Home » Poems » John Anderson » Mood Swings Flotsam Jetsam

Notes About The Poem

According to maritime law, “jetsam” is the term for anything that is cast overboard or otherwise jettisoned from a distressed ship intentionally, either to lighten the cargo load or as some other reaction to a problem the vessel has encountered.

“Flotsam,” on the other hand, is defined as the debris that is unintentionally left behind after a shipwreck, which can include portions of the ship itself, as well as cargo or other items that float to the surface after a ship sinks.

Maritime law distinguishes flotsam from jetsam by the presence of intent to remove material from the ship: Basically, if it ended up in the water on purpose, it's jetsam. Everything else floating around the site of the incident is flotsam. This is an important distinction, as some countries have very particular guidelines for how each type of debris should be handled—and who takes ownership of it—that are determined by the category of debris. Laws in the UK once dictated that recovered jetsam be returned to the owner of the vessel, while flotsam became the property of the government.

Listen to poem:

Mood Swings Flotsam Jetsam

Each dawn's debris sort
of wreckage from day before
yields jetsam just junked 
and flotsam break-up relics.
On the beach who can tell which?

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