First Across the Atlantic : 115 



Even if we do not assume a radical change in climate the Norse 

 voyagers to America were not meeting the terrible conditions that 

 some readers conjure up for them. It is often supposed that in sailing 

 westward they would be meeting persistent head winds out of the 

 west such as English sailors later encountered when they wished to 

 sail from the Channel to New York. Actually in the latitudes of 

 Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Labrador summer winds are light 

 and variable and often favorable to a westward passage. Daylight for 

 some months is almost continuous, there being only a few hours of 

 twilight darkness. They had the benefits of the westward flowing 

 Irminger Current which is a recurving element of the Gulf Stream 

 system. It would benefit them by its flow on certain courses but 

 chiefly it aided them by tempering and warming the Atlantic climate. 



Beyond Iceland the Viking voyagers would have benefited directly 

 from various ocean current systems. It is now supposed that in those 

 days the east coast of Greenland was relatively free of ice and that the 

 earliest crossings were made directly westward with first landings 

 on the Greenland east coast. Later as ice increased these landings in 

 east Greenland were abandoned. In any case ships approaching the 

 Greenland coast would be easily carried south by the East Greenland 

 Current. Keeping sufficiently near shore they would have no difficulty 

 rounding Cape Farewell, the southern tip of Greenland, for the cur- 

 rent itself rounds the Cape and continues flowing to the north as the 

 West Greenland Current. 



Along the west coast from Farewell almost as far north as Disko 

 the voyagers in summer would find icefree harbors and open land 

 ashore and an almost incredible wealth of life in the sea. Along this 

 shore in addition to the West Greenland Current there is an upwell- 

 ing of cold deeper waters bringing with them foodstuffs and chemi- 

 cals for the plankton; the plankton and smaller creatures in turn pro- 

 viding luxuriant fare for the greater fishes and the -seals, the walrus, 

 the whales. This combination of currents of harbors and of life in 

 the sea made the Norse seek this shore and its waters as a place for 

 settlement as before them it had attracted the Eskimo. Later, Hans 

 Egede sought it out as did the missionaries and settlers who followed 

 him, and over the centuries there were drawn here also the whalers 

 and sealers of many countries. 



Again as the Norse ships left west Greenland and approached 

 Labrador they would pick up the Labrador Current and this would 

 help to carry them south to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and 



