In port-and it was in port now, indefinitely-its vast hull attracted the attentions of mollusks and crustaceans and its decks the loose-boweled gulls whose excreta would have buried them knee-deep but for the unceasing attentions of the ship’s crew.
Whales bobbed up like corks to salute its monumentality, then dove deep to escape the crushing impact of its bow. The waters calmed to make way for it and when it slashed across the horizon, the pelagic creatures appeared in their slippery legions to disport themselves in its wake. The ship was monumental, like Atlantis risen from the depths, its own island, its own nation, a miracle of every kind of human labor and ingenuity.
