sailors compelled to fly off deck

jcflies · Post by **jcflies** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:48 am

"Calenture, a Spanish word for fever, has been part of marine folklore from "Moby Dick" to the present. In 1981, the British National Union of Seamen examined 3778 deaths at sea and concluded that 237 of them MIGHT BE FROM THIS IMPULSE TO SOAR OR FLY OFF THE DECK. They are thereby lured into the sea, through hypnotic attraction to it. Many seamen admit suffering from this impulse."
--source unknown[/quote]