"Whales?" He asked completely dumbfounded as to what I could possibly be referring to.
I turned to Elizabeth and asked in barely repressed excitement, "When will the whales be here?"
Elizabeth smiled and pointed beyond me, "They are already here."
I turned to see a huge pod of whales that had to number at least a hundred or more strong entering the mouth of the lagoon's main entrance to the sea beyond. I clapped my hands together gleefully and turned towards Ortega who was looking at me as if he thought I'd lost it mentally. The truth was that I hadn't had this much fun in years!
"What do you know about steam driven propulsion Ortega?"
"Nothing other than that it's been extinct for a long time." Ortega said slowly.
"Ahh there's where you're wrong my good man. It's about to come back in style!"
I turned back to the approaching whales only to see countless catamarans similar to Keturah's had joined in on the scene. The Whale People were coming to help raise the past back to life.
I lifted my hands skywards, "Glory to God in the highest for You are a God that provides!" I said as my voice boomed out over the lagoon in my exuberance, as I felt an inner song of joy ripple through me like I hadn't in ages.
I turned to the others, "Ladies and gentlemen it looks like we're finally going to put some Confederate ironclads to good use!"
Matt turned to a widely grinning Jim and elatedly asked, "Could this trip get any better or what?"
Jim brought Serena's hand to his lips and kissed it, "No it could not."
Serena's eyes were all sparkles and her smile reflected true joy as she stared at her secret admirer of many years now turned man of her life for evermore.
I had to hand it to the Whale People's forbearers for doing a quality job of storing their ships away for a rainy day. They hadn't just opened the scuttle cocks and let the boats sink of their own volition.
Instead they had sunk them gradually and with precision down onto a wooden receiver apparatus that had been attached to the hulls of the two boats. As a result the two ships rested slightly stilted up from the floor of the lagoon, which enabled ropes to be threaded back and forth beneath the hulls of the two ships.
I was treading water next to Jim and I couldn't help the grin I still had on my face in attempting this whole endeavor. I glanced at Jim, "Guess we're going to have a bit of a salvage operation out this time anyway."