Where sailing ships had to jettison their precious cargo. Boating Encyclopedia.

The term horse latitudes supposedly originates from the days when Spanish sailing vessels transported horses to the West Indies. Ships would often become becalmed in mid-ocean in this latitude, thus severely prolonging the voyage; the resulting water shortages would make it necessary for crews to throw their horses overboard. Columbia Encyclopedia. (Read more at Answers.com)

I came across the Horse Latitudes in the research for my book. Occasionally I dream of big sailing ships. I remember seeing the first Black Beauty movie when I was a girl, and was terribly worried when the ship sank and Black Beauty and the boy had to swim to shore. I think I can put this idea to good use.

The idea of tossing horses overboard to drown just gives me the shivers. Now those were hard times. Tell that to some folks in my nanny state. But then again, Jack Bauer and I agree that we would have waded and swam right out of New Orleans if we'd have had to, as I suspect a lot of my fellow Northern New Mexicans would have. Just give me a grocery cart to push my kids in, that's what I say. We dug ourselves out of a raging blizzard not that long ago.

What's becoming of us?

Well, I won't go down that bunny hole right now or slip into the doldrums. Here's something nice to offset the creepy Horse Latitudes--

Anyone ever done anything like this? I would certainly love to.