I thought submarines were normal things to see out at sea. Until this week.
I saw one once, you see. Genuinely.
I was only a child and we were travelling back from a family holiday in the UK on a Sealink ferry between Wales and Rosslare in Ireland. It was summer. It was early morning. Like 6am early morning.
Myself and my dad, I believe, had gone to the top deck of the ship to have a look around. We looked out to see and in the middle of all that sea with not a bit of land in sight was a submarine spy hole – a periscope – jutting through the surface of the water.
Looking at us. Okay maybe not looking exactly at us. But I know what I saw that morning in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It was cool, and memorable.
Time has ravaged that memory like it would the edges of an old photograph, to such an extent that I question whether I saw it or not really. My dad doesn’t remember it – but it is something that a child would appreciate more.
So I wonder, as you may wonder, did I see it? Or was it a dream? I’m going to go with it being a real memory as it is something I have often thought about since – whose submarine was it?
