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Sunday, 19 April 2020

APROPOS OF NOTHING #2 - 19 APRIL 1927 - WILLIAM BEEBE ON THE SEA FLOOR

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 


This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #2 - 19 April 1927

On this day in 1927, the zoologist William Beebe was nearing the end of his stay in Haiti when he paused on the seabed for a moment's contemplation.  A pioneer of underwater exploration, he was perpetually fascinated by the play of colours beneath the waves.

"The view from beneath was of green, wrinkled, translucent ceiling cloth, never still for a moment, crinkling, uncrinkling, waving and flapping as in a breeze, or rather cross breezes."




Sources: Beneath Tropic Seas;
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012



William Beebe

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