Stealth Journeys with the Steam Mapper

Chapter 73: A Vampire Tale

"And now I'll tell you about one of my favorite species of squid that live at depths of six hundred to fifteen hundred meters, the Vampire squid.  This species lifts its mantle over its head in what we call the "pineapple posture".  We think this is used as defense.  The cirri along the underside of its mantle look like a ring of pointy fangs.   Actually these are fleshy finger- like appendages that help direct prey into its mouth."

"Did you know that you are distantly related to the vampire squid?  It's true.   You and I are its distant cousins and actually have quite a lot in common, biologically speaking."

"How did you know I'm a vampire?  I want to drink your blood", hammed StLF, theatrically.

"Oh you're a riot ", responded MYKA dryly, with a roll of the eyes.   "The name vampire squid is really undeserved.  The species was named by William Beebe back in the 1930s, when he explored the depths around the Galapagos Islands in a bathysphere with the help of Otis Barton. Jules Verne may have described a sleek submersible in his book, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, but the bathysphere used by Beebe and Barton back in the 1930's was downright dangerous.   It was a globe made of steel, with a diameter of less than six feet, and portholes of three inch thick glass.  It was literally bolted shut with the two divers inside. They circulated the air by waving palm fans, to have oxygen to breathe."

"The whole thing leaked, and it had no engine to propel it.   It was just dropped over the side of the ship and allowed to sink, held by a couple of tethers.   The two men made deeper and deeper dives.  They went down as deep as three thousand feet, seeing creatures that lived in darkness and adapted to the greater sea pressures.  The men must have been brought up slowly to avoid 'the bends', or maybe the bathysphere controlled the air pressure within the small chamber.   I don't know."

"All I've read about these two was that they described species with bio florescence and fragile bodies.  They even shared their observations via radio.  Remember, this was happening between the two world wars, so I guess some technology, carried over from World War I."

StLF grinned.  "These two sound like a couple of real characters.  I thought Beebe and Barton sounded like a law firm, but I guess they really were a couple of daredevils.   Hard to believe this Beebe guy was the same one to be such a big influence on Rachel Carson.  Sorry. . . So, where was this vampire squid?"

"Beebe really didn't care for octopuses and squid.  He found them gross, or whatever one said back in the 1930's.  I think he was noticing both a small Galapagos octopus which he described as horrible in appearance and also what he thought was an octopus but was really a vampire squid.  Or maybe they were one and the same.   Back then, a lot of species were uncatalogued and if they were not caught and studied, there could be confusion."

"In truth, the name for this species was assigned long before William Beebe saw one.   Another much earlier scientist gave it the name: Vampyroteuthis infernalis, the Vampire Squid from Hell. What Beebe described was this: "a very small but terrible octopus, black as night with ivory white jaws and blood red eyes, with 'sinister arms' and webbing between the arms like a 'living umbrella'.  The scientists gave the following description to explain why they found the little squid repulsive:  'foot-long vampire is semi translucent with a jellyfish-like body texture.   It has eight arms like an octopus, but also two bizarre antennae-like appendages that sometimes float in the water. . , and seem to detect prey.'   So today, we say octopuses have eight arms and squid have ten tentacles, or some say eight arms and two tentacles to differentiate the way the two appendages are used.  Apparently the freaky feature was the Vampire squid's blue eyes changing to fiery red in an instant."

"Today we know that this little squid's habitat is thousands of feet below the surface of the sea and that they are quite shy, although they have some unusual survival skills.  One thing they can do is self-mutilate to distract an enemy that is threatening them. They can just bite off the tip of one of the arm-like tentacles, which glows due to bio luminescent blue lights covering their appendages.   The severed tip floats away with its eerily attractive blue glow luring the predator in a direction away from a slightly less animal."

StLF was impressed.  "You've got to wonder how that adaptation for distracting an enemy ever came to be.  That would be like throwing hounds off the scent of your trail as you escaped the work gang by throwing bacon in the opposite direction as you changed direction and crossed the river."

"Yeah, who watches too many old movies?  And where did you get the bacon?  Anyway the 'Myth Busters episode 'Hair of the Dog' disproves your whole scenario.  Well trained bloodhounds don't fall for food diversions or even water crossings.  Well, getting back to Vampire Squid, this species has a few other tricks to deal with predators.  For one thing, the little creature can change appearance to look like a deep sea tumbleweed, even tumbling around, and causing the predator to give up the search.   And, the little squid might also squirt out clouds of ink, this being a trait held by many species of squid and octopuses.   The Vampire Squid's ink is filled with glowing particles, quite a spectacle to see."

"Say . . . This reminds me of the giant squid attack that is described in Jules Verne's book with Captain Nemo and Ned Land and others on board the Nautilus being attacked by the enormous squid-like creature that released a foul black ink as it defended itself against the crew trying to fight it off and to get it to release the crew member caught up in its tentacles.  Battling the giant squid was the most intense part of the story of that long voyage."  StLF recalled that this was one of the stories that Ned Land swore was true 'til his dying day.   It was also said that the suction cups on its tentacles had felt like a thousand snakes biting at once.   The thought caused a shudder in just imagining the pain.