Sargasso Sea

“ As I know now, Bowers over-estimated the size of this strange island of sea-waifs and sea-weed by nearly one-half; and he was partly wrong as to the making of it: for the Sargasso Sea is not where any current ends, but lies in that currentless region of the ocean that is found to the east of the main Gulf Stream and to the south of the branch which sweeps across the North Atlantic to the Azores ”

“ Death, which ends all in Sargasso, as elsewhere, was so familiar to these people that tokens of sorrow were never worn. They met it fearlessly and without protest, believing that when their bodies were committed to their beloved mother, the Sea, the joys of eternal rest began. Children were taught that mermaids met the sinking bodies and tenderly bore them to coral grottoes, where they rested forever in peace under the watchful guardianship of the Greatest of all Kantoons, who rules the universe as he does the Sargasso Sea, and who never more would summon them to duty or to care. ”

“ The fair weather might continue almost indefinitely. Days and weeks, even months, might pass, and I still might live on there in bodily safety; but so far as the world was concerned I was dead already—being fairly caught in the slow eddying current which was carrying my hulk steadily and hopelessly into the dense wreck-filled centre of the Sargasso Sea. ”

“ Three days from New York, at Gray’s urgent solicitation, I altered the course of the Caribas. After reaching longitude 40 I steered to the southeast and held that direction until the morning of the fifth day, when we began to sight many derelicts. My guest understood the purport of this quite as well as I did. He knew we were nearing the Sargasso Sea, that great assemblage of seaweed and floating hulks that for centuries has been accumulating in the eternal calm of the mid-Atlantic. ”

“ Closer and closer came the whirling water-spout, surrounded by columns of misty spray and accompanied by the fierce wind. The sea was agitated with violent eddies that rocked the ship to her centre every moment; and, above the shriek of the constant squalls tearing through the rigging, and the splash of the boiling water at the foot of the terrible cloud column, we could distinguish a peculiar hoarse sucking noise, as if the whole herd of Neptune’s horses were drinking their fill, and letting us know about it, too! ”

“ Almost as soon as the solar orb sank down below the horizon, which it did just before we turned away from the shore, the masts and spars of the Josephine, and each rope of her rigging, were all lit up by the sinking rays of light, their last despairing flash before their extinguishment in the ocean. At the same time, the hull of the vessel and every projecting point in the coast-line of the bay stood out in relief against the bright emerald-green tint of the sea. A moment afterwards, the darkness of night descended suddenly upon us like a vast curtain let down from heaven. ”

“ Next they hung out, piece after piece, all they could spare of the rotten bedding, until that too was exhausted. Then they found, in a locker of their boat, a flag of Free Cuba, which they decided not to waste, but to hang out only when a sail appeared.
But no sail appeared, and the craft, buffeted by gales and seas, drifted eastward, while the days became weeks, and the weeks became months. Twice she entered the Sargasso Sea—the graveyard of derelicts—to be blown out by friendly gales and resume her travels. ”

“ This observation, and the reflection growing out of it that the deeper I went into the Sargasso Sea the older must be the craft bedded in it—since that great dead fleet is recruited constantly by new wrecks drifting in upon its outer edges from all ways seaward—put into my head what seemed to me to be a very reasonable plan for finding my way back to the Hurst Castle again; or, at least, to some other newly come in hulk on which there would be fresh water and sound food. ”

“ Long anxiety had told on our heroes, and even on Teenie and Sister Leona, and both the latter were thinner in face than they ought to have been, and had lost something of the bloom that should dwell for ever on the cheeks of childhood or of youth.
But from the very day the Sea of Sargasso was left behind, things took a change for the better. Every one began to regain health and spirits, and each day that dawned took their thoughts farther and farther away from that nightmare dream of two years, spent in the midst of the dreariest sea in the wide, wide world. ”

“ 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 [90] 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. Under the weight of it the ship should have sunk to the bottom. Instead it remained just where it was, thirty feet below the surface.
"Try the screw again," suggested Andy, "Maybe we can back out." ”

“ Henderson.
"The Sargasso Sea?" repeated Mark, in a questioning tone. "What is that?"
"It is a great sea of grass," replied the captain. "An immense ocean of sea weed, that sometimes floats on the surface and sometimes a little below. The stalks or blades of the grass are very long and closely matted together."
"Is there any danger?" asked Andy in some alarm.
"Very much," answered the professor quietly. "A ship, once fairly entangled in the grass or sea weed, seldom gets out. ”

“ The sun was near setting, but as I came on the deck my back was toward the sunset and I saw only its red light touching the soft swell of the weed-covered sea extending far before me, and the same red light shimmering in the mist and caught up more strongly on a bank of low-lying clouds. ”

“ If the sea runs “mountain high” outside, its force is broken by the great blanket of sod that for thousands of miles rests upon its surface. So light and buoyant are these small canoes, rarely exceeding nine feet in length, that if one of them is swamped, the two rowers, treading water at the bow and at the stern, lift the boat, bottom upward, above the surface, reverse it, and while one of the crew holds an end of the little craft, the other member climbs into his seat, and, paddle in hand, steadies the boat until his companion resumes his place. The Sargassons have no fear of an upset. ”

“ The wide waters which are banked up to the windward of the West India Islands, and cause the wide tide-rips, set mostly to the westward48 into the Caribbean Sea through the passages south of Guadeloupe, while the northern portion of the raised waters set mostly toward the north, and thus form the eastern boundary of the Gulf Stream, and comprise the inner circle of the great current that encircles the Sargasso Sea. ”

