Rokkasei

Nudibranchs recur in Washington Black’s account as objects of close scientific attention and personal admiration. He imagines them among the marine animals that might be transported and shown alive, names them as his favorite marine organisms, and ultimately finds them displayed at Ocean House. Their small place in the exhibition reflects both his commitment to presenting marine life as living and varied, and the larger problem that his work may remain uncredited.

Encounter and proposed exhibition

During a dive, Washington sees an octopus and considers the fate of animals that might otherwise be killed and prepared as specimens for an exhibition. His idea is to bring marine creatures to England alive, including anemones, comatulids, nudibranchs, and the octopus, so a public could encounter them at close range. The proposal is not limited to nudibranchs, but their inclusion places them within his effort to imagine an exhibition based on living animals rather than preserved specimens.

When Washington describes the plan to Goff and Tanna, he pictures a large gallery with tanks holding aquatic life, alongside open-air terrariums for other animals. Visitors would be able to approach the glass and learn animal habits firsthand. Tanna calls the proposed institution a menagerie of the sea. The idea gives nudibranchs a potential place not merely as collected specimens, but as living creatures to be observed in a public setting.

Washington’s admiration

Later, in an intimate conversation with Tanna, Washington identifies the nudibranch as his favorite marine organism. His reason is its striking defensive behavior: it can take a harpoon from a jellyfish or anemone and mount it on its own back as a weapon. The detail reveals what captures his attention—not only an animal’s appearance, but its resourcefulness and capacity to turn another creature’s means of defense to its own use.

The conversation briefly risks being taken as a metaphor for Tanna’s character, but Washington is earnest in his answer. His enthusiasm for the nudibranch belongs to a wider habit of close observation: marine life commands his interest in its own right, beyond any simple symbolic reading.

Nudibranchs at Ocean House

After the Zoological Committee accepts the proposal for a permanent aquatic exhibition in London, the city provides land and a timber building in the zoological gardens for Ocean House. Washington sees the project as an idea brought into the world through his own work, while recognizing that Goff is likely to be publicly celebrated as its founder and that Washington’s name may not appear in the institution’s history.

As preparations continue, Washington takes pride in the exhibition’s tanks, choice of specimens, and arrangement of aquatic plants, even as he feels the pain of seeing his labor go uncredited. Among the displays, one tank holds a jellyfish and another is filled entirely with nudibranchs. He approaches the latter and presses his hand to the cool glass. The scene returns his attention to the animals themselves while holding together the project’s achievement and its unresolved question of whose work the public will see.