It’s a legend, an icon, an ocean to which sailors often refer to as if it was a person - a kind of majestically evil transcendent figure, essentially known for its (his?) dark side. Below 35° of latitude South, ‘the Indian’ displays a chaos-prone personality, a tendency to throw tantrums, to give a beating to any vessel caught in the crossfire of its opposing waves. Famous for its conflicting sea movements, the Indian is known and consequently dreaded for its boat-breaking capabilities.

Having feared for her life in ‘his’ waters, French racer Isabelle Autissier went as far as writing ‘him’ a letter, complaining about his attitude after a particularly rough passage… “I know that on the scale of the thousands of years during which you let the albatrosses caress you, the little decade I spent with you should not be of great significance, yet I watched you, feared or cursed you, and just like an old lover I have the feeling of knowing everything about you, of being able to interpret the slightest mood change (…) I paid for your unfair outbursts. You stole a boat from me, you almost took my friends, you made me cold, you scared and hurt me (…) Yet I don’t even hold a grudge, I only want to keep the memory of your grandeur, the invisible wake of your birds, the sudden glow of a cloud during a sunny spell, the feline movement of your swell, the little gems of pure happiness taken on your broad gray back. And already, I wish for us to be reunited.” Behind the formal artefact - addressing directly nature or the elements was one of the trademarks of 19th century romantics - her text echoes that of other adventurers who also felt a strange proximity with this ocean. Maritime literature is full of references to its merciless ferocity, its untamed character, and to put things bluntly, its life-threatening nature. As the famous seafarer and author Alan J. Villiers wrote it in his epic “Vanished Fleets” opus published in 1932, “Here all nature is at war. And puny man may look to all his wiles, if he will live; these long foaming seas have raced 10,000 miles unchecked from Cape Horn, and they will not suffer easily to be checked here.” In this lyrical passage, where treacherous waves seem to have a will of their own, Villiers describes the approach of Tasmania, whose Southern tip marks the official boundary between the Indian and the Pacific oceans.

Facts…

• The Indian is the third largest of the world’s five oceans.

• It is bordered by Cape Agulhas longitude (west) and that of the southern tip of Tasmania (east).

• Its tributary water bodies include the Andaman Sea, the Arabian Sea,  the Gulf of Oman, the Bay of Bengal, the Great Australian Bight, the Gulf of Aden, the Laccadive Sea, the Mozambique Channel, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Strait of Malacca.

• Average depth: 3900 metres.

Bibliography

Alan J. Villiers - “Vanished fleets” (1932), “Monsoon Seas” (1952)

Frank T. Bullen - “The cruise of the Cachalot” (1891)

Isabelle Autissier - “Letter to the Indian” , Attitude Voile #2, (1999)