Ridged with the gradual oceanity
of aetheric tendrils of blue flame
mingled with salamandrous ions
Well, in consultation with my Hittite/English Dictionary, new and abridged (the same edition D-Pend uses), this is a description of St. Elmo's Fire and therefore, the fourth picture.
The potential hole in this otherwise airtight theory, of course, is the word, "salamandrous" ... lizard-like ... which would make little sense in the context of the mast of a sailing ship. But that's if you take the word literally.
But we're talking about D-Pend here. When the Hell is anything ever literal ... including his use of the word, "literal?" Could not "salamandrous" be synonymous with "multi-colored?" Or, perhaps, D-Pend used it because of it's striking similarity to the Hittite word for "glowing"... "klarplatumicoa."
Quill