Albatross the albatrosses by Linnaeus, references the mythical metamorphosis of the companions of the Greek warrior Diomedes into birds. Finally, the name for the order, Procellariiformes, comes from the Latin word "procella" meaning "a violent wind" or "a storm". Albatrosses have been described as "the most legendary of all birds". An albatross is a central emblem in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge; a captive albatross is also a metaphor for the "poète maudit "in a poem by Charles Baudelaire. The albatross metaphor is derived from the Coleridge poem; someone bearing a burden or facing an obstacle
Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the ministry, and gave a probationary sermon in High Street church on Sunday, 14 January 1798. William Hazlitt, a Unitarian minister's son, was in the congregation, having walked from Wem to hear him. Coleridge later visited Hazlitt and his father at Wem but within a day or two of preaching he received a letter from Josiah Wedgwood II, who had offered to help him out of financial difficulties with an annuity of £150 (approximately £13,000 in today's money) per year on condition he give up his ministerial career. Coleridge accepted this, to the disappointment of Hazlitt who hoped to