“ Under the Sargasson code, each Community is a law unto itself. If the crew wished to have me rule over them no influence could prevent me from attaining that dignity. Had I already been Fidette’s husband, of course I would have become the commander without question. [Pg 118]
Rebellion was rampant throughout the Sargasso Sea, and although there had not been any signs of mutiny aboard my own vessel, I felt that if I insisted upon becoming captain of the ship it would be fomented. ”

“ Up to now it had been a beautifully bright morning, the sky without a scrap of vapour to obscure its lucent expanse, and the sea lit up with golden sunshine that made it appear bluer somehow or other; but, even while Captain Miles and Mr Marline were speaking, a low bank of cloud arose along the eastern horizon, and this, spreading gradually up towards the zenith, soon shut out the half-risen sun and his rays, casting a sombre tinge at the same time on the ocean below. ”

“ Aye, although born an African, his heart was truer than that of many a European, whose complexion is only a trick of colour!
During the night we were all silent; but, when the sun rose in the east, flooding the sea with the rosy tint of dawn, hope came back to us and our tongues were unloosed—the more especially as the force of the waves had considerably lessened, hardly a scrap of spray being now washed over us, while the blows of the billows against the side of the ship were no longer heard. ”

“ As far as my sight would carry through the soft golden haze I saw only weed-covered water, broken here and there by a bit of wreckage or by a little open space on which the pale sunshine gleamed. A very gentle swell was running, giving to the ocean the look of some strange sort of meadow with tall grass swaying evenly in an easy wind. The broken boat had moved a good deal and already was well to the south of me; showing me that there was motion in that apparent stillness, and compelling me to believe that my hulk—though less rapidly than the boat—was moving southward too. ”

“ Well, here, the Gulf Stream is the circular motion of our great basin, while the Sargasso Sea is the centre, and it is in consequence of the continual current circling round it that the weed stops there in such quantities—as you will see most likely in a day or two, when the ocean gets rested after the great storm we have had, which has somewhat put things out of their proper trim. ”

“ In the meanwhile the craft had moved slowly southward on the surface, where no very great speed was possible.
Toward evening, on the seventh day after their adventure with the Sargasso Sea, the travelers closed the man hole, and with air tanks well filled slowly sank beneath the waves. Supper was eaten at a depth of sixty feet, and after the meal, while Washington was washing the dishes, the others sat and looked out through the bull's-eyes at the big fishes which floated past. ”

“ Chapter 35 The Sargasso Sea
THE Nautilus didn't change direction. For the time being, then, we had to set aside any hope of returning to European seas. Captain Nemo kept his prow pointing south. Where was he taking us? I was afraid to guess.
That day the Nautilus crossed an odd part of the Atlantic Ocean. No one is unaware of the existence of that great warm–water current known by name as the Gulf Stream. ”

“ The clockwise circulation of the North Atlantic leaves a large central area between the recirculation region and the Canary Current which has no well-defined currents. This area is known as the Sargasso Sea, from the large quantities of sargasso or gulfweed encountered there. That branch of the South Equatorial Current which curves toward the south off the east coast of South America, follows the coast as the warm, highly-saline Brazil Current, which in some respects resembles a weak Gulf Stream. ”

“ What occurred on this great trip is described in the second book of this series, called “Under the Ocean to the South Pole, or the Strange Cruise of the Submarine Wonder.” In that is told how once more Tom and Bill, with Andy, the boys and Washington, accompanying Professor Henderson, had many thrilling experiences.
They were caught in the grip of the grass of the terrible Sargasso Sea. Monstrous suckers grasped the boat in their powerful arms, and had to be fought off. They were caught in a sea of boiling water and imprisoned between big fields of ice. ”

“ 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. Emily and Grace were very happy together, for everything was new and interesting. They had plenty of employment; for Mrs Davenport, knowing what a sea voyage is, had brought work of all sorts. ”

“ The greater number of competitors gave the right answer—the Dead Sea, the density of the intensely salt water of which is so great that the human body will not sink in it. A good number, however, gave the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic, the remarkable feature there being the presence of an enormous mass of gulf weed. But it is the weeds that are thick there, not the water, and we said, “water so thick.” In the same way the girls who mentioned the Arctic Sea because of the ice should have taken note that we did not speak about “ice so thick.” ”

“ It had evidently been brought down the Amazon in one of the Spring freshets, and had sustained itself, probably for many months, upon the birds, nautili, crayfish and animalculae that gathered upon the branches of the floating trunk.
My audacious plan was to take the Caribas to sea and to trust to encountering a tow. She was the latest and most valuable possession of the Sargassons. She was valued for her enduring qualities far above any other ship they possessed. ”

“ It is our acceptance that many objects and different substances have been brought down by atmospheric disturbance from what—only as a matter of convenience now, and until we have more data—we call the Super-Sargasso Sea; however, our chief interest is in objects that have been shaped by means similar to human handicraft. ”

“ And to that same place, he added, the Stream carried all that was caught in its current—like the spar and the plank floating near us—so that the sea was covered with a thick tangle of the weed in which was held fast fragments of wreckage, and stuff washed overboard, and logs adrift from far-off southern shores, until in its central part the mass was so dense that no ship could sail through it, nor could a steamer traverse it because of the fouling of her screw. ”