Sea Maiden 14 Nicole with Sea Master Submissio

Mermaid and Merman couple art and story by Robert Kline

This is a retired mermaid and merman print that is very limited in supply and therefore currently available in the following matted size: 11" x 14".

This wonderful Sea Maiden and Sea Master art print and story are from a collection of Sea Maidens (mermaids), Sea Babies (mermaid babies), Sea Masters (merman), pirates, lighthouses and fairies created by renowned artist and novelist Robert Kline of St. Augustine, Florida.  The print is a lithograph reproduction of Robert’s original watercolor and pencil painting. Hand labeled and signed by Robert in pencil, all the prints come with a 1/4″ foam backing and the 5″ x 7″, 8″ x 10″, 11″ x 14″ are matted so all you need is a frame and they are ready to hang on your wall! Each print also comes with an excerpt from Robert’s novel The Forgotten Voyage of H.M.S. Baci. A fantastic saga in which multiple generations of the Roberts’ family explore the seven seas in search of the world’s mermaid and merman population. Thus, you receive the passage from Robert’s novel describing the particular event in which the character(s) in the print were sighted.

Once again the HMS Baci strayed into troubled waters. Made jealous beyond endurance by their beautiful captain’s fascination with Sea Masters, the slighted crew mutinied, leaving Constance Daphne, the old sage Gnarly Dan, and the voyage’s underwriter, Sir Edmund Roberts, gentleman naturalist and Sea Maiden quester stranded in Halley’s patented diving bell beneath a ton of warm Pacific water.

The three sat in disbelief. The Sea Master who had been cavorting before then left and eventually was replaced by a brace of sea creatures who were at once more attractive and their dance more subtle and sensual than any the bell mates had seen before.

At first the Sea Maiden moved in graceful arcs about the hovering Sea Master, skillfully avoiding touching him. Then she swam beneath him and slowly glided upward, her body softly brushing against his. As the three shipmates in the bell leaned forward and watched in awe, Gnarly Dan whispered, “She’s showing that she captains their ship, don’t ya see. He must clamp ahold hisself and let her have her way. No clawing or fumbling about like we does.”

They were silent again until Gnarly Dan added, “Yer Sea Master’s all agog to learn her way. He may be strong as a Malay and pleasing to lay an eye on, but it’s a lady’s world down here. Yer Sea Maiden rules with her heart and there ain’t a Sea Master afloat what cares to resist.”

The dance progressed before them, a ritual of restraint, temptation and instruction as the Sea Master silently acquiesced. Coincidental to the languid dance, the bell’s atmosphere was becoming more cloying as the temperature and humidity rose. Constance Daphne’s light cotton shirts went from damp to soaked to transparency as she sat enthralled. At first with the convert glances and then with full blown admiration both Gnarly Dan and Sir Edmund shifted their attention to their captain until finally, in what could only be seen as a mutual lapse of moral fortitude and decorum, Sir Edmund and Gnarly Dan nodded and then removed their own shirts, then they seemingly losing themselves in their attempts to staunch unseen leaks in the bell’s bottom. At last gnarly Dan implored, “…could use another bit o’ cloth, cap…”

He said it quietly and with humble honesty and the effect was of course what both men had hoped. Sir Edmund Robert’s journal has a half blank page at this juncture and one can only conjecture what followed.

Unhappily, the incident was noted both in word and image in Sir Edmund’s infamous “blue notebook”*.

The last journal entry of that day comments on the Sea Maiden and Sea Master:

Maidenus Commendare

Average weight, dark hair, dark complexion, lithe and supple.

Magnus Submissio

Average weight, tall, muscular, dark hair, dark complexion.

April 12, 1833

Protected harbor of San Carlos, Island of Chiloe

*During Sir Edmunds waning years there was an unsavory attempt by his relatives to access his considerable wealth by having him declared mentally incompetent. The subsequent trial; was the talk of London as everyone from chimney sweep to barrister followed it’s progress. A key and damming piece of evidence was a notebook containing his writings and sketches of Sea Maidens and Sea Masters cavorting in various combinations and situations. Included also were Sir Edmund’s romantic musings regarding Captain Constance Daphne and a collection of watercolors drawling’s of her, which to speak conservatively, were of particular interest to the male jurors. One glorious painting was of Constance Daphne bathed in the warm light of the bell’s window, her upper body a glisten.

And yet, for all the prurient details and hoopla of the trail, and in spite if the small army of aunts, nieces and nephews proclaiming him ripe for Bedlam, it was in the last hours of the last day of the trail that Sir Edmund, much reduced by the strain and notoriety, humiliated by the attacks on his sanity and made the fool for his steadfast belief in Sea Maidens and masters, slowly rose to his feet before a full court room and with a simple question brought the world back to his side: “And if, is your claim,” he said, “I only imagined them,” he paused, drew in a breath and asked, his eyes focused on a distant voyage, What was the crime in that? They were so beautiful.”There are many more Sea Maiden (mermaid), Sea Baby, Pirate and Sea Master (merman) prints available. Different characters and print sizes. Collect the series! This item will be sent flat via USPS 1st class mail or priority mail.