Read "The Mirror of the Sea" by Joseph Conrad online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Often I turn with melancholy eagerness to the space reserved in the newspapers under the general heading of "Shipping Intelligence. " I meet there the names of ships I have known. Every year some of these names disappear-the names of old friends. "Tempi passati!"
The different divisions of that kind of news are set down in their order, which varies but slightly in its arrangement of concise headlines. And first comes "Speakings"-reports of ships met and signalled at sea, name, port, where from, where bound for, so many days out, ending frequently with the words "All well. " Then come "Wrecks and Casualties"-a longish array of paragraphs, unless the weather has been fair and clear, and friendly to ships all over the world.