The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-10-22
THE FAMOUS MAELsTkUM.
4 whirlpool In Which the Largest
SteamepR Would Be Helpless.

We sailed through the famous mael-
strom which the ancients believed guards
the entrance to the sublimest beauty of
the fords Of the Lofoden islands and has
furnished SO much material for the mag
nation of the authors of Norwegian leg
endry and modern novelists. 1t is a real
ity. Not one, but several maelstroms ac-
tually exist and any of them will answer
the descriptions given by Victor Hugo,
Jules Verne, Edgar A. Poe and writer's
of lesser fame. The chief and most dam
gerous is an extraordinary whirlpool be-
tween the islands of Moskene and Roest,
near the southern extremity of the Lotto
den archipelago. 1t is called Mosknaes-
Strommen. Another, by the island of
Vaero, called the Saelstrom, is almost as
dangerous.
There are many narrow channels be-
tween the mountains where great vol
umes of water coming from opposite di-
rections meet as the tide flows in and out.
They form temporary whirlpools twice a
day, and during the spring tides or when
the natural currents are accelerated by
heavy western gales passage is impossi-
BILE. No vessel could survive them. Even
whales have been caught and whirled
around until they were dead Between
times these channels look innocent
enough. Even small boats can pass safe
ly through them at the proper time each
day, and the departure of the mail boats
is regulated accordingly, but they have
actually disappeared, being sucked into
the vortex and carried to the bottom to
whirl and whirl and whirl until the wa
tiers are tired and flow away, carrying
the wrecks and bodies of the dead with
them on the undercurrent to emerge miles
and miles distant.
1t is not strange that the ignorant and
superstitious sailors Of the middle ages
attributed this mighty and mysterious ac-
ton of the waters to supernatural power,
and their imaginative minds, always Gre
ating monsters and miracles out of natu-
raj phenomena which they could not I'M
derstand, placed in them an octopus whose
awful arms were always extended to
grasp unwary mariners who were so UNI
fortunate as to come within his reach.
Later writers and more intelligent repre-
scented the maelstrom as a vast caldron in
which the waters revolve with terrific
speed, their centrifugal force extending
long distance and gradually drawing to-
ward the center all who venture within
their power. The mariners struggle and
shrek IN vain. Line monster Is lneAord-
BILE, and when the crisis comes the vessel
springs out of the water and then shoots
suddenly down into the vortex, while the
shrieks of terror and despair are drowned
in the rushing of the hungry torrent and
the bowling of the winds.
The straits are very dangerous, and all
vessels are warned to keep out of them.
The notes upon the charts issued by the
Norwegian photographic Office say that
"when the wind is steady at food and
ebb tide each day the whirlpool is still
for half an hour or more when boats
may then pass through, but half way be-
tween flood and ebb tide the passage be-
comes dangerous, although 1t can be used
by steamers and large vessels when there
is no wind for several hours day. To
ward the height of the tide or when a
gale is blowing the water revolves with
speed of twenty-six miles an hour in
mighty whirlpools in which the largest
steamers would be helpless. Norwegian
Letter in Chicago Herald.