Editing Horse latitudes (section)

==Etymology==
{{More citations needed|date=October 2024}}
A likely and documented explanation is that the term is derived from the "dead horse" ritual of seamen (see [[Flogging a dead horse#Earlier meaning|Beating a dead horse]]). In this practice, the seaman paraded a straw-stuffed [[effigy]] of a horse around the deck before throwing it overboard.  Seamen were paid partly in advance before a long voyage, and they frequently spent their pay all at once, resulting in a period of time without income. This period was called the "dead horse" time, and it usually lasted a month or two. The seaman's ceremony was to celebrate having worked off the "dead horse" debt. As west-bound shipping from Europe usually reached the subtropics at about the time the "dead horse" was worked off, the latitude became associated with the ceremony.<ref>Kemp, Peter. ''The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea'', London, Oxford University Press, 1976. pp. 233, 399</ref>

An alternative theory, of sufficient popularity to serve as an example of [[false etymology|folk etymology]], is that the term ''horse latitudes'' originates from when the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] transported horses by ship to their colonies in the West Indies and Americas. Ships often became becalmed in mid-ocean in this latitude, thus severely prolonging the voyage; the resulting water shortages made it impossible for the crew to keep the horses alive, and they would throw the dead or dying animals overboard.<ref>''The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia'', Sixth Edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003</ref>

A third explanation, which simultaneously explains both the northern and southern horse latitudes and does not depend on the length of the voyage or the port of departure, is based on maritime terminology: a ship was said to be 'horsed' when, although there was insufficient wind for sail, the vessel could make good progress by latching on to a strong [[ocean current|current]]. This was suggested by Edward Taube in his article "The Sense of 'Horse' in the Horse Latitudes".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hor3.htm |title=World Wide Words |date=2008}}</ref> He argued the maritime use of 'horsed' described a ship that was being carried along by an ocean current or tide in the manner of a rider on horseback. The term had been in use since the end of the seventeenth century. Furthermore, ''The India Directory'' in its entry for [[Fernando de Noronha]], an island off the coast of Brazil, mentions it had been visited frequently by ships "occasioned by the currents having horsed them to the westward".<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia  |last=Horsburgh |first=James |title=India directory, or, Directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia, Cape of Good Hope, Brazil, and the interjacent ports |year=1836 |entry=Fernando de Noronha |entry-url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_GuY2AQAAMAAJ/page/31/mode/1up |encyclopedia=India Directory, or, Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia, Cape of Good Hope, Brazil and the Interjacent Ports... |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_GuY2AQAAMAAJ/mode/1up |location=London |publisher=W. H. Allen |page=31}}</ref>

A further explanation is that this naming first appeared in the English translation of a German book {{Such as?|date=September 2024}} where ''Rossbreiten'' was incorrectly understood as ''Pferdbreiten''. The 'Ross latitudes' were named after the Englishman who described them first but could have been mistranslated, as ''Pferd'' and ''Ross'' are German synonyms for a horse. An incorrect translation could therefore have produced the term "horse latitudes".{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}