, 1902-12-30
THE SARGASSO SEA
WEIRD TALES TOLD OF 1T ARE
LARGELY IMAGINARY.
Allegation that Its Seaweed Is q Solid
Barrier Against Navigation Is Ludi-
crous-Slisht Foundation fer the
Silly Stories Published.

Probably no portion of the globes
surface has afforded a richer field for
the imaginative writer than the Sar-
gasso sea. that portion of the Atlantic
ocean lying between 16 and SO degrees
north latitude and 80 and 80 degrees
west longitude.
During the recent Spanish-American
war some of the newspaper reporters.
sending their ~imaginations soaring
wildly over the %Sargasso sea. met
stranger visions thar did Milton in
Paradise or Dante in the depths of In
ferno. A Boston daily contained an
article anticipating the naval battle
that occurred at SanII 90. The au.
thor, giving free rein TO his fancy ,
said:
THE battle will be fought on the
northern edge of that strange and
mysterious part of the Atlantic called
the Sargasso sea. 1t is not generally
known that within a weeks sail from
New iork is a vast and tracEless
waste, unexplored by the hardest sail
ors, increased by the stateliest ships,
a monster mass of floating debris,
consisting of growing seaweed. bloom
ing and h~lossOming plants. creeping
and twining vines. a flOat island of
verdure almost as large as the state of
Texas, forming a solid barrier against
navigation. . The Spanish COM
mander will very likely use this mass
OF floating sod to protect his tanks
and rear from attack" 1t is incredi.
bic that a paper would print such ludi.
crous trash that the merest school
child would at once recognize as ut
terly false.
Another Boston daily copied from
the Buffalo Commercial this most alb.
surd account of a barque in passage
from Rosario to Philadelphia during
which it had "a strange experience in
the well known but seldom visited
and much dreaded Sargasso sea.
Nineteen days were spent in a desper.
ate battle with the floating seaweed
and profuse flora. . We were
actually driven back by its force.
Some of the creepers we're at least
100 feet long, and they seized upon
the bowsprit, spars. davits and every.
thing into which they could entangle
themselves"
Any child who ever saw the ocean
would naturally reason that it bears
on no part of its surface blooming
and blossoming plants" The Sargas.
SO sea differs In no wise from any 9th.
err part of the Atlantic, excepting tina,
1t is so surrounded by currents that
the alga known as S%argassum bac.
cifernm floats here in somewhat
greater quantities than elsewhere. 1t
is also a section Of the ocean lying
without the range of constant trade
winds, so that sailing vessels are
sometimes liable TO become becalmed.
and n can well realize that a carpet
of seaweed Upon the surface of
the water, when there Is no
wind to fill the sails, will tend
to somewhat impede a ships
progress. But "a solid barrier against
navigation" the slender seaweed is
not, for, Notwithstanding the authori.
ties quoted, through the Sargasso sea
lies the southern passage from Europe
to America for sailing vessels in win.
ter. An intimate acquaintance of the
writer, a worthy old sea captain, says
that in his umerou voyages across
that "unexplored. trackless waste" he
never could have experienced the diff.
ficulties described unless he had
sailed his vessel bottom upwards.