The Dreaded Sargasso Weed.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 21 August 1914, Page 2

The Dreaded Sargasso Weed.

Some 800 miles south-east of the Bermudas and almost, in a line with the Gulf of Mexico lies that great tract of floating weeds known to centuries of navigators as the Sargasso Sea. Many storms have swept the wide Atlantic since Christopher Columbus was involved for a fortnight in what Ovieda called "the seaweed meadows," but the gulf of years is bridged by the report just made to the Imperial Merchant Service Guild by the captain of the Sunderland steamer Thistletor. This vessel, bound from Norfolk, Virginia, to Rio de Janeiro, fell in with the Gulf-weed on May 2nd and was not clear of it until May 10th. Day after day the ship passed through large patches of the weed spread all over the ocean as far as the eye could see. while the temperature of the water rose 20 degrees. Between the patches the surface of the sea was covered with millions of small jellyfish and "Portuguese men-o'-wo.r," and it soeined (to be a regular breeding-ground for myriads of flying fish. The thistletor, of course, could only

'liave touched the fringe of the Sargasso proper, otherwise the dense network of weed would have vety soon choked up the screw and rendered it useless. Observations mide ■by the captain, however, prove conclusively that this prolific weed, which scientists surmise was originally torn from the shores of Florida and the Bahama Islands by the force of the Gulf Stream, lives and while floating freely out !on the ocean wastes. As this pro- : cess is continually going on, it naturally follows that these meadows of seaweed are rapidly growing ever wdenser and more compact, and it is practically certain that were it possible to penetrate to the centre of this unnavigable sea, it would be found that the weed extends below the surface to a very considerable depth.

It must not be imagined, however, j that this uncanny Sea of Sargasso ; consists merely of a vast, unbroken area of. marine vegetation, for in I its course the Gulf Stream collects upon its surface all manner of flotsam and jetsam, of which by far the major, portion comes to eventual moorings amid the floating meadows of seaweed. Vast boles of arboreal giants from the immemorial forests that fringe the mighty Amazon are carried out to sea by its powerful current to find lodgment at last in the gulf-weed's vVeb ; Honduras contributes huge trunks of logwood, and orange trees drift, from the shady groves of Florida. Here and there the surface is broken by the mangled remains of Bermudan boats and canoes, and debris of all sorts, representing the proud works of man, that the Atlantic has smitten in its moments of wrath. Fast in the grip 01' the tenacious Gulfweed also may be descried the skeletons of ships that belonged, perchance, to the merchant adventurers of years long gone by ; they and the gaunt outlines of their ribs are densely draped with vine-like arabesques of weed. And not skeletons alone, 'for the greedy tentacles of^ the relentless Sargasso have enfolded themselves around many a

derelict vessel and held it firmly hostage. Well for the mariner, moreover, that it is so ; for, shrouded thickly in the all-embracing weed and manned by a motley crew of weird marine monsters as it is, it is at least safe and harmless amid the seaweed meadows, instead of drifting at large to menace the lives of seaborne travellers.

Many curious legends have arisen among sailormen concerning these strange seaweed meadows where the Atlantic dumps all its floating rubbish, but the actual conditions of things prevailing in its central recesses are likely to remain unknown unless some adventurous aviator sails his aeroplane across", for no other feasible method presents itself of penetrating the inner fastnesses of the mysterious Sargasso. jSTo sailing vessel could make progress far against the dense masses of weed, which encompass and hold fast directly the wind failed, or she came to a stop. -A steam-propelled ship would be equally impotent to force a passage, for, as previously stated, her screw would become clogged with the weed and rendered ineffective. The enigma of the Sargasso is likely to remain unsolved, therefore, for if the network of w*eed is too dense for a boat to cut a way to the centre it is on the other hand not sufficiently solid to allow a man to walk upon its surface. And whosoever fell into it would inevitably be lost, for he would not have the remotest chance of swimming for his life !

Here, then, is a. virgin field of exploration for the adventurous aero —or, better still, hydroplanist.— "Weekly Telegraph."