Roaring Forties. a sailor's term for a region of the great Southern Ocean lying south of 40° S. lat. (especially south of 45°), where the prevailing winds are strong WNW. and NW. winds, often stormy. It is owing to these winds that the outward voyage to Australia is made by the Cape, and the homeward voyage by Cape Horn. The same name is sometimes given by analogy to a belt of the North Atlantic about 40°-50° N.
Roaring Forties.
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 8: Peasant to Eoumelia, p. 743
Source scan(s): p. 0754