Icebergs, I have noted, may be symbols of absolutes; that storm was another symbol, a symbol for the absolute of insensate fury… And here, I think, is the reason for much seafaring, especially for the kind that is conducted in small boats. From the experience of such dreadful chaos there is a catharsis obtainable from no possible work of art. For me – and I am sure for the others too – in the flying Dolphin, her very presence on the surface not predictable even for seconds into the future, there was the coexistence of the uttermost extreme of terror side by side with the wildest elation… I write that the coexistence of abysmal terror and god-like elation is responsible for much seafaring, especially the small-boat kind, and so it is; the survivor feels that, if he can design and build the perfect vessel, there will be no terror and only that tremendous thrill. Hence the buckets of drawing ink and the miles of timber that go every year into the building of small seagoing yachts, accompanied always by more money than their owners can afford, and it must make an economic determinist feel like a fool.