Myth of the Ship-holder. 291 



of the fish itself, although nowhere he expresses a disbelief 

 in this power of the Echeneis. 



Lsevinus Leranius * (1559), in discoursing of "Sea-weed 

 and Sea Fucus/' apparently only amplifies Plutarch when lie 

 says : — 



" But Mosse must be held to be a thing different from 

 these : one kind whereof grows not only on the shores, but 

 upon the sterns of the ships, when they come home from 

 long voyages, to which not only Mosse and Sea-weeds, but 

 shell-fish ami a little fish called Echeneis stick so fast, that 

 they will stop Ships, and hinder their courses, therefore our 

 men use to rub them off with sharp brushes, and scrape 

 them away with irons that are crooked for the purpose, that 

 the ship being tallowed and careened well and smoothly may 

 sail the faster/' 



Aldrovandi, Gesner's great successor and copier (1613), 

 devotes several pages of his huge folio to " Occultane an 

 Manifesta Vi Naves Kemoretur," most of his data being- 

 taken from Gesner. He gives at length Plutarch's explana- 

 tion of the retardation as due to growths of marine algse 

 among which the Echeneis clings, thus being " not the cause 

 of the retardation of the ship but an accident of the effecting 

 cause." 



Aldrovandi is the last of those who allege the growth of 

 sea-weeds as a cause of the retardation. It began to be 

 seen that, while such marine growths would slow up a ship, 

 they did not explain the remarkable instances of retarda- 

 tion in which the speed of the vessel was checked for a 

 while hut which was presently regained. However, another 

 attempt had been made to explain these erratic movements 

 of vessels, and this will now be given. 



Second Explanation : The Adhering Remora acts as a 

 Rudder. 



This seems to have been first advanced by llondelet (1558) 

 in these words : — 



" Pliny and others are greatly astonished that it is possible 

 for this fish to have the power to stop a moving vessel 

 propelled by sails and oars; but, as Aristotle says, one 

 wonders at many things of which one does not understand 

 the cause .... which we will give concerning the effect of 



* Lemnius's book ' De Occultis Naturae Miraculia ' was first published 

 at Antwerp in 1559. The above quotation is from the English edition, 

 ' Concerning the Secret Miracles of Nature,' Book III. Chapter 9, pp. 218- 

 219, published at London, 1658. 



22* 



