Magic of the Ocean

“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee” Nietzsche

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His antient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides: above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber’d and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages and will lie
Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

— ‘The Kraken’, Alfred Tennyson, 1862

Looking into the bottomless deep sea below, my feelings fluctuated with the ebb and flow of the gentle ship rocking, fearing the unknown as I gazed into the dark abyss and paradoxically sought its comforting embrace. The water protects me in a safe environment. Those two opposing thoughts are fighting for position in my head. On the one hand, it was a bottomless pit of darkness, making me uncomfortable as I stared into its hypnotic void. As I did so, I felt an uneasy sense of fear from the unknown contrary to the sensory experience of taking in its mystical beauty, imparting calm, tranquility, and peace, which I was also feeling. My eyes finally settled on the thin line of the horizon where blue meets blue, holding my gaze a bit longer, allowing my mind to wander to that place where dreams are made and stories are told. My mind began to wander to the narratives told about the sea.

Every sailor has a tale about the ocean, returning to the epic account of Posideon, the god of the sea, who is said to have battled mortal and Divine forces to assert his mighty sovereignty over the ocean chasm. As god of the sea, he is known to protect sailors forever during their maritime journeys, so when a ship was put to sea, she was splashed with human blood as a tribute to him. The vessel was given a female name celebrating its wedding ceremony and the bride of Poseidon... this is why ships are referred to in the feminine gender as “she.” It is a ritual contract made between man and Posideon, which is still practiced today, except wine is used in the place of blood. Seafarers of times of yore sincerely believed in sea monsters and serpents of enormous size prowling the world's darkened oceans, concealing their identity and provoking the mariners to mark their maps, “Here Be Monsters” by drawing a demonic-looking creature identifying the location of the sea beast, as a somber warning to themselves and other sailors. Records abound in the history of giant sea snakes and huge monsters told by shipmates. Stories of these creatures are chronicled going back to ancient times. The Book of Enoch describes Leviathan as an evil female sea dragon, and her male counterpart is called Behemoth. Then there’s the “sea-mischief,” a monstrous mythical creature named Kraken, a Norse sea monster powerful enough to destroy whole ships with legendary tentacles. Bizarrely accurate, these creatures are said to terrify ancient and contemporary mariners alike. As the boat sailed out to higher seas, I was snapped out of my trance — the only thing I could hear was the growing waves relentlessly pounding the sides of the ship as I breathed in the fresh air and was kissed by the ocean mist. A refreshing feeling of freedom, an escape route from the toils of life, and a chance to reset my inner being with restful serenity came over me. Stories of sea monsters returned to the pitch-black bowels of the ocean as the dinner bell interrupted my meditation.

On this first night of the cruise leaving San Pedro, the SS Fairsea, one of the five-star luxury liners owned by Sitmar Cruises, began its voyage to Acapulco, Mexico. As I walked to the dining room, I passed new passengers enjoying their first hours of sailing, continuing the celebration with the champagne when they embarked on this journey a few hours prior. Looking at their happy faces, I knew no thoughts of sea monsters were lurking in their heads. I saw them only enjoying the benefits of sailing and being free out on the ocean as they anticipated the exotic ports of call ahead on their itineraries. The magic of the sea captivated their hearts as they watched the sparkling blue horizon and the sun tantalizing the sky with a stunning sunset as they laughed, enjoying one anothers company. I was witnessing man and nature dancing in the sun as one. It brought spiritual joy to my heart. Watching them, I had a secure sense of confidence in the eternal. As I opened the door to go inside, I saw an albatross circle the deck behind me, a final salute before continuing its long flight to whereabouts unknown. Maybe Hawaii, or perhaps as far as Australia.

