Albatrosses — creatures of the wind that scarcely need to flap their wings

Doldrums are what happen when the wind 'withdraws its services'... and scientists are learning more about them using data collected from buoys in the Atlantic 

Two Waved Albatross in the Galapagos Islands. Picture: AP Photo/Simon Stirrup

In Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, an albatross befriends the ship’s crew. "And every day for food or play, it came to the mariner’s hollo". But the bond between man and bird is cruelly betrayed. "With my cross bow", confesses the sailor, "I shot the albatross". Retribution follows the mindless act, with a punishment that fits the crime.

Albatrosses, great ocean wanderers, are creatures of the wind. Exploiting the air pushed upwards by the waves as they roll by, these giants scarcely need to flap their wings. But the sailors also depend on winds for their survival. The winds withdraw their services and the ship becomes trapped in ‘the doldrums, "as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean".