Blackeye's Vase

The Story of The Barnacle Pot

There's a story behind how this vase came to be in our living room and I'm going to share it with you.

It all started like any good story does, on a dark, stormy night on the high seas. Captain Blackeye's ship was being tossed about through the tumultuous waters, like a rubber ducky in a jacuzzi. The crew worked tirelessly to keep the ship afloat, lashing and tying things, so as to keep them from toppling into the waters below. Whilst this went on, the captain sank below decks to make certain that their plunder went unharmed, but little did the crew know, Blackeye had a secret compartment hidden behind the bulk of the spoils. Blackeye scrambled his way to the far corner of the treasure room where his secret compartment lay, he rotated the hidden switch and released the trap door to his bounty and therein lay his vases. 

These vases were of unimaginable value to the right people and luckily, Blackeye was one of those few. Shortly after checking that his newfound belongings were safe Blackeye heard one of his crew coming below decks for some unbeknownst purpose. Blackeye quickly secured the vases and locked the trapdoor and the crewman, while wanting to know the reason behind why his captain was below decks in such a storm, knew better than to question his captain and went about his business. Blackeye returned to the upper deck to find the scene to be very much the same as he had left it and without appearing as though he had left at all, he continued to bark out orders to his crew.

Not an hour later, the man in the crows-nest yelled out to his captain that he had spotted another ship not far off. Blackeye ordered his men to prepare for battle. As the other ship neared, Blackeye's crew turned the ship for a better firing position. The other ship still appeared not to have seen Blackeye and his ship, but Blackeye had no qualms in firing upon an unsuspecting enemy. Blackeye opened fire on the opposing ship, ripping the sails and hull to pieces and the battle seemed to already be over even though it had scarcely even begun. Blackeye and his crew cheered through the rain! In the midst of the celebrating Blackeye noticed that the other boat, while greatly wounded, was still coming towards his own ship at a rather alarming pace, he quickly put an end to celebration of victory and commanded his crew to turn the ship away from the tattered galleon barreling towards them. The crew worked furiously, but to no avail, the waters and winds were much too powerful. Blackeye, noticing this, ordered his crew to brace for impact and not long after the final crew member lashed himself to the deck, the impact came. Both ships melded together in a flurry of splinters and pieces of shrapnel. The ships, having no way to stay afloat any longer, began crumbling away into the sea. Plunder from both ships poured into the murky depths, members of each ship scrambled to locate any chunk of wood large enough to support them, some unluckier than others were swallowed up by the gaping maw that is the sea.

A number of the days later, the storm subsided and revealed that the two ships had sank not a mile from shore and one of the first sights that the crew saw was the mighty Vesuvius. Sadly, Blackeye was not amongst the survivors that night, but his tale will live on through the ages by the art of spoken word.

The vases were, many years later, found on one of many diving excursions to locate the treasures lost by both sides of the conflict. One of the lesser vases was sold at auction where one of the previous owners of this apartment purchased it at a steal of of buy for a mere 2.3 million dollars at which point he placed it in his living room for all to loom upon with envy.

That, is the story of how this vase, came to be the centerpiece of our living room.