When the Bow Breaks

The Hammerhead’s ritual after a storm was always the same.He went outside and inspected the hull of the boat wreck. After all, it wasn’t just an old sunken ship, it was his home sweet home.
As he inspected the outside, he noticed barnacles encrusted on the hull of the old boat. As he circled to the inside, there were barnacales there, too. In fact, everywhere the Hammerhead looked, he saw barnacles clinging to the surfaces of the old boat.
“I want everyone out of my house!” bellowed Mack.
He was referring to the tiny creatures inside the tiny shells that covered the boat, inside and out. Unfortunately for him, barnacles never get frightened. Instead, they just cling to the side of things at the bottom of the sea and wait.
They wait for microorganisms to float by so they can eat. They wait for old boats to rust so they cant eat. They wait for mold to grow on the sea floor so they can eat.
“All right! If nobody’s going to leave, I’ll make you leave!”
Mack angrily pounded his nose against the walls of the boat. It shaked and shimmied, but the barnacles did not move. However, everybody who wasn’t a barnacle steered clear of the mighty Hammerhead.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” went the ship. With each thud, some barnacles began to fall from their roosts on the ship. The rafters also began rocking back and forth.
“Grrrr,” said Mack as he stopped to catch his breath.
As Barnacles dropped from the hull, rusted pieces of the boat fell away, too. Bit-by-bit, flake-by-flake, the skeleton of the ship began to crumble. Corroded pieces of iron fell to the floor like little brown snowflakes.
“Now you’ve gone and done it,” said Louie the Cat. Louise was the troublesome zerbra-striped catfish who thought he was the ocean’s know-it-all.
“I can fix it,” replied Mack.
He scavenged the seafloor for pieces of scrap metal. He nudged them into place, but it just wasn’t enough. As the outer skin of the boat fell, so too fell the long steel ribs.
“Thar she blows,” chuckled Louie.
“Louie, if you don’t quit bothering me, I’m going to make you lunch.”
“Jeez, you’d think I made this mess myself, the way you’re misbehavin’.”
“Help me find more scrap metal so I can prop up these walls,”
The steel ribs creaked and then snapped under the pressure of the ship. What Mack didn’t know was that the barnacles acted as an anchor. The boat wreck rested at the top of a sea ledge. The barnacles held the mighy boat in place. When they fell, the boat leaned to one side.
“Craaaaack!” with one sudden action, the boat snapped in half.
Quickly, everyone got out of the old boat wreck’s way. The starboard half of the boat remained on the ledge while the bow tumbled down a small slope. It came to a rest at the bottom of the hillside.
“Ha-ha-ha,” snickered Louie, “Now it looks like you got two houses.”
Mack poked Louie in the snout with one of his dorsal fins, shoving the much smaller catfish to one side. Mack went to his former house on the hill. He heaved a sigh as he surveyed the damages. Most of the barnacles were gone, but most of the walls were gone, too.
“Just look at that beautiful view!” snapped Louie the Cat.
“You’re lucky I like you, Louie.”
“I think I’m going to settle into the lower wreck before all the good property gets snapped up,” said the catfish.
There were still a few nooks and crannies in which Mack could hide. The captain’s room, however, looked nothing like it did before. Mack searched the upper wreck until he found a room he liked. It was the Ship’s Galley, where food was cooked.
Mack found a cozy place in a large enclosed box. That box was the food locker.Mack settled into the food locker, making himself home between the safety of two shelves. Gradually, the barnacles and shellfish returned, too. It looks like Mack would have to co-operate with the little fish if he was going to get along. He decided it wouldn’t be so bad. Even his part-time friend Louie was a welcome visitor sometimes. Mack nodded his head. Everything was all right.

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MORAL: For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost.For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost.For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a nail.