They might have been sirens calling eerily to lost sailors.
Anthropologists believed they were a mixture of races drawn from a thousand miles all around, lost sailors and adventurers, prospectors and rogues, converging over centuries on the coral shores to form a people in the jungle.
In that mental picture, the orange-colored lights of my porch were like a lighthouse, guiding a lost sailor.
Casualties were light on both sides; Révolutionnaire lost five men killed and four wounded, including Thévenard who had suffered minor wounds, while Artois was the only British ship engaged, losing two sailors and a lieutenant of Royal Marines killed and five men wounded.
In the battle on June 29 off the west coast, South Korea's navy lost five sailors and North Korea is thought to have lost 13 men.
In 1988 the two sides clashed in the Spratlys, with Vietnam again coming off worse, losing about 60 sailors.
Believing his commander to be dead, Lieutenant John Edwards assumed command and had the bodies thrown overboard in an effort to prevent his sailors losing morale from the death of their captain.
If confirmed lost, the sailor would be the fourth American death in the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Russell: Hey Dad, Don't know if Mom shared what I wrote, but this week has been really tough, we lost a sailor over the side in the middle of nowhere, and searched intently for two days, we had aircraft, another ship and helos, but to no avail.
