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The most famous whirlpool in the world is a fake!

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:37:45 -0000
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

BlankAs you know, at the turn of the tide, the waters confined between the
Faroe and Lofoten Islands rush out with irresistible violence. They form a
vortex from which no ship has ever been able to escape. Monstrous waves race
together from every point of the horizon. They form a whirlpool aptly called
"the ocean's navel," whose attracting power extends a distance of fifteen
kilometers. It can suck down not only ships but whales, and even polar bears
from the northernmost regions.

This was where the Nautilus had been sent accidentally-- or perhaps
deliberately--by its captain. It was sweeping around in a spiral whose
radius kept growing smaller and smaller. The skiff, still attached to the
ship's plating, was likewise carried around at dizzying speed. I could feel
us whirling. I was experiencing that accompanying nausea that follows such
continuous spinning motions. We were in dread, in the last stages of sheer
horror, our blood frozen in our veins, our nerves numb, drenched in cold
sweat as if from the throes of dying! And what a noise around our frail
skiff! What roars echoing from several miles away! What crashes from the
waters breaking against sharp rocks on the seafloor, where the hardest
objects are smashed, where tree trunks are worn down and worked into "a
shaggy fur," as Norwegians express it!

This is of course the moment in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when the
Nautlius gets dragged into the Lofoten maelstrom, however an edition of the
Mythbusters programme screened today has proven that for the Naltiuis to be
sunk in the maelstrom, it would need to be rotating at no less than 990m/s
(2,227½ mph) which is some 100 times faster than the strongest naturally
occuring whirlpool.

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Received on Tue 29 Jan 2008 - 15:38:13 IST

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