Sea Maiden 10 Isabella by Robert Kline

Sea Maiden 10 Isabella

Mermaid art and story by Robert Kline

Edmund C. Roberts’ steam ship, the HMS Baci was not a part of the young man, it was his life. He awoke to the sweet smell of coal smoke, invariably took his midday meal on the deck beside his cabin, riveted iron plates behind him, the endless expanse of sea and seabirds his only company.  In the evenings he walked forward and watched the setting sun reflect upon the parting water of the ship’s plumb bow. And always there was vibration beneath his feet — the Baci Finale’s huge triple expansion steam engine pounding a slow cadence that reverberated throughout. It was as if his steamship had a heart; a giant throbbing muscle that taunted Edmund with the knowledge that there beat the same in him, though neglected for far too long. He did not see his own heart as strong and insistent, rather a timid, wounded thing, long since cold and ignored. When he was a lad it had been full of love for the sounds and smells and feelings of life. When he was a boy he leapt from his bed excited and anxious to begin the day. But before each adventure he would ground himself; he would find his mother, hug her, receive her warm kisses and suckle her assurance that all was well in their world and that he should go forth and explore.

Go forth and explore. That had been her downfall and his devastation, for she and his father had done just that. Twenty years and he had finally summoned the courage to do the same. He would find them–learn what happened—absorb their tragedy and attempt to begin his own life again. All this on his ship.

The world was on the brink of war, civilizations shifting angrily, arming, threatening, seething belligerence, mustering armies and sending forth expanded navies. And ever at their periphery steamed the tiny Baci Finale. Hostile ports were avoided and foreign warships ignored as a young man sought his mother.

It was on a deserted shore off the coast of Oregon that Edmund C. Roberts spied his tenth Sea Maiden, she lost in thought as she toyed with three starfish. Native to the area of brought from afar–he had no idea.

His notebook reads:
Still no sign of my parents. Documented another Sea Maiden. Am making plans to capture one soon.
Maidenous nocuous “Isabella”
Coast of Oregon
November 1st, 1912