Oh, many thanks, wwh, for the link to the maelstroms, the "ocean's navel." There was mention of the Poe story I had remembered, "Descent into the Maelstrom."

On my crashed computer: The worst part are all of the things I had copied and pasted, terrific pictures and bits of text, and hundreds of rare words I enjoyed studying. I will mend my ways.

Woe-is-meWord