SHIPS THAT PASS 



253 



beauty in the scene. Even the battleship and 

 the arrow-like torpedo boat, if we could forget 

 their grim mission on the seas, might prove 

 attractive. Certainly their graceful motion, 

 their enormous rush through the water, the in- 

 herent power felt in every push or curve or 

 bend of them, commands not only respect but 

 admiration. Perhaps we are too near to them 

 now to see them sympathetically, but when 

 these times shall become the " good old times," 

 there will be poetry and to spare about the 

 present-day thunderers of the seas. 



Romance usually clings to things that are 

 past and eventually all the ships pass on — pass 

 out. Eibs of oak and plates of steel and tur- 

 rets of nickel find a common resting place 

 sooner or later. It is as often in the depths as 

 on the shore, and every coast has its graveyard 

 where, far down in the darkness, schooner, brig, 

 barkentine, steamer and cruiser nestle side by 

 side in the soft ooze of the bottom and know 

 the wind and the wave no more. Perhaps with 

 them and near them are scattered the bones of 

 many a crew that went down with the ship, 

 lashed in the rigging or caught under hatches. 

 And perhaps again no word ever came back 

 from the sea to tell the fate of either men or 

 ships. This it is that is accounted the " mys- 



The oaltle- 

 ship and 

 our point 

 of view. 



The com- 

 mon rest- 

 ing pirice 

 of ships. 



