38 THE OCEAN 



the rail of a ship or poising on the end of a 

 yard-arm, or when tongues of green and blue 

 flame dance from masts and rigging or even 

 from the heads and bodies of the men. 



Disabled ships often float for long periods, 

 and the sailors, seeing these sodden, weed- 

 grown, ocean waifs, easily peopled them with 

 ghosts and spirits. From such sights and fan- 

 cies grew the yarns of ghost-ships, Flying 

 Dutchmen, the Ancient Mariner and other 

 tales. While we know that these stories were 

 not true the fact remains that abandoned ships 

 known as Derelicts always are floating about 

 in the ocean and do wander hither and thither 

 as if manned and steered by invisible hands. 



Perhaps, sometime, you may see one of 

 these derelicts as you speed across the broad 

 ocean in a great passenger ship and if you do 

 you will find it a sad and pitiful sight in- 

 deed. A lonely, black, weather-beaten hulk 

 rolling slowly to the ocean swells, its sides 

 green and weed-grown, its torn and tangled 

 rigging hanging in tatters over the sides and 

 its decks and broken rails peopled by scream- 

 ing sea-birds. 



