Pacific North Current

The central Pacific offers no shelter to a vessel dismasted by a storm. In 1832 the Japanese Hōjun-maru, sailing with a cargo of rice, lost its rudder and was carried out into the ocean. Its crew lived on rice and rainwater during a long drift; three survivors eventually reached the coast of North America in 1834. Their voyage illustrates the reach of the winds and currents crossing this immense sea.