Myth of the Ship-holder. 301 



water farther out, looked like boiling ' rips ' and was quite 

 distinct, the outer surface being strongly rippled by the 

 breeze. The roar caused by the dead mass of water which, 

 clinging to the ship, was dragged along through the water 

 outside, was so loud that it might well have been deemed 

 we were in the vicinity of a rapid. 1 do not remember the 

 appearance of the wake, nor, I believe, was there anything 

 remarkable about it. The rudder was of no use; we were 

 forced to handle the ship by means of the sails and our two 

 boats towing from the bow, and thus we proceeded at a 

 speed of one or two knots. 



u In this manner we went on for a couple of hours. All 

 of a sudden, without any known cause, we were set free from 

 the dead-water. The wind had been very steady the whole 

 time, and we had constantly endeavored to keep the ship 

 in the same course. After being freed from the dead-water 

 the ship got headway, and after a while we logged 7 knots, 

 going close to the wind/' 



Captain Kroepelieu's sketch is reproduced, herein as fig. 8 

 (PI. XVII.). Concerning such an appearance as is here 

 shown, Ekman writes : " As the boundary waves (to be 

 described and explained later) follow the vessel, their wave 

 crests and wave hollows remain in an invariable position 

 relative to the vessel. If the wave motion gives to the water 

 at a particular spot a velocity with the vessel, it would 

 appear as though a bulk of water were being dragged along 

 with her, although it is really always a new mass of water 

 which follows the vessel for a short distance. It is exactly 

 analogous to a boat sailing before the Mind with just the 

 same speed as the breaking waves at her side. In the case 

 of dead-water, on the other hand, the illusion will be more 

 complete, because the vessel moves at a slow velocity, and 

 the waves causing the motion of the water are themselves 

 not visible. ' ; 



In perusing the foregoing accounts, the reader cannot 

 have failed to be struck by the capriciousness of the pheno- 

 menon of dead-water, its sudden and seemingly inexplicable 

 appearance, its equally sudden and mysterious disappearance. 

 It may cause a ship gradually to lose speed, or suddenly to 

 be stopped still as if " nailed," " moored,'' or "anchored " to 

 the spot. The ship may gradually re_ai:i her speed or may 

 suddenly speed away "as if a mooring had been cut." 

 Ag;iin, a ship may fall into dead-water while a near neigh- 

 bour but a few cable lengths away may sail on her course 

 without " let or hindrance." 



The instances just quoted, closely, almost precisely, parallel 



