Mysterious Sea Stories

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Not long before his death that great British seaman, Lord Nelson, remarked, ‘At sea, nothing is impossible and nothing improbable.’ Although he put it splendidly, what he said was really nothing new, even then - for almost since the first man pushed himself gingerly away from the safety of the shore and cast himself and his frail craft to the mercy of the waves and the elements, sailors have come to appreciate the mysterious powers of the sea. Even today when shipping has all the sophisticated equipment provided by modem technology at its disposal, there is still the element of the unknown lurking just across the horizon - and it is a foolish seaman who would choose to ignore such a fact.

Of course, in the early days of sail, mariners believed if they went too far from land their ships might fall off the edge of the world; and even in later ages seafarers clung tenaciously to the most amazing superstitions which gave the sea and all things above and below it quite extraordinary powers. The discoveries of the early explorers may well have removed fears about a flat earth, but there are still many of those old superstitions being religiously observed. Their influence is as powerful and mysterious and timeless as the very sea itself.

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