Trent's Channel
Trent's Channel, named for the explorer Trent Beauregard, is a warm and swift ocean current that originates south of Milbar Gulf and flows anticlockwise around the coastline of The Azure Sea.
It influences the climate of the south western coastlines as it issues it's waters out close to the city of Keymouth, bringing subtropical warmth to the region. The movement and heat of the Channel causes cyclones and storms to form in centre of the Sea.
The Channel is widely used as a trading route, for two main reasons. First, it passes around the dangerous reefs that abound around the coastlines, and secondly the fast flowing water speeds journeys anticlockwise around the Sea considerably.
Trent's Channel is typically 50 miles wide and 2,500 feet to 4000 feet deep, and in places the velocity of the surface water can be as high as 5 miles per hour. This means that using the Channel to travel west around The Azure Sea is considerably faster than travelling directly in a straight line across the centre of the Sea.
The Channel is not only used by traders and explorers, but by migrating wildlife such as turtles and dolphins too, who use it's warm current to aid their journeys.
The importance of Trent's Channel to travel, trade and ecology has meant that it has become an important factor in political and military decisions over the years. The Antarian Navy used the Channel during the The Great Pelagic War to rapidly close upon the Imperial base at Keymouth, arriving several days before the Imperial commanders had expected them.
The use of the Channel for trade has also attracted the attention of pirates. Freeholders and members of the Hold of the Sea Princes both regularly attack ships on the Channel. One of the most infamous is Braig Deighton, leader of the Rum Buccaneers. This remarkably feared pirate crew has recently made the shipping lane of Trent's Channel a risky proposition, having successfully engineering several recent attacks against Imperial shipping.
Consequently ships of the Imperial Navy have begun to patrol the channel, at least as far as the Sharkhan Mangroves.
Trent's Channel by Neil Taylor
Type
Sea
Location under
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