The trip to Crete was a great success and was great fun. The photographing of the sea life yielded many results. The Mediterranean monk seal was photographed both on the shore and in the water, with Richard's younger son Robert actually being chased by one. Richard himself would then remark: "Be grateful it was a Mediterranean monk and not an elephant." By "elephant", he of course meant an elephant seal. Richard was speaking from experience an elephant seal was far more terrifying than a Mediterranean monk seal. Leopard seals were just as more terrifying, perhaps worse, and that was why Richard always warned people to give seals a wide berth when photographing them. Territorial bull or protective mother, it was better to give them a wide berth than to think them harmless.
A more harmless sea beast that was photographed was the sea turtle. The leatherback, the green, the loggerhead, all kinds that lived in the Sea of Crete were seen. Richard regaled his adolescent devisees, when taking a break on the deck of the Thetis, of a tale from Hellenistic mythology, where the bandit Sciron used a huge sea turtle to dispose of his victims, after pushing them into the deep. He met his end by the same turtle when Theseus pushed him into the deep.
After the turtle was a colossus of the deep: the sperm whale. Every bit as big as his fictional brother Moby Dick, partially based on Mocha Dick who had been dead for one hundred and seven years by that point. Times were changing and the barbarism of whaling was beginning to lose its bloodthirsty place in the world but change could be slow and Richard could only wonder if whaling and other threats to the majestic whale could ever truly be defeated.
After that was the smaller cousins of the sperm whale: striped dolphins. The dolphin was a type of whale, toothed whales specifically and their fellow dolphin the orca was no exception. The sperm whale too belonged to the category of toothed whales but unlike the orca was not a member of the dolphin clan.
Completely distinct from the marine mammals that were the whales, for no knowledgeable person would ever call a whale one, were the fish. From the venomous scorpion fish to the harmless sinagrida many a type of fish was photographed. In the clear water of the Sea of Crete, the photographs of every animal came out perfectly.
After everything that had happened that first day on Crete, a real friendship was established with Amalia and Otto. Friends were made wherever the Thetis went and Crete was no exception. All of Heraklion Amalia knew like the back of her hand and so showed the adolescent devisees the whole region. From Messara Plain to the islet of Trafos, adventures were to be had and Lin got many great photographs of the region. Best of all she got her picture at the Horns of Consecration, taken by Amalia so all five of the adolescent devisees could be in it.
Richard himself went up to Knossos with his adolescent devisees at one point. There he taught them about the importance of the sea to the ancient Hellenes, as indicated in the art at Knossos sometimes featuring creatures a such as octopods and dolphins, and how the sea continued to play a great importance to the modern Hellenes, for the way of the fisherman was still important. Yet, this was a cautionary tale. As important as the way of the fisherman was, in that day and age the dangers of overfishing were beginning to show and Richard was quick to warn of the dangers less the seas should one day become empty.
The seas empty? It was possible. Whaling, overfishing, there was many dangers to those who dwelt in the sea and it was the duty of humanity to defend the ocean from their fellows who would do it harm.
Not all of Richard's lessons were of such a manner. They need not always be on the Thetis as the lesson at Knossos demonstrated and they need not all be about sea life and the impacts humanity had on it. Some lessons were related to mythical figures related to the sea and the possible inspirations for them. His theory of the fifty Nereids was that they were priestesses of Nereus, therefore his metaphorical daughters, that became portrayed as his literal daughters in myth.
One night, on the deck of the Thetis, Richard sat with his adolescent devisees. He looked at George and Angela, sitting together as usual and noticed the former had been looking rather downcast every time he returned to the ship. In the waters or on shore he was all smiles but onboard the Thetis he was all frowns. Angela was similar, but rather than it being an expression of the mouth, although it was neither smile nor frown, it was all in the eyes. She looked like one at the funeral of an immediate family member or close friend.
"You two really had really hoped that Knossos was Atlantis, didn't you?" he asked, resting his face in his hand while he sat in a folding chair that he typically sat in when writing.
