Wind and current are usually associated as both being forces not under control of the shiphandler. The two forces have, however, a different effect on the ship because of the difference in nature of the two. When the ship is affected by wind alone and moves through the water, the hull meets underwater resistance. When, on the other hand, the ship’s motion originates from current, there is practically no resistance of the above-water area to air. As water is eight hundred times denser than sea level atmosphere, current must, by nature, have considerably stronger effect than wind, especially on loaded ships.
Current has a direct effect on the underwater part of the ship and an indirect effect expressed in momentum after the ship alters course or comes out of a current, when the ship will carry momentum in the direction of the current that the ship was previously subjected to.
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