“What’s flotsam?”
Flotsam and Jetsam by John Singer Sargent, 1908. (Image courtesy of the Portland Museum of Art in Maine)
On a road trip somewhere in the Midwest, The Eight-Year-Old asked:
“What’s flotsam?”
Daddyo, authoritatively: “Jetsam’s brother.”
I was all set to file this under Funny Stuff My Husband Says and use it as a quick and easy Saturday post, but then my husband had to ruin it.
Daddyo, irritatingly: “But I bet they have technically different meanings. Mommyo, why don’t you look it up?”
The Eight-Year-Old, eagerly: “Yes, Mommyo, you should ask Caterpickles.”
My ship was sunk.
What’s the difference between flotsam and jetsam?
Flotsam and jetsam are related, in that they are both types of ship-related ocean litter.
- Flotsam is the floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo.
- Jetsam is similar, but instead of being the carcass of what’s left after the shipwreck, it’s all the stuff the crew tossed overboard in hopes of avoiding the wreck in the first place. Jetsam can include parts of the ship, its cargo, or its equipment.
Flotsam and jetsam have a legal difference too — and it’s pretty important
Presumably the assumption is that in the case of flotsam, the original owner had no choice in its loss. But the owner (in the person of the ship’s crew) discarded jetsam willingly in the hopes of saving something more valuable.
The terms “flotsam” and “jetsam” are only used for things are still floating. Once the stuff sinks it’s called something else entirely.
If the offloaded cargo, ship parts, or equipment sink to the ocean floor they stop being flotsam or jetsam and start being either lagan (or ligan) if they can be reclaimed, or derelict, if they can’t.
Confusingly, the term derelict is also sometimes used to refer to abandoned ships left to drift on the sea. Which I would think would make them flotsam. But I guess that’s why I don’t practice maritime law.
Related Links:
- What are flotsam and jetsam? (NOAA)
CATERPICKLES 
2 Responses to ““What’s flotsam?””
Of course: jetsam – from jettison. Just clicked with me. The other stuff floats but is not thrown out.
Love,
Mom
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[…] Eight-Year-Old, like most of us, is fascinated on some level with the Titanic. After last week’s discussion of the differences between flotsam, jetsam, lagan, and derelicts, she naturally wanted to know why no one has ever tried to haul up the […]
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