Horse Latitudes are a portion of the Atlantic Ocean which is near the Tropic of Cancer, and which is noted for the long duration of its calms. The name is also given to a region along the polar edge of the trade-wind belts.
The name arose, so the story goes, from the fact that ships sailing from New England to the West Indies freighted with loads of horses, through the long detention through calms in this region, had to throw the horses overboard, because they had died from lack of water.
