slats11
Bodies were found on the 6th to the south of those found on the 5th. Clearly they were drifting north (rather than east) at different rates - suggesting the current was predominantly to the north.
That's where the Chimp comes into play! We don't know that the one of the bodies recovered on the 6th wasn't in fact one that was sighted by a passing ship the previous afternoon. What I am saying is that just because we know where bodies were when they were found, it doesn't necessarily follow that joining the dots represents where they had been.
Hypothetically, consider that the first sighting was in fact a body that was recovered the following day, then the drift (current plus leeway) was to the WSW and the bodies were actually carried round in an anticlockwise eddy and in the process fanned out as the current vectored back to the north. This is simulated in a graphic below, where the NOAA-OSCAR smoothed current is depicted in red, and the drift of 2 bodies is shown. A cyan line represents one and the dotted magenta line the other. As they start to separate, they are subject to differing current/windage effects, and as portrayed, they eventually finish up taking different paths.
Say the position on the 5th is the same body shown on the 6th, then it can be assumed it followed the cyan track and that shown on the 7th followed the magenta track. Now you can clearly see that without knowing which tracks they took, the above is just an assumption.
All I am saying is what has been depicted in the graphic is not unreal, and many similar drifter tracks have been noted in this area of the Equatorial North Atlantic. A line drawn south through the 7th and 6th positions may lead to the Pollution Spot, but a line drawn through the 6th and 5th positions clearly doesn't.
The surface currents in this area are subject to very small changes in true sea level and barometric pressure, which can be exacerbated by small shifts in wind direction and speed. On top of that there are the solar and luna tides. In other words, the whole area is like a badly wired telephone exchange - you'd be lucky to get the same number twice.
mm43