DERELICTS AND ICEBERGS 37 



the sea. They told of the ^Tlying Dutch- 

 man," of ships that floated about forever, — 

 their sails and cordage bleached and rotten, 

 their sides overgrown with weeds and moss 

 and their decks manned by crews of ghosts 

 and skeletons. They told of sea-serpents, of 

 wonderful sea-monsters and of '^Corposants," 

 "St. Elmo's Fire," and of many other weird 

 and uncanny things. 



Sailing ship mariners were an imaginative 

 lot and many of their tales were made out 

 of whole cloth, but on their long voyages the 

 men actually saw many strange and myste- 

 rious things. Most of these are now well 

 known and have been explained and reasoned 

 out by modern science, but a great many hap- 

 penings at sea are as mysterious and inexplic- 

 able as ever. Science tells us that the strange, 

 pale lights and balls of fire which dance about 

 on the rigging of ships in the tropical nights 

 are "electrical phenomena," but that doesn't 

 explain them, and it is a very hard-headed and 

 matter-of-fact scientist indeed who doesn't feel 

 "creepy" and whose spine doesn't tingle when 

 he sees a great, round fire-ball rolling along 



