He said that polo 's description of the mongol fleet did not square with the remains of ships that the team had excavated in japan , as he had written of ships with five masts , while those which had been found had only three .
But other times , the winds whip together into a black anvil storm that blooms through the depths of the troposphere , with a luminous violet glow gathering around ship masts and airplane wings - sailors call this st. elmo 's fire .
