Student Writing: Dolphins Underway

Author: Edgar Allen Poe


The 0000-0400 watch is an unusually unexciting watch, and standing bow watch, alone, near the fo’c’sle hatch, is definitely the most unexciting hour of the watch. During one such night watch several days out of Charleston I was standing on bow watch, trying to make out what I thought might have been the glow of a light on the horizon when I heard splashing and blowing under the bow. Upon further inspection I discovered that it was a pod of dolphins, but not like those you see in the day. These dolphins streaked along side the boat in glowing trails of bioluminescence, so clearly defined against the black water that you could easily make out their details, especially their half moon trails easily keeping them even with the Gamage. The dolphins seemed to enjoy the disturbance caused by our propeller and often dived below the stern for several minutes at a time, reappearing in a streak of light to jump out of the water, stirring up the bioluminescence even more. Eventually they drifted off, swimming further and further away until all you could see was a faint glow in the water, leaving me once more alone on bow watch.