In this saga of sailing the elements are the villains, with a few exceptions, such as occasional mutineers and that huge sperm whale which was the prototype of Moby Dick. Ships great and small sail across its pages and vanish -- the Grvenor, which went down off West Africa with the Peacock Throne of the Mogule aboard in 1782; La Florencia, galleon of the Armada, lying off Argyleshire in Tobermory Bay. The impregnables and invincibles, the Morra Casfle, the Titanic and the latter day Andrea Doria are resurrected with their stories.