He woke up beside a fish

Gosse quotes Kotzebue’s account of waking beside a cold animal on deck, first taking it for a lizard and then identifying a flying fish[[cite:9]]. The original voyage account preserves the same episode on printed page 145[[cite:10]]. No arrival trajectory or deliberate choice by the fish was recorded.

A hot night on deck. Something cold and wriggling. An unexpected bedfellow, reported by voyager Otto von Kotzebue.
He went to sleep on a ship.
On warm nights, Kotzebue slept out on deck.
Something cold was moving beside him.
He woke and first thought it was a lizard.
It was a flying fish.
A closer look changed his guess.
The surprise survived in print.
His voyage account records the unusual bedfellow.

He woke up beside a fish

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