SS Fairsea in Mexico

Being this was the first night of the cruise, my dress was casual, matching the evening’s attire, so I went the few floors down to the Dorchester Dining Room located on the Riviera Deck below, joining the other entertainers for dinner. Between 1977 and 1983, when I cruised as one of The Pendragons' entertainers, we were treated like ship royalty. The SS Fairsea and her sister ship, The SS Fairwind, were identified by the oversized "V" on their funnels, the first initial of the Vlasov family, owner of the shipping company. In 1948, the company entered the passenger trade, transporting emigrants and refugees aboard converted freighters. Eventually, when emigration dwindled, the ships were converted to luxury cruise ships, and the Fairsea and Fairwind were Christianed before their first voyages. The Fairsea concentrated on the Alaska-Mexico-Panama Canal routes, and the Fairwind focused on the Caribbean, with Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as the home port. The two ships were small compared to current ones, containing 1800 passengers each, in contrast to today's monstrosities like The Icon of the Sea, which holds 7,600 passengers and is as big as a small town. I've sailed on modern ships, but what I loved most about Sitmar ships Is their luxurious old-world charm with polished wood decks and first-class service. I always felt like I was on a miniature Titanic sailing first-class while on a Sitmar Cruise. The four main headliner acts were all provided with first-class accommodations and encouraged to intermingle with the passengers during the journey. Like the best passengers, we were treated well and given passenger status. We all dined together at the same table among the passengers. New entertainers joined the ship that day, so I was anxious to meet them. Bransom Entertainment, the agency handling Sitmar Cruise Line’s entertainment, rotated maybe fifteen acts between the SS Fairsea and her sister ship, the SS Fairwind, so only on rare occasions did I meet someone new. This was the case that evening; the same actors with long-term contracts graced the table along with Bernie Fields, a world-class harmonica player, Jimmy Chapel, a fine singer and entertainer focusing on nostalgia songs from the 50s and 60s, and Fred Smoot, a hilarious comedian who everybody loved. There was going to be fun with our friends.

The Dorchester dining room where we dined on the Fairsea

Dining in the Dorchester dining room with other entertainers on the Fairsea

I’d not seen Bernie had not been on the last few cruises with us, so he was new. He replaced another harmonica player who, on stage, was a great performer, and the audience loved him. Off stage, he was a bit of a curmudgeon to the other entertainers. Smoking was still allowed in those days, so this harmonica player, whose name I've forgotten, used to light up cigars following dinner and before dessert, causing diners sitting near him to gag! 🤮 As retribution, someone would always order cheese for dessert; the stinkier, the better, which would send him into a chasm, leaving the table at the first whiff of Limburger because he hated the smell of cheese. So it was refreshing to see Bernie back on this voyage because he was an exceptional musician, easy to work with, and friendly guy. We all began our usual shop talk, discussing the cruise’s entertainment schedule for this eleven-day cruise, which meant we performed two nights each and one night in the upstairs disco. We would be performing with Jimmy the first night and Bernie the second night. Our performance would be the next night, the first official night of the cruise, and a formal night where guests must wear floor-length gowns or fancy cocktail dresses and suits or tuxedos. For an eleven-day cruise like this one, there were three formal nights, five informal nights, and three casual evenings of attire. Inappropriate dress got you kicked out of the public rooms. On a cruise itinerary, performing on the first formal night has advantages and disadvantages. The company had a grading system where passengers rated features of their sailing experience; entertainment was one of them. Entertainment as a whole was rated, and each act was individually rated. So, performing on the cruise's first formal night guaranteed you a vast, strong audience. The next day, your notoriety couldn't be hidden behind your cabin door, so when you ventured out, every guest on the ship recognized you from the prior evening show. This, of course, gave you a chance to spend quality one-on-one time with many passengers, adding to their enchanting vacation experience. Most passengers rated you not only on your stage presentation but also on how you interacted off-stage with the other passengers. Socializing was a big part of our work. If you avoided social interaction on the cruise, you paid for it in the ratings, So performing the first formal night of the cruise was always a coveted spot. The Cruise Director organized the itineraries and usually was fair about giving all the headliners opportunities to perform on the better nights. Usually, the last night of the cruise was one of the worst times to perform because everyone was packing to disembark the ship the following day. However, the cruise ship company encouraged us to spend time with the guests, and I enjoyed meeting people from all over the United States. It is through cruising I met some of my best lifetime friends. I remain close today, Like Karen and Nelson Lassiter from Las Vegas. Boy, do we have tales to tell of our times together from memories of times past?

Pictured here my friends Dr Nelson Lassiter and his wife Karen Lassiter from Las Vegas. We are playing miniature golf.

Following dinner, Jonathan and I joined Jimmy for a quick rehearsal in the Seward Lounge located forward on the Promenade Deck, where most of the public areas were located, including the entrance and pursers offices. For us, we enjoyed the quiet after-hours on the ship when we could rehearse material undisturbed without pressure. Jimmy, a consummate perfectionist, went through his songs accompanied by the piano player. While he practiced, we set up our show behind the room dividers. In those days, both ship’s lounges were designed for open shows with an orchestra upstage and no backstage or wing space. Dividers were positioned to give us privacy for our magic props and a place for me to change my costumes during a performance. We were the primary users of this space because most acts were musically oriented, so performers brought their voices and or musical instruments.

