Ezra Pound had Eliot remove the first 82 lines of Death by Water
Briefly, they describe a sailor on shore and then a ocean voyage where disaster after disaster strikes. The boat ends up running into some ice floes and sinking.
The lines just prior to those of Phlebas the Phoenician are:
[...]
And dead ahead we saw, where sky and sea should meet,
A line, a white line, a long white line,
A wall, a barrier, towards which we drove.
My God man theres bears on it.
Not a chance. Home and Mother.
Wheres a cocktail shaker, Ben, heres plenty of cracked ice.
And if Another knows, I know I know not,
Who only know that there is no more noise now.
Citation: "The Facsimile" pp. 62-69