The view from the Observation Deck. It´s grand theatre and everything a seafaring heart yearns for, the great big blue everywhere and nautical elements all around. It´s the position right above the bridge, the view the Captain, the First Officer and the Mate have. Of course this is where all the people gather to watch out for whales.

The increasing number of ships, especially large vessels, to the worlds oceans is a direct threat to whale populations. It´s extremely difficult to assess reliable figures of this silent and unbeknown ongoing tragedy. Only very few strikes are reported to organizations which try to collect data, like Greenpeace or the International Whaling Commission. Many collisions, again, especially with large vessels, go unnoticed and are lost for any attempt to gather realistic numbers.

Back to the Observation Deck. When on a ship crossing the North Atlantic, the whale issue crosses ones mind at least once or twice during the voyage. Going for a watch in the many spare time pockets betwen meals and promenades, is a good and useful thing to do. A successful sighting is fun and exciting, it can even set some people into a state of breath- and speechlessness. It happened once when I was taking these pictures, that a lady started waving and pointing, her mouth moving but nothing intelligible crossing her lips. She quickly gathered herself when it turned out that the alleged whale was just a wave breaking. She told me that she´d been whale watching as often as she could, and that there were others who´d joined her. In case of a potential collision course it could be reported to the bridge below. It turned out, that during the whole week not a single whale was sighted.

But apart from observing the ocean, this is a real nice place, actually the place, where you can let your mind and imagination drift along with the echoes of the seafaring past, which seem to whisper across the endless surface.

See more images of Trans Atlantic.