For part of my coursework I was asked to listen to the Shipping Forecast then using this as a starting point I had to create a response/narrative. I began exploring old sailor superstitions and Sailor Jerry tattoos. I became very interested in the old mythologies about magical creatures such as Sirens and the Kraken. So I decided to create my own mythology, 'A Rats Tale'. 

Back yonder, in a time when man roamed the seas, there lives a tale of a beastly ship, whose rebel crew became exasperated by their captain and his constant control. Having finally reached the end of their tether, the crew took matters into their own hands, butchering the captain in his slumber.

Unbeknown to the seamen, their barbaric actions had unleashed a vile curse upon their tides, were they faced a thick, encompassing fog, suffocating the surroundings of their boat, that would last an eternity. Incapable of seeing beyond the cloud, the shipmen struggled to find nearby land where they planned to seek food, and their supplies dwindled.

In the coming days, the men grew weak with hunger, their starving minds reaching delirious states. With the absence of the captain, chaos began to reign, as the men turned on one another as a means of survival. A blood bath spiralled, uncontrollably. After only a few days, their unruly slaughter meant the men had either been killed, or had killed themselves.

Some have grown to believe that, in the death of the men, rats began to fester upon the ship and feast upon the bodies of the rotting corpses. Dining on their flesh, the rats grew and multiplied, until the ship became saturated with a population of rats. Just as the men had done, the rats turned on each other once their food grew sparse.

With little chance of surviving, the smaller rats were devoured by the bigger ones, leading to a stark evolution of the bigger rats into savage beasts.

Legend has it, were you to revolt against your captain, just as the seamen in this tale have, the great fog will beckon your ship, swiftly followed by a swarm of beastly, flesh hungry rats…

Be warned, reader, fore the curse will get you, just as it had done the rebel seamen, if you’re not careful. 

A fictional story derived and illustrated by Ed Hambidge and written by Lottie Brown. 

Tatto Flash