“Meditating upon this subject, I think it not improbable, that the
Deity, who has done nothing in vain, and whose omniscience extends to
every epoch, foreseeing that man would invent the means of tempting the
trackless ocean, and explore the most distant regions of our planet,
has given it as one means of rendering his nights less gloomy, and
of diminishing the number of his dangers; especially, if we consider
that this luminosity is seen only in the night-season,—is vivid in
proportion to the darkness, disappearing even before the feeble light
of the moon,—and also that it increases with the agitation of the sea,
so that, during the prevalence of storms, it greatly diminishes the
dense gloom which at such times is often impenetrable to the moon, and
the stars, throws such a light upon the ship and rigging as to enable
sailors to execute their allotted tasks with certainty, and at all
times points out to the cautious mariner the lurking danger of sunken
rocks, shoals, and unknown coasts, by the phosphorescent, or snowy
appearance which it gives to the breakers, so as to render them visible
at a considerable distance.”