to the top of the Pole as possible. Other vessels that came along would moor themselves to these ships. The result was a web over which trade might scuttle to devour bad feeling and war. Securing the first rope to the Pole always required a swim. In time, the Pole appeared shorter and divers were needed for this operation. It was no longer as high as the sea was deep. Its summit was no longer level with the ocean’s surface. The general fear was that the Pole was shrinking, or was being drawn through a hole in the seabed by an unknown agency. Only later was the alternative hypothesis that the sea was rising given serious attention. Various ideas were suggested for why this might happen. Increased rainfall was dismissed as an explanation, because the rain came from the sea in the first place. Melting icecaps and the arrival of extra water in comets both seemed more reasonable.
The truth was less catastrophic. Each time a vessel put to sea, it displaced a certain amount of liquid, a quantity equal to the volume of its hull below the waterline. In the early years of the Pole’s existence, when there were no ships, it probably reared high above the surface of the sea, waiting for its first visitor. Pterodactyls might have used it for an occasional perch. Then ships were invented, but they hugged the coasts of lands far distant from the Pole. By the time they were able to cross the open ocean, there were so many of them and they were so large that the waves lapped around the top of the Pole. But at least it was still out of the water and could be glimpsed. Ancient mariners must have seen it and thus it became a rumour. When Caradoc Weasel discovered it for certain, its top was flush with the surface of the sea.
Now that explorer blinked, for the absence of other ships around the Pole was remarkable. His vessel steered close to the spot where it should have been, to secure a line, but nothing was there. The Pole had gone. The empty sea was now no more mysterious at that one point than at any other on its broad expanse. There was no reason why ships should not gather without the Pole, which really served no more than a symbolic function. But it appeared that the symbol was crucial. It was a reference point. Without it, the ocean offered nothing to tie knots on, save for dolphins and driftwood. But those were not stable. If trading ships gathered here without the Pole, they would be sure to look menacing, even if they acted in the same way as before.
An international search was started to locate the missing Pole. It might have been rotten inside and dissolved all at once, but everyone believed it had been stolen. There was no hard evidence for this, but it was the general feeling. The search was abandoned after a decade. Trade continued at the East, Front and Back Poles, but these locations never seemed as colourful as that of the West, even though the Poles were identical. Students were eventually blamed for the theft, though none were ever convicted. There is a college in a town somewhere whose students had chopped down the tallest tree in the world. They liked playing ambitious pranks. It was probably them. They denied it, of course, but their long fringes kept falling over their eyes, a most unlikely thing to happen in a town which has so many barbers, nearly every shop displaying a short length of striped pole.
The Inflatable Stadium
Captain Marlow Nothing made a big mistake when he fitted wheels to the hull of his ship. Nobody warned him what might happen because he always sailed alone. He wanted to roll his vessel onto beaches during storms to protect it from huge waves but the first time he attempted this procedure the anchor cable broke and he kept going. He had to keep his hands on the rudder wheel to steer his sloop between the dunes, so he wasn’t free to furl his sails. Soon he found himself speeding along a winding road and by the time the sun went down he was far inland.
The storm continued during the
The truth was less catastrophic. Each time a vessel put to sea, it displaced a certain amount of liquid, a quantity equal to the volume of its hull below the waterline. In the early years of the Pole’s existence, when there were no ships, it probably reared high above the surface of the sea, waiting for its first visitor. Pterodactyls might have used it for an occasional perch. Then ships were invented, but they hugged the coasts of lands far distant from the Pole. By the time they were able to cross the open ocean, there were so many of them and they were so large that the waves lapped around the top of the Pole. But at least it was still out of the water and could be glimpsed. Ancient mariners must have seen it and thus it became a rumour. When Caradoc Weasel discovered it for certain, its top was flush with the surface of the sea.
Now that explorer blinked, for the absence of other ships around the Pole was remarkable. His vessel steered close to the spot where it should have been, to secure a line, but nothing was there. The Pole had gone. The empty sea was now no more mysterious at that one point than at any other on its broad expanse. There was no reason why ships should not gather without the Pole, which really served no more than a symbolic function. But it appeared that the symbol was crucial. It was a reference point. Without it, the ocean offered nothing to tie knots on, save for dolphins and driftwood. But those were not stable. If trading ships gathered here without the Pole, they would be sure to look menacing, even if they acted in the same way as before.
An international search was started to locate the missing Pole. It might have been rotten inside and dissolved all at once, but everyone believed it had been stolen. There was no hard evidence for this, but it was the general feeling. The search was abandoned after a decade. Trade continued at the East, Front and Back Poles, but these locations never seemed as colourful as that of the West, even though the Poles were identical. Students were eventually blamed for the theft, though none were ever convicted. There is a college in a town somewhere whose students had chopped down the tallest tree in the world. They liked playing ambitious pranks. It was probably them. They denied it, of course, but their long fringes kept falling over their eyes, a most unlikely thing to happen in a town which has so many barbers, nearly every shop displaying a short length of striped pole.
The Inflatable Stadium
Captain Marlow Nothing made a big mistake when he fitted wheels to the hull of his ship. Nobody warned him what might happen because he always sailed alone. He wanted to roll his vessel onto beaches during storms to protect it from huge waves but the first time he attempted this procedure the anchor cable broke and he kept going. He had to keep his hands on the rudder wheel to steer his sloop between the dunes, so he wasn’t free to furl his sails. Soon he found himself speeding along a winding road and by the time the sun went down he was far inland.
The storm continued during the
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