(1) Everybody knows nowadays that a corposant is nothing whatever but an electrical phenomenon, and therefore merely an indication that the atmosphere is surcharged with electricity.(2) Castor and Pollux were also the names given by Roman sailors to St. Elmo's Fire, or the corposant phenomenon, when the flame effect on the mast of a ship appeared double.(3) The most stunning demonstration of its unearthly spell occurs late in Pequod's ill-fated voyage, when the ship is illuminated by an eerie outburst of corposants in the midst of a violent squall.(4) Seeing St. Elmo's Fire, jolly Stubb changed to pleading Stubb: u2018The corposants have mercy on us all!u2019(5) During a typhoon in the Sea of Japan, the ship is torn of her canvas and the masts come aglow with the corposants , St Elmo's Fire, a source of deep superstition to sailors, who believed them to be a portentious omen, u2018God's burning fingeru2026 laid upon the shipu2019.
