Specimen Ship: Science Fiction/Horror

[penthius]

He wept as he clung to the raft and watched the burning ship go down. It was the labor of four years to collect all the specimens that were sinking beneath the icy waters. It was the work of his lifetime, the one that was to have made him an equal to the new science heroes. He'd written up his notes, at least, and sealed them in oilskin and tied them to his body. For that much at least, he hoped to be remembered. They would not know the half of it, though, not without his specimens, living or preserved. He was more affected by that loss than by the knowledge that he would soon freeze to death.

Inspiration: Listening to either MPR's science Friday or the SciAm podcast. There was actually a ship like this which sank with the collection of one of Darwin's contemporaries, but it sank in warm waters and the guy lived and went back a couple of years later for another several years to re-collect it all.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Centuries later, a treasure-hunting expedition goes after the ship. For biological specimens to revive from extinction? Something like that? Straight sci-fi or do they bring up something they really shouldn't have?

Given all the Darwin-related science/news shows, I predict a rash of fictional stories about such topics in about 4-6 months.

Comments

[wilowisp.livejournal.com]

Reading this, I had a few assumptions:

1. His specimens were of the less-than-mundane variety.
2. Most somehow survived and adapted into some weird, deep coldwater ecosystem of their own.

But after a second read, I realized they were assumptions from thin air.

[penthius.livejournal.com]

No. 1 was sort of implied--if nothing else, at least a couple of them are what I'm thinking of playing with. (Otherwise it would be a less interesting story, right?)

No. 2 you conjured up yourself. It's pretty neat, though...but not where my story may or may not someday go.