fenkmaster said:
I don't know why it was ever considered haunted...as of July 31, as far as I know it was pretty freaking awesome!
(Just a chance to show everyone that I
have traveled before.)
Right up until the primacy of steamships, the Atlantic Trade was controlled by the Canaries Current West and Gulf Stream back route. This is possibly the most pronounced circulation in any ocean in the world. Yet it was pretty much unknown scientifically until Benjamin Franklin outlined it in the late 1700's, although it was common knowledge among seamen.
Part of the misconception which sailors had about it was that it was in fact a giant eddy, becoming more and more pronounced as it spiraled in until some said it ran into a giant, but somewhat motionless, whirlpool in the middle. This was the "Sargasso Sea" an area between the wind belts, where becalmed ships were marooned forever, rotting endlessly in thick mats of seaweed on a sea never disturbed by wind. The Ancient Mariner is set there.
Bermuda was roughly in the center of this. In actual fact it is, I believe, in the thick of the Gulf Stream, which does not eddy in this fashion but the sailors did not know this (though the Captains pretty much did) and so thought themselves doomed if they saw it.
I wonder if any storylines on Lost have any relation to the sea tales of Bermuda