Physalia pelagica was derisively named the Portuguese man-of-war by the English in the eighteenth century, when the once powerful Portuguese Navy had gone into a state of decline. The designation is a strange one, for small as it is, the Portuguese man-of-war can be deadly. Actually not an individual animal but a colony of highly specialized polyps, it has tentacles up to fifty feet long which discharge a substance that has painfully stung, paralyzed and even killed swimmers coming into contact with them. With its red sail-like crest it does resemble a little ship, but either afloat or beached it should be more an object inspiring respect than ridicule.