Jimmy Chappel performing on a cruise. He has the same beautiful voice and smile.

Comedians carried even fewer props when traveling, which made me a little envious when it came to packing during the conclusion of our contract. Since this was the first day of the voyage, the ship had undergone a thorough, rigorous inspection by Customs officials back in San Pedro. Most of the magic equipment is delicate and requires careful handling. An aggressive Custom inspector curious about magic tricks can unknowingly break a prop, so we continually examined our equipment after an inspection and the night before a show. Failing to do so would have spelled disaster for us because, unlike most other entertainment genres, the condition of magic props can make or break a performance. Placing a sign on your apparatuses that says, “DON’T TOUCH!” doesn't keep the curious away, and sometimes, an occasional saboteur will make an appearance, which never happened to us on a cruise ship but did at a few other venues during our career. Our rule was to always double-check our magic on the night before the show and the day of our show.

In the first picture I am showing performing the metamorphosis with Jonathan during a show. In the second photograph we are performing our broom suspension. Noticed the live orchestra behind us playing our music.

On this night, while listening to Jimmy sing, we found our metamorphosis damaged from something heavy that had been placed on top of it. We always brought a bag of tools, glue, gaffer tape, and a sewing kit to repair any impairment. This would be a long night, but we completed our work just in time to enjoy the Midnight Buffet, where we joined a few other night owl entertainers for a late-night snack. If there's one thing a cruise is famous for, it's the food. The exceptional chefs aboard these floating restaurants set r some of the finest gourmet food and lots of it! As an entertainer, I frequently ship often enough. I have learned to control my eating habits, But if you are a first-time visitor, most often, you'll gain weight. But it’s for a good cause - your happiness! I remember there were many cruises I was strictly dieting for my physique contests. Without a refrigerator, it was easy because I ate only at designated times of the day and stuck to a small amount. Not having food available 24 hours at my fingertips kept me from overindulging in cruise ship cuisine.

After grabbing some fruit and cheese, I left for my cabin to read before sleeping. Most of the time, if you ran into me alone on the ship, I was usually tanning in the sun with a book or relaxing in a lounge with a good read. I wished Substack was around in those analog bygone days. For me, there is nothing more enjoyable on a ship than to dress warm and relax in one of the lounge chairs covered in a blanket, watching the stunning coastline of Alaska while reading. It was always the most spectacular background while reading mysteries and epic novels, inspiring my imagination. Because of our destination to Mexico, I checked out John Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez, a nonfiction book co-written with his friend Edward Ricketts, a marine biologist who collaborated their expertise in science and humanity to weave a captivating narrative about men’s dreams, principles and ethics, and his achievements over the ages. Steinbeck’s intense compassion for the plight of humankind explored human hearts and minds and that inborn wish to connect. Lying in bed, the soft rocking of the ship soothed my soul as I read Steinbeck’s words, “Each of them in his tempo and with his voice discovered and reaffirmed with astonishment the knowledge that all things are one thing and that one thing is all things—plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on the sea and the spinning planets and an expanding universe, all bound together by the elastic string of time. It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again.” Confirmation that the world's oceans remain a mystery and influence the lives of all organisms on earth despite 80 percent of them being unexplored and not mapped, as well as the symbiotic relationship between the heavenly bodies above and the seas below.

Steinbeck reminded me the sea is one of the safest environments on earth in the world. While on land, you can encounter a dangerous animal in the woods who can quickly kill you; in the sea, no creature will intentionally attack or eat you, and not even a shark will bite a human unless it thinks you are another ocean being. My scuba teacher once instructed me if I encounter a shark, hold my body in a vertical position and make sounds, and it will pass me by because there is nothing in the ocean they eat that sits in a vertical position while making noise. The aquatic life of the sea will ignore you or play with you. But if you find yourself in a depth where it's plausible to meet a Giant Squid, you're probably hunting for the Kraken in a place where the abyss stares back at you. The first day of the cruise ended as I dreamed of that place on the horizon where blue meets blue.

To be continued… See you next week!

Here I am sunbathing on the Lido deck on the Fairsea. When most people saw me I was reading a book.