246 



THE OPAL SEA 



horizon stretching her wings for Good Hope or 

 the Horn, is a venture that puts man's inven- 

 tion and supremacy to the test anew. And 

 besides there go our friends and kindred. Will 

 they come back from the roaring sea successful 

 in their enterprise or will those sails fade into 

 the Great Silence and never be heard from 



The dis- 

 appearing 

 ship. 



Watchers 

 of the sea. 



Ships that 

 have passed. 



again? What wonder, indeed, that hopes and 

 fears and prayers should go with her, and that 

 eyes should strain after the white canvas until 

 it drop below the verge? 



It was always so. In all ages there have been 

 watchers of the sea — tear-dimmed eyes follow- 

 ing the disappearing sails, bright eyes watch- 

 ing the rising ones. A Scandinavian drakkar 

 with its leather sail and dragon prow, beating 

 seaward from some stubborn coast on warfare 

 bent, or an Egyptian galley with its purple, per- 

 fumed sails, carrying a Cleopatra up to Eome, 

 never yet sank below the distant rim but that 

 dark eyes marked its disappearance. The head- 

 lands and beacon points have furnished look- 

 outs for many centuries. 



And in that time what ships have passed ! 

 Sails of skin, of papyrus, of bamboo, of wool, 

 of hemp — lug sails, square sails, lateen sails — 

 in brilliant procession have swept athwart the 

 two immensities, their great wind areas darkly 



