-=> Quoting Jack Ruttan to Curtis Johnson <=-
 > name (and a great Doors song, BTW).  A wooden ship wouldn't last
 > for decades in the open ocean, not when they had to be careened
 > every year or two against leaks caused by terudo worms, etc.
 >  Nonetheless, it makes for a great image which has been
 > exploited in sf.  Old and obscure legends are always great sources
 > for ideas which can be reworked.
 JR> Well, of course. Then there's the Flying Dutchman. The
 JR> rediscovered Titanic made quite a spooky sight, which only fed that
 JR> legend. Actually, for wooden ships in the arctic (The Breadlebane) and
 JR> in fresh water (think of that tudor ship which was not so long ago
 JR> raised from the Thames), the story is different. That is, unless there
 JR> are zebra mussels about, as there are in the Great Lakes. Then the
 JR> ships start to look like fuzzy outlines of themselves.
	Tell me about _The Breadlebane_--I can't connect anything
 with the name.
 JR> There's a book by Vincent Gaddis called "Invisible Horizons" which has
 JR> a lot of great (supposedly true) stories about the sea.
	I have _Strange Sa Stories and Legends_, Bill Wisner.  It 
 mentions only two derelict ships, the _Octavius_ and the
 _Marlborough_.  The first was caught in pack ice somewhere north of
 Alaska in 1762, and was found 13 years later off Greenland, captain, 
 wife and crew still aboard on the first voyage of the northwest 
 passage.
	The second set sail from New Zealand in 1890 and was seen 
 in 1913, with a literally skeleton crew.  It certainly helped that 
 the cargo was lumber.
 JR> Jack Ruttan (Former Doors fan, has that "Horse Latitudes" speech
 JR> memorized despite himself)
 JR> -!- Maximus/2 3.01
 JR>  ! Origin: Juxtaposition BBS.  Lasalle, Quebec, Canada (1:167/133)
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