
submarine. The whales were all covered with large open soars, they
were bleeding from their wounds made by the suckers on the tentacles
of the enormous octopus that they had saved the submarine from.
Late in the day the two warships approached the stand off. The
submarine crew boarded the warships just in time, 17 minutes after
the entire crew had escaped their submarine, it sank. Fourteen
minutes later there was a large explosion deep in the sea. The
submarine had been ripped apart by the ocean,
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and' fortunately for the world the nuclear missiles hadn't been
released. Though, if a monster octopus decides to take
a bite out of one someday, it will be in for a rude awakening.
The expisian deep in the Marianas Trench caused large waves
in the sea. The destroyers and the whaling ships rocked back and
forth, the three whales lept high over the waves. The captain-of
the submarine explained all that had happened to the crew of the
whaling vessels and to the crew on the warships.
The story received so much media attention all over the
world, that the few countries that were still whaling, stopped,
because of the pressures from people all over the world. The
three whales had not only saved the rest of the whales of the
world but they had saved the crew of the submarine too.