The bulkheads of the ship were colonized with decades of sea life. Nothing at this depth lay barren for long. Everything was a surface for an organism to bind to, a niche to inhabit, a shelter from predators. For ocean life, everything was an opportunity. The ship was more alive, sunk here, than it ever was when in service.

who ruled for eighty years and lived to the ripe old age of 120. Later Roman writers, including Pliny the Elder, would extend this to an even more impressive 150 years. John thought it possible that this legend of longevity came about because ‘Arganthonios’ was an official name for a king, as the leader of a silver-trading empire, rather than a per