SHIPS THAT PASS 



255 



tales. What pages smeared with blood and 

 reeking with smoke they are ! We read the 

 record, count over the destruction — the wanton 

 waste by fire and sword of life and loveliness 

 — and sadly wonder that such things could ever 

 be. Nor does the present furnish forth a less 

 ghastly story. There is no more of the pirate's 

 brigantine flying the black flag upon the high 

 seas; but the battle ship of civilization is with 

 us to deal out, in the name of liberty and en- 

 lightenment, a destruction more violent and 

 more widespread. Is the change very much for 

 the better? Is death hurled from a machine 

 gun preferable to walking the plank? And in 

 all time, in all history, has not the real " hor- 

 ror " of the sea been not storm but man ; and 

 the " remorseless monster " not the wave but 

 man's beautiful engine of destruction, the ship ? 

 If the tale were truly told it would be roman- 

 tic only in its hideousness. For the bloodshed 

 and the ruin of it have not resulted from the 

 pursuit of life or happiness or knowledge or 

 beauty or even fair commerce. From the be- 

 ginning the quest of the Argonauts has been the 

 golden fleece. Men have ventured and en- 

 dured and labored and died for mere gold. 

 That gilded lure drew on the early explorers 

 through harrowing hardships to the most dis- 



The real 

 horror of 

 the sea. 



The quest 

 of gold and 

 its results. 



