United States or Svalbard and Jan Mayen ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But the Sargasso Sea is the graveyard of many a fine vessel." The pumps were set going. Anxiously everyone watched the gage. The pointer never moved, but remained at thirty feet. The Porpoise was caught. "Well, since we can't go up, let us see if we can go down," said the inventor. "Perhaps we can dive under the sea weed." The cocks of the tanks were opened and the water rushed in.
Another impinges on the Hebrides, and is no more recognizable as a current; and the third, the eastern and largest part of the divided stream, makes a wide sweep to the east and south, enclosing the Azores and the deadwater called the Sargasso Sea, then, as the African Current, runs down the coast until, just below the Canary Isles, it merges into the Lesser Equatorial Current, which, parallel to the parent stream, and separated from it by a narrow band of backwater, travels west and filters through the West Indies, making puzzling combinations with the tides, and finally bearing so heavily on the young Gulf Stream as to give to it the sharp turn to the northward through the Florida Channel.
This was their first knowledge of the "Sargasso sea," a curious tract in mid-Atlantic which is always green with floating seaweeds. "The continent we shall find farther on," wrote the confident Admiral. An observation of the sun on the seventeenth proved what had been suspected before, that the needles of the compasses were not pointing precisely to the north.
"I should say so," was Harry's reply, in a sobered tone, "and I suppose scores of other ships have met the same fate." "Undoubtedly," said Ben, "every year vessels sail from the United States and foreign ports that are never heard of again. No accounts of storms are received during their voyages, yet they never reach port; undoubtedly many of them wind up in the graveyard of the Sargasso."
The only object of interest we met with crossing the north-east trades was the passage through the Gulf Stream, or Sargasso Sea, as it is sometimes called. It was curious to find ourselves surrounded by thick masses of seaweed as far as the eye could reach on every side, so that no clear water could be seen for miles away.
The funnel was freshly painted black with a red band at the top. Judging from her appearance, the desertion of the Minnie B had been carefully planned. Yet why desert a new vessel? By what means did the crew leave the schooner, since all her small boats remained? What was their motive in anchoring the Minnie B in the middle of the Sargasso? There appeared to be no easy answer to these questions.
Instead of a sea rover a storekeeper! Instead of romance Sargasso!" and he gestured with his pipe in his hand. "You understand, Louise? That's what I meant when I spoke of the Sargasso Sea t'other day. It was my doom to live in the tideless and almost motionless Sea of Sargasso. "But my mind didn't stay tame ashore," pursued Cap'n Abe.
Sargasso, scattered over the sea in bunches, or trailed curiously along down the wind in narrow lanes, now gathered together in great fields, strange sea-animals, little and big, swimming in and out, the most curious among them being a tiny seahorse which I captured and brought home preserved in a bottle.
In the Pacific there is a collection of the same sort, and people who could not otherwise for want of fuel inhabit some of the islands in that region, are enabled to do so in consequence of the supply of drift-wood it brings them." The ship, soon clear of the Sargasso Sea, glided on proudly, with all sail set below and aloft. The weather was delightful; the passengers constantly on deck.
They bothered the navigators of old, did those Sargasso seas, uncommonly. They are permanent spots, which shift their position so little with the very slight changes in the currents of the sea, that they may be said to be always in the same place.
Word Of The Day