Ghost ship series: The ninth wave
"The Ninth Wave" is an old expression used by the oceanic sailors. It means “a single sea wave superior to all the others”. Massive, unforeseen, and unpredictable, these notorious ninth waves are the source of countless marine legendry tales. Some seamen believe that nothing can withstand the power of this wave; it is continuously referred to as a “destroyer” or “killer” wave. An old nautical superstition suggests that when storm waves get as high as the ninth wave (some would call it the tenth wave), the turning-point of a calamity comes in place and everything stars all over again. Scientifically speaking, however, there is no way to predict a certain sequence in which the waves appear: smaller waves can form larger ones quite randomly. Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky Russian romantic painter.
Part of the romance of the sea is found in its traditions and none have lingered longer than the superstitions of sailors. Many nautical superstitions are rooted in real facts or consideration for safety, but most of them go so far back in time that their origins cannot be possibly drawn from the mysteries of history. Sailing superstitions are ancient. Ghost ship stories and beliefs would become concurrent with an overall ideology of the time. Some people thought that the appearance of a ghost ship could foretell a catastrophe.
The term "ghost ship" has in fact several meanings. How, I wonder, could have the whole concept of a phantom ship started? It will always remain a mystery, I suppose. Imagine this: sea is one of the most remote and isolated places on earth, and your ticket to survival rests solely upon a single ship floating on a water surface. These forceful and dangerous seafaring circumstances mothered some very intense superstitions, indeed. Figureheads on the rostra were meant to ward off evil sea serpents but could also represent the spirit of the ship. And, of course, ghost ships are linked to shipwrecks and other sea disasters. They are usually seen at the site where a ship was lost. It is quite possible that finding abandoned ships and the eerie feeling upon boarding them has fueled ghost ships superstitions.
There is another expression also taken from sailing - “The Seventh Wave”. It is a long awaited wave at a calm sea. The symbolic value of this expression is that you cannot just sit around and wait for things to happen, you have to find the energy within yourself and other people to move on. The number of images including this one have been featured in Xtreamer Media Player, USA 2009. Xtreamer Network Media Player as user interface and navigation backgrounds. It allows you to stream HD (MKV H.264) movies or user-generated videos, listen to high-quality digital music and show high-resolution photo slideshows on your TV.
(Title Rus) Девятый Вал; серия Корабли Призраки
Software media: Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk 3ds Max, Planetside Terragen, Photo Stock, CorelDRAW
George Grie, June 2009
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Ghost ship series: The ninth wave