Myth of the Ship-holder. 1 9 



eddies which are everywhere met with in straits. For it can 

 scarcely be said how much eddying in the sea, how many 

 [opposing] currents would be strong and powerful enough 

 to cause ships to stand. This is, indeed, my idea of the 

 Remora " *. 



We now come to that man of the Renaissance writers who 

 most thoroughly and in scientific fashion goes into a study 

 of the ship-holder. This is the Jesuit, Gaspar Schott, pro- 

 fessor in the gymnasium of Herbipoli. His scientific 

 attitude is first shown in his extensive review of his prede- 

 cessors, where he expressly quotes them by book, chapter, 

 and paragraph, and in this he is about as exact as a present- 

 day writer who takes pride in the care with which his biblio- 

 graphy is prepared f. 



Schott carefully dissects the writings and opinions of his 

 predecessors, and, while acknowledging that vessels are 

 stopped, rejects their explanations as depending on some 

 occult power or cause or quality. He then sets forth his 

 own conclusions under four heads and in as many distinct 

 paragraphs. First, he thinks it doubtful if such a remark- 

 able power of detaining and retarding ships is to be found 

 in such a small animal. He notes that there are no eye- 

 witnesses among the ancients, but that their accounts run 

 " it is said/' "some believe," "it is reported." In short, 

 there is no agreement among the ancients, and their accounts 

 are mere fables. 



Having thus established himself as a disbeliever, Schott, 

 in the next paragraph, affirms his belief in the occult and 

 the supernatural. Since so many writers record them, there 

 must be truth in these accounts, and it must be acknowledged 

 that the ships are retarded, but from causes different from 

 the assigned ones. These retardations, he thinks, are due 

 to angels — good or bad, — to frauds on the parts of sailors 

 (some backing, others pulling), or to upheavings and boilings 

 in the sea. These latter, on the whole, he thinks to be the 

 more probable causes. 



In his third paragraph Schott affirms his belief in "extra- 

 ordinary tides and currents which arise at times to retard 

 the progress of the weakly propelled vessels of his day. He 

 quotes Kircher's experience in the Straits of Sicily. This 



* Kircher, Athanasius. ' Athanasii Kircheri Magnes Sive de Artis 

 Magnetica, Opus Tripartum.' Colonise Agrippinse, 1643. Liber tertius, 

 pars sexta, De Echeneida, seu Kemora, p. 669. 



t Schottus, Caspar. ' Physica Curiosa sive Mirabilia Natune et 

 Artis Libris XII.' Herbipoli, 1662. Caput XIV. Dissertatio Physio- 

 logica de Echeneide seu Reinora, pp. 1309-1338. 



2* 



