Reversed Whirlpool

The Atlantic Ocean last week thrust another puzzle at seafaring man. Over the Georges Banks, where haddock, cod and mackerel run and the seabottom is in many spots but 12 ft. deep, a whirlpool appeared. Whirlpools, whether in the ocean like the anciently famed & feared Maelstrom west of Norway, or in rivers as below Niagara Falls, so far as man has ever known swirl towards a centre.

The Georges Banks whirlpool was swirling away from its centre. Charting the Banks for the U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey, U. S. S. Hydrographer bumped into the strange revolving current, was thrown off its course. Captain William Edward Parker tried to drive the Hydrographer through the whirlpool. It balked him. Next week he intends to anchor a buoy at the fringe of the phenomenon and with that as a marker work his way through from the opposite side.

Explanation of the reversed whirlpool probably lies in the contour of the Banks. The ocean floor there is made up of gullies and balks, through and against which ocean currents rush.

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