Sentence:  And so we floated. And later some crewmen got to a collapsible lifeboat that had drifted off right-side up, and they were able to raise and lash the steel-framed canvas sides, and then men began to pick the living from the vast <WSD>sargasso</WSD> of bodies, and they found us. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  "Also" '''(Sargasso)''': a confused, tangled mass or situation.