seaman is looking for is first bound to appear. But I have also
seen his eyes rest fondly upon the faces in the room, upon the
pictures on the wall, upon all the familiar objects of that home,
whose abiding and clear image must have flashed often on his memory
in times of stress and anxiety at sea. Was he looking out for a
strange Landfall, or taking with an untroubled mind the bearings
for his last Departure?

It is hard to say; for in that voyage from which no man returns
Landfall and Departure are instantaneous, merging together into one
moment of supreme and final attention. Certainly I do not remember
observing any sign of faltering in the set expression of his wasted
face, no hint of the nervous anxiety of a young commander about to
make land on an uncharted shore. He had had too much experience of
Departures and Landfalls! And had he not "served his time" in the
famous copper-ore trade out of the Bristol Channel, the work of the
staunchest ships afloat, and the school of staunch seamen?



IV.



Before an anchor can ever be raised, it must be let go; and this
perfectly obvious truism brings me at once to the subject of the
degradation of the sea language in the daily press of this country.

Your journalist, whether he takes charge of a ship or a fleet,
almost invariably "casts" his anchor. Now, an anchor is never