Then the whole fleet their ships with flags adorn.

and:

So soon, however, as great Sol has spread
His rays o'er earth, whom instantly to meet,
Her purple brow Aurora rising shews,
And rudely life around the horizon throws.

He is at his best in writing of the sea.

He says of the explorers on first setting sail:

Now were they sailing o'er wide ocean bright,
The restless waves dividing as they flew;
The winds were breathing prosperous and light,
The vessels' hollow sails were filled to view;
The seas were covered o'er with foaming white
Where the advancing prows were cutting through
The consecrated waters of the deep....
Thus went we forth these unknown seas to explore,
Which by no people yet explored had been;
Seeing new isles and climes which long before
Great Henry, first discoverer, had seen.

Now did the moon in purest lustre rise
On Neptune's silvery waves her beams to pour,
With stars attendant glittered all the skies,
E'en like a meadow daisy-spangled o'er;
The fury of the winds all peaceful lies
In the dark caverns close along the shore,
But still the night-watch constant vigils keep,
As long had been their custom on the deep.

To tell thee of the dangers of the sea
At length, which human understanding scare,
Thunder-storms, sudden, dreadful in degree,
Lightnings, which seem to set on fire the air,
Dark floods of rain, nights of obscurity,
Rollings of thunder which the world would tear,
Were not less labour than a great mistake,
E'en if I had an iron voice to speak.

He describes the electric fires of St Elmo and the gradual
development of the waterspout:

I saw, and clearly saw, the living light
Which sailors everywhere as sacred hold
In time of storm and crossing winds that fight,
Of tempest dark and desperation cold;
Nor less it was to all a marvel quite,
And matter surely to alarm the bold,
To observe the sea-clouds, with a tube immense,
Suck water up from Ocean's deep expanse....
A fume or vapour thin and subtle rose,
And by the wind begin revolving there;
Thence to the topmost clouds a tube it throws,
But of a substance so exceeding rare....
But when it was quite gorged it then withdrew
The foot that on the sea beneath had grown,
And o'er the heavens in fine it raining flew,
The jacent waters watering with its own.

The storm at sea reminds us of AEschylus in splendour:

The win