flotsam
Shipwreck's scattered remains
Flotsam is debris floating on water after a shipwreck—cargo, wreckage, or other materials cast overboard or washed away.
In legal and maritime contexts, flotsam technically refers to goods lost accidentally, distinguished from jetsam (deliberately thrown overboard).
The phrase flotsam and jetsam has become a fixed expression for any miscellaneous debris, rubbish, or odds and ends: The garage was full of flotsam and jetsam from decades of neglect.
Figuratively, flotsam can refer to people cast adrift by circumstance: the flotsam of war.
Destroyed remains of something
- detritusLoose waste from decay
- driftwoodSea-delivered shore lumber
- remnantsWhat stays after most goes
- rubbleBroken building fragments
refuse · scrap · junk · discards · litter · garbage · trash · leavings
Destroyed vessel at sea
- salvageRecovering damaged goods
- wreckDestroyed vessel or vehicle
- hulkMassive body or shell
- lifeboatEmergency vessel for survivors
anchor · boathook · marooned · castaway · reef · nautical · seafaring · maritime
Saltwater aquatic plants
- barnaclesShell-armored marine clingers
- kelpLarge brown marine algae
- saltwaterOcean water, chemically speaking
- tidesPeriodic sea-level changes
currents · brine · buoyancy · driftnet · pumice · coconut · message in a bottle · fishing net
wreckage
Destroyed remains of something
rubble · refuse · scrap · junk · discards · litter · garbage · trash · leavings · residue
shipwreck
Destroyed vessel at sea
lifeboat · anchor · boathook · marooned · castaway · reef · nautical · seafaring · maritime · sinking
seaweed
Saltwater aquatic plants
- barnaclesShell-armored marine clingers
- kelpLarge brown marine algae
- saltwaterOcean water, chemically speaking
tides · currents · brine · buoyancy · driftnet · pumice · coconut · message in a bottle · fishing net · rope
adrift
Floating without control
drifter · aimless · wandering · meandering · tumbleweed · nomadic · vagrant · roaming · itinerant · transient
castoffs
Abandoned possessions
remnants · outcasts · forgotten · abandoned · unwanted · marginalized · displaced · refugees · homeless · dispossessed
- seafaringship, sailors, ships, sail, sailor
- beach debrisdriftwood, seashells, shells, marine debris, wreckage
- beachcombingseashell, shells, driftwood, sea glass, sand dollar
- junktrash, garbage, refuse, rubbish, waste
- Nautical Idiomsbatten down the hatches, all hands on deck, smooth sailing, three sheets to the wind, in the same boat
- sea idiomsall at sea, dead in the water, smooth sailing, sink or swim, miss the boat
- flotsam and jetsamWreckage floating after shipwreck