, 1891-09-15
DEADLY UNDERTOW
AND THE FATAL CLASP OF THE EVER
sTEALTHY "sEA PUss.D

now Iney May BE MISUNDERSTANDING
That Surf Bsthers Should Heed.
The many deaths by drowning on the
New Jersey coast have caused a great
deal of discussion. Some attribute the
loss of young Brokaw to the presence of
a "sea puss;" others say it was simply
an ordinary undertow, while the con
sentative claim that it was neither.
The majority of people do not know
the difference between a tide and a cur
rent, but believing the words to be syn
onymous, use them Unfortunately. A
tide is the alternate rising and falling of
the waters caused by the unequal attrac-
ton of the sun and moon, while a cur
rent is q moving of a mass of water
that may or may not rise, but has only
one direction. Currents are sometimes
produced by strong winds, but generally
by a difference of level and the confgu-
ration of the bottom.
The first thing to avoid is the under
tow, which is always strongest in water
about waist deep. If the bather would
venture out further or remain nearer the
shore he would escape the strength of the
undertow. h disturbance of the water
Is confined to no particular locality,
though it is stronger in some places than
in Others, owing to the trend of the
shore. 1t is caused by the rushing out
of the water under the surface after be-
ing thrown up on the beach, and is al
ways strongest in an angry surf. One
may judge of the strength of the under
tow by the height Of the waves as they
break and the velocity which they i'm
part to objects along the beach.
The explanation of the undertow is
simple. The approaching waves have a
velocity depending upon the strength of
the wind. So have the receding ones,
but this is due to gravity and depends
upon the angle of inclination of the
beach. The breakers, therefore, with
their greater velocity, run over the top
of the waves. while the receding water
keeps below.
THE A SEA PUss."
Eddies are simply partial currents
that take an opposite direction to the
parent stream, and are produced entirely
by the trend of the shore. Wherever
there is a recession Of the beach or
pocket" as it is called, there will be
found eddies. They are of no conse-
quence, however, and of little or no Ian
ger to the bather.
We now come to a disturbance of the
water, the very name of which causes a
panic among bathers. The "sea puss'
has 40 place in physical geography; in
fact, no scientist has deigned to notice
this phepcmenol. Webster does not
even give a definition Of it In his I'M
abridged dictionary. In The Century it
is defined as "a swirl of the undertow
making a small whirlpool on the surface
of the water; a local outward current
dangerous to bathers. Also called sea
pouce and sea purse"
How the "sea puss" is formed no scien-
fist states, but in all probability it is due
to the same causes as the whirlpool, to
which it is closely allied. When two
currents, with different sets and drifts,
meet at a point in the water, the result
ant is a motion of rotation, with a diam
eter and velocity depending upon the
resistance with which 1t meets. The
whirlpool or .'sea puss" is given a mo-
ton of translation, which 1t takes from
the stronger of the two currents. Now
there is often a slight southerly current
setting parallel to the shore along the
Jersey and Long Island coasts. This
sometimes meets another setting to the
westward and at the union of the two is
formed the ''sea puss," which move
slowly to the southwark and eastward.
OCEAN CURRENTS.
This westward current nay be due to
strong winds, or to a storm many miles
out at sea- Far away to the eastward,
the water is piled up and driven land
ward, where it is smooth and undis-
turbed- In this way it Is possible that
the ''sea puss" may be formed under
cloudless skies and in unruffled water.
Should a bather be caught in the swirl,
it Is useless to attempt to swim against
it. The wiser plan would be to keep his
head above water and swim with it,
gradually nearing the edge until he
is out of its unwelcome radius Of action.
Professor Maury, formerly a lieuten-
ant in the United States navy, attributes
offshore currents to q difference in the
temperature and density of sea water at
different places.
Another proof of the presence of sub
marine currents is the fact that in all
deep sea ~soundings the line has never
yet ceased to run out even after the lead
has reached the bottom. Should 1t be
held fast in the boat it will invariably
part, showing when two or three miles
of it are out that the u~ndercurrents are
sweeping against the blight Of 1t with
what seamen call a "swigging force"
and that NJ Irvine, however strong, has
yet been able to Withstand this.
Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, when
in command of her majesty's steam
frigate F~riedcichsteen in the Mediter-
ranean, also made some important dis
coveries in this direction. In the archi-
pelago he found the counter currents SO
strong that they often prevented the
steering of his ship, In n instance
when the water was very clear he low
cred the lead with colored shreds of
bunting attached to every yard. These
pointed in different directions all round
the compass.-W. Nephew King, Jr., in
New York Recorder.