Flotsam and Jetsam – Do You Know What It Means?

A beautiful day Sunday, my new friend Adrian and I decided to hit the coast for a walk.  Off we went to see Durdle Door from both sides and from the beach.  What can I say, I just love the coast in this area of England.  The weather had improved greatly after all that rain, although still some fields were flooded.  Well it did rain that night but let’s ignore that.

The beach on this part of the coast from above looks like it’s sand, but when you get down there it is actually all pebbles.  Smooth, rolled over and over again pebbles.  Not very many good skipping rocks, but now I digress.  Actually, have you ever tried to skip a stone with your non-throwing hand?  Try it one time – it is quite hilarious.  Unless you are ambidextrous but then you would just be showing off.  But well worth at least a good half hour of laughter, at yourself and at each other.

What surprised me about the beach in this area was the low amount of litter.  There was some litter, but not what one might expect especially after seeing beaches in Africa and other places.  Flotsam and jetsam.  Adrian asked me if I knew which was which.  And even though I new the expression, used it over the years, I did not actually know what it meant.  As the saying goes, you learn something new every day and Adrian informed me.

I know, you are waiting with baited breath to find out what it means right?  Or maybe you already know.  Well just to be sure that he wasn’t pulling a funny one on me, I looked it up.  This is what wikipedia tells us:

In maritime law, flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict describe specific kinds of wreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage.

Flotsam is floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo. Jetsam is part of a ship, its equipment, or its cargo that is purposefully cast overboard or jettisoned to lighten the load in time of distress and that sinks or is washed ashore. Lagan (also called ligan) is cargo that is lying on the bottom of the ocean, sometimes marked by a buoy, which can be reclaimed.  Derelict is cargo that is also on the bottom of the ocean, but which no one has any hope of reclaiming.

So pretty cool.  I did not know that.  Anyway, I was going to say that that was not the point of this post, but clearly it is given the title.  (Insert emoticon with tongue sticking out 😛 )

The unfortunate part of the day, after a lovely hike along the beach and a good walk back up to the car, we sat down on a bench and Adrian put down his phone.  How both of us missed the fact that he left it on the bench is beyond me.  But we realized it after we drove away and then zoomed back crossing our fingers that someone had been thoughtful and kind enough to do the right thing.  But it was gone.  We tried calling it but they did not answer and then turned it off.  I even texted it and WhatsApp’d it to no success.  And no attempt was made to get it back to him.

That really pisses me off.  I don’t know who in this day and age does not recognize the importance of a mobile phone in a person’s life and would not be a good enough person to do everything in their power to get it back to the owner.  Although clearly there are still lots of selfish narrow-minded individuals out there.  It is not hard to do the right thing or to figure out from someone’s mobile phone some connection.  So to whoever took it and ruined our day, may you suffer the negative karma attached to that.

Anyway, putting that aside, we had a great time and I beat the pants off Adrian in pool … but I am not competitive.  (ha ha!)