Chapter 1: Ship Eating 1 Ship Eating WHAT IS A BACTERIUM that eats ships?" Mrs. Karp asked. Rocky Ridge shook his head. "Little bitty bacteria can't do that. Their stomachs would explode!" Echo Reef had to agree with Rocky. Her third-grade class had just started studying them, but she was sure her teacher had said something about bacteria being really, really small. Since they'd started their lessons, Echo scrubbed carefully every night. She didn't want to think about icky bacteria or their cousins, archaea, on her pretty pink tail.

Echo's merfriend Kiki Coral raised her hand slowly. "Doesn't it depend on whether the ship is wood or steel?" "Why would that matter?" Pearl Swamp asked. Mrs. Karp grinned. "Actually, it makes a big difference. Some bacteria like to eat wood, and some eat steel. In fact, over the next week we will be studying different types of bacteria and creating paintings of large clusters of them in art class." Painting sounded a lot better than doing a big report.

Echo would have to learn about the different types. How many could there be? "The bacteria H. titanicae is named after the steel ship it has been eating for about a hundred years," Mrs. Karp told them. "Does anyone recognize that name?" Echo's hand shot in the air. "Are you telling me that something is eating the most famous ship ever? The Titanic ?" Echo loved everything about humans, and that particular ship was legendary. "It's true." Mrs.

Karp nodded. "In fact, in twenty years it may be completely gone." "No wavy way!" Echo said in disbelief. "Let's get rid of that tica-tockie bacteria!" Rocky urged. "It's called H. titanicae ," Kiki said. "The H is for 'Halomonas.'?" "Isn't there a way to stop the bacteria?" Echo's good merfriend Shelly Siren asked.

Mrs. Karp shrugged. "I'm not sure we should. It's the way of nature." Echo couldn't believe it. She'd read about the fabulous human ship that had been like a floating palace. People had thought it couldn't be sunk, but sadly it had--on its first voyage! How could the whole thing be disappearing? "But luckily we'll get to see it before it's gone," Mrs. Karp announced.

"We will go on an ocean trip to visit it next week." Several kids gasped, but Echo couldn't help squealing. Were they really going to visit the Titanic ? It was a dream come true!.