This Terrible Problem That Is the Sea

"It seemed to Elma ... that the sea moaned in an unreasonable and very dreadful manner."  From Wild Kitty by Elizabeth Thomasina Meade, 1897.

An illustration from Premiers Voyages Au Pays Des Glaces by Charles Baye (1888).

An illustration from an 1885 issue of Frank Leslie's Pleasant Hours magazine.

Frank Herbert suggests that when we are ashore, we seem to forget about the menace of the sea because the subconscious masks it (The Dragon in the Sea, 1956).

"The problem is articulate: how to keep from the sea's relentless taking what life builds on its uncertain shores."
—Dermot McCarthy, Poetics of Place: The Poetry of Ralph Gustafson

"The sea's relentless waves are like continually renewing sets of teeth gnawing at the land, and with over 221,000 miles of coastline in the world, that's a lot of nibbling.  But the sea is capable of more than just amphibious assaults: it can also penetrate the land through a series of air raids, as water from the oceans is air-lifted up into the atmosphere where it creates a formation of clouds that are ready to deploy their water cargo down on the rocks and the soil of this land at will.  The land invasion can come in varying degrees, from light rain raids through to heavy blanket bombings, randomly deployed throughout the year.  The resulting saturation causes the land to weather and erode, which in turn can cause devastating mud- and landslides." —Richard Horne, A is for Armageddon: A Catalogue of Disasters That May Culminate in the End of the World as We Know It (2010)

"Silence belies the proverb that still waters run deep." —Francis Jacox, Shakspeare Diversion: A Medley of Motley Wear (1876)

"The onslaught of the sea must be stopped."
—Foreign Press Digest: Soviet Union (1967)

"There is a point where the proud waves of the sea must be stopped."
—Richard Polwhele, Traditions and Recollections (1826)

Hungry, pitiless, murderous sea!
Oh, what wild shrieks hath terror sent o'er thee!
    How many millions, dead,
    Lie waiting in thy oozy bed,
Till the last trumpet sound, and Death no more
Shall revel 'mid thy rage and maddening roar!
—Nicholas Michell, "Ocean's Changes" (1867)

Dr. Boli notes that "feral water is dangerously unstable.  It has been estimated that more than 50% of the damage in so-called natural disasters is caused by water in an uncontrolled state.  Feral water can destroy buildings and ravage landscapes.  It is a documented fact that feral water, in sufficient quantities, can kill."

"There is a point where the proud waves of the sea must be stopped."
—Richard Polwhele, Traditions and Recollections, 1826

"I think the sea's awful, I do, the way it throws people together." —E. V. Lucas, Down the Sky

"Why do you always look so sad when you look at the sea, Wenna?"  (Cornhill, 1875.)

An illustration from an 1860 issue of Harper's magazine.  The caption reads: "I told you so."

Dedicated to Teresa Burritt.

An illustration from an 1856 issue of Harper's magazine.