NORTH ATLANTIC 75 



playground that it is for innumerable small-boat sailors. In fact, 

 there is probably no better or safer cruising ground for small yachts 

 anywhere in the world than between New York and Nova Scotia, which 

 would be equally true to the southward were safe anchorages as 

 numerous there and located as close together. The contrast in this 

 respect between the east coast of the United States and the west coast 

 of Europe is considerable, for while the ocean is at its smoothest there, 

 too, in summer, the sea runs high for as much as 12 or 14 percent of 

 the time even then, not only along western Ireland and western Scot- 

 land in the north, but also along the Iberian Peninsula to the south- 

 ward, and 5 to 6 percent of the time in the intervening waters of the Bay 

 of Biscay, as well as off southern Britain. And there is a correspond- 

 ing contrast in the frequency with which the sea is reported as 

 less than 2 to 3 feet high along the United States coast (about 60 to 81 

 percent) , on the one hand, and along the coast of western Europe from 

 Spain to Scotland (about 33 to 55 percent), on the other. In fact, one 

 must sail northward as far as the coast of Newfoundland to find sea 

 conditions on the American side of the Atlantic comparable to those 

 along Spain and Portugal, or in British waters. Yachtsmen, in par- 

 ticular, are well acquainted with this difference in the prevailing state 

 of the sea in the two sides of the North Atlantic in midlatitudes, and 

 so are marine architects, for racing craft must be designed for maxi- 

 mum speed in rougher water in Europe than in the United States. 



The Gulf of St. Lawrence is of interest in this connection, for while 

 the sea is reported "low" almost as often there (73 percent) as it is even 

 off the northeast coast of South America, seas higher than 8 feet are 

 also comparatively frequent there (9 percent) ; this agrees with com- 

 mon report (with our own experiences, too) that the Gulf in summer is 

 either pleasantly smooth or decidedly rough. 



The frequency distribution for swells of different heights over the 

 North Atlantic Ocean in summer recalls that for seas. It is only to 

 the northward of about latitude 50° N. that swells higher than 12 feet 

 are reported for August with a frequency as great as 20 percent, while 

 the most extensive area where the swell is described as "low" in more 

 than 60 percent of the reports for that month is along the belt of 

 variable winds in midlatitudes. But the differences in detail between 

 the distribution of swells and of seas are enough to call for some dis- 

 cussion. Thus, a high swell is reported with 9 to 20 percent frequency 

 in August from Newfoundland right across the Atlantic to the coast 

 of Europe (Scotland to southern Spain) , where a high sea is decidedly 

 less common ; also thence southward in a continuous tongue along the 

 coast of Africa about to the latitude of Cape Verde, where high seas 

 in equal frequency are confined to a much less extensive pool between 

 the vicinity of the Canary Islands and the vicinity of Cape Blanco. 