"That is an accurate summation." George answered.
"Proving a place to be Atlantis sounded so grand." Angela commented. "We just hoped…"
"Something like that can take a lifetime and sometimes more." Richard said. "You can't prove a place Atlantis in a single day. There has been debates about for a long time before and there will be debates for a long time after. People have searched and will continue to search. It is one of the great mysteries of the deep, one of the great mysteries of legend and the great fun of legends is learning the truth behind them. The truth behind Atlantis could be anything, it could be a combination of multiple events just as King Arthur and Ragnar Lodbrok are combinations of multiple people."
"And what events would that be, Captain Hamilton?" inquired Angela.
"Those are things you have to determine for yourself, Angela, you and George."
"And how are we ever suppose to do that?" George asked.
"Research, my boy." Richard answered. "Always research." The old man looked up at the moon and said: "I remember reading Jules Verne's magnum opus '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea', when I was a boy. The visitation to a sunken Atlantis is one of many scenes from the book that still sticks with me. We may find many such places that can be called an Atlantis and perhaps at the end of the day that is what we are really searching for: the idea of the Island of Atlas. Any sunken city could fulfill that idea, any far off place that would have seemed mythical to the people of Plato's day can fulfill that idea, we are all seeking an idea of the Island of Atlas and I suppose my question for the both of you is what is your idea of Atlantis? What is your idea of the Island of Atlas?" George and Angela were both stumped. What was their idea of Atlantis? Could it have been more than the unbeatable naval power of Plato? People after brought a utopian view to Atlantis and even viewed it as historical rather than allegorical. What was the truth behind the allegory? What could have inspired it? Was the truth their idea of Atlantis? Was the inspiration their idea? Seeing their stumped expressions, Richard said: "Take your time, you need not figure it out right now."
While it was good, the question of what someone's idea of the Island of Atlantis was got all five of the adolescent devisees thinking. Mara began with his own idea of Atlantis or at least attempted to. He ended up confessing that the thought of allowing such allegorical fiddle faddle to be an idea was anathema to him.
"Well…" Beatrice began after hearing Mara attempt to give an idea of Atlantis. "My idea of Atlantis is the romance of adventure. Going searching for it, having adventures in distant places it all sounds so romantic, doesn't it?"
"To me…" Lin began. "my idea of Atlantis is mystery personified. It is one of the great unsolved mysteries alongside what happened to Anastasia and why the Egyptians built the pyramids!"
"You mean besides as tombs for their monarchs that ended up being giant billboards for thieves that said: 'We have buried the king and all his treasure here?'" Mara asked.
"Okay, what happened to the Sphinx's nose then."
"Most likely knocked off by a Muslim fanatic post-Arab conquest.
"Alright then, the lost years of Jesus."
Mara was about to make a comment about the lost years of Jesus being either boring or unimportant when Beatrice brought her elbow into his stomach. Whenever Mara got this way with Lin, it usually ended with someone, even Beatrice with whom he shared a mutual attraction, hitting him in the stomach in someway. Given that Mara was almost always standing behind Beatrice in these situations, it was always an elbow to the stomach. He might have been the de facto leader of the adolescent devisees due to being the oldest and Beatrice might have had feelings for him, but when he got this way with Lin, the other three adolescent devisees aimed for his stomach. He had more good qualities than bad, unfortunately this was one of the latter.
"What about you, George?" Beatrice asked. "Have you gotten an idea of Atlantis yet?" George opened his mouth to speak only to close it a second later. He still did not know what his idea of Atlantis was. Then did Beatrice ask: "Angela, how about you?" Angela was no closer to having found her idea of the Island of Atlas than George was. She merely looked away.
Sighing, George said: "I'll tell you all when I've figured it out." And with that he stood up from the stairs he and Angela had been sitting on and walked off the Thetis and into Heraklion. Would he ever figure it out? How was he to know?
Walking through the streets, he felt someone take him by the hand. Looking to his right, he saw Angela, who said: "We'll figure out what our idea of Atlantis is together."