Maelstroms & Myths & Scuba Diving

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From Sites:
SALTSTRAUMEN
The worlds Strongest
You can find a cut in the rocks that look like it has been made by an ax . According to legend this cut was made by Olav Trygvason , the Viking chief that christened Norway. At that time the district was ruled by "Raudin Hin Rame" , a notorious Viking chief and sorcerer . When Olav Trygvason came Raudin started a storm that blew Tryvason's fleet out to sea again.
When ever Trygvason tried to sail through Saltstraumen the wind and the current were against him. He finally managed to get to Raudin Hin Rame by cutting his way through solid rock and there by creating Sundstraumen. Even after being defeated Raudin refused to let him self be christened , so Trygvason tortured him in order to convict him.
Though Trygvason forced an adder down his throat Raudin would not change his belief and therefor died when the adder made his way out.
[via: http://home.c2i.net]

OLD SOW
Old Sow is the largest natural whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere
Legend:
The name "Old Sow," some say, is due to a pig-like noise that the whirlpool makes when it is really churning. This explanation may be due to ancient folklore regarding ?pigs of the sea? (porpoises), or may simply be a myth resulting from the whirlpool’s current name. Old Sow does, however, make considerable noise when churning.

A more likely basis for the name, though, is corruption of the word "sough" (correctly pronounced "suff"), which has a couple of meanings: (1) a sucking noise, (2) a drain. Either of these definitions would apply to the whirlpool in question. People unfamiliar with the pronounciation of the written word "sough" might have assume that the pronunciation should be "sow," since the word’s ending is identical to many other words with an "ow"-sound ending, such as "plough" (pronounced "plow" and having the same meaning as "plow").
[via: http://www.oldsowwhirlpool.com/]

MESSINA STRAIT
Legend:
Messina Strait maelstrom is the fearsome "Charybdis" of Homeric legend. Ancient Greek sailors believed Charybdis to be a female sea monster who de­voured men and ships as they attempted to pass the rock of Scylla on what is now the Italian coast.

Homer put Odysseus between a rock and a hard place here, twixt Charybdis’ vortex and the hungry edges of the granite perch on which her co-demon, Scylla, waited across the channel. Scylla lived in a cave on the cliff face and yelped at passing sailors with what was described in Homer’s Odyssey as “the voice of a little bitch”, but she was “a horrible monster” with 12 dogs’ legs, a cat’s tail and six long necks, on the end of each “a horrendous head with three files of teeth, numerous and dense, full of black death”.

Quite a come-down from the gorgeous nymph she had once been. She had spurned Glaucus, a sea god, and he took his broken heart to the sorceress Circe. She fell in love with him, but getting nowhere, aimed her anger at Scylla. She laced Scylla’s bathing pool with a potion that turned her into a gargoyle. The heads of ferocious wolves sprang from her waist, and despite her best efforts to brush them off, she became a menace to all who came near. It was the heads that snapped up passing sailors. But by the time Aeneas’ fleet came through the strait after the fall of Troy, Scylla had been changed into the hazardous rock outcrop that still stands.
[via: http://dalihouse.blogsome.com]

CORRYVRECK
Third largest in the world
Legend:
A Scandinavian Prince, Breakan, fell in love with a Princess of the Island, whose father consented to the marriage, on condition that Breakan should show his skill and courage by anchoring his boat for three days and three nights in the whirlpool.

Breakan accepted the challenge and returned to Norway, where he had three cables made... one of hemp, one of wool and one from maidens' hair. The women of Norway willingly cut off their hair and plaited the rope. It was believed that the purity and innocence of the maidens would give the rope strength to stand the strain.

Breakan returned and anchored in the whirlpool. On the first day the hemp rope parted, but they survived the night. On the second day, the woollen rope parted in a strong wind, but they survived the night again.

On the last day they set the plaited cable of hair and all went well until a gale of wind broke the rope. The boat was sucked under by the currents and a surviving crewman and Breakan's dog dragged the body of Breakan ashore - he was buried in the King's Cave.
Legends [http://www.whirlpool-scotland.co.ukl]
Facts [http://www.whirlpool-scotland.co.uk]

*And should you be feeling adventurous and feeling the need to dive into a Maelstrom you can always dive the Corryvreckan Whirlpool for a one of a kind experience! Though I strongly advise against it.*
Diving Corryvreckan Whirlpool
[via: http://www.ukdiving.co.uk]