# Seven Seas **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 1999, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091 "1999-07-16T16:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 1999, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/1 "1999-07-16T16:27:00Z")
Ok, Everyone has heard of people ‘sailing the Seven Seas’, but which seven are they referring to? Taking a guess that it is a European thing are they the Aegean, North, Baltic, Mediterranean, Black, Red and Atlantic? What about the Caspian and Dead seas? How many seas are there in total in the world? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 1999, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/2 "1999-07-16T16:42:00Z")
The “Seven Seas” are: The Red Sea The Mediterranean, The Persian Gulf, The Black Sea, The Adriatic Sea, The Caspian Sea, and The Indian Ocean ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 1999, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/3 "1999-07-16T20:55:00Z")
Steve-o, sorry to disagree, but you might want to check out this Mailbag article: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m7sea.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m7sea.html) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 1999, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/4 "1999-07-17T02:05:00Z")
Atlantic Sea? * * * Zymurgist ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 1999, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/5 "1999-07-17T05:03:00Z")
Actually, I think we are both correct, depending on what time period you are referencing. I found the following reference on Compton’s Encyclopedia Online. I am unsure of where the “Sea of Azov” is (sounds Russian), but it may be an old name for the Mediterranean sea. [http://www.optonline.com/comptons/ceo/03472.012\_L.html](http://www.optonline.com/comptons/ceo/03472.012_L.html) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 1999, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/6 "1999-07-17T14:55:00Z")
An ocean is really a sea with an attitude. [Size,depth etc.] The spaniards titled Columbus as “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 1999, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/7 "1999-07-18T05:44:00Z")
The counting of seas does get rather problematic… Within the area that many of count as the Mediterranean, there are also: Ligurian Sea off NW Italy Tyrrhenian Sea off SW Italy Adriatic Sea btw Italy & former Yugoslavia Ionian Sea btw Italy & Greece Aegean Sea Btw Greece & Turkey ## so gee, that’s 6 right there… Sue from El Paso [members.aol.com/majormd/index.html](http://members.aol.com/majormd/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 1999, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/8 "1999-07-18T16:20:00Z")
The Sea of Azov is the small sea at the top of the Black Sea, east of the Crimean peninsula. Don’t forget the Sea of Marmara, between the Aegean and the Black Sea. * * * John W. Kennedy “Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.” – Charles Williams ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 1999, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/9 "1999-07-19T16:33:00Z")
Ok, thanks. Silly of me to take it literally I suppose, But I thought that maybe it did have a literal basis in the begining. And just because a phrase is translated to meaning the seven seas’ does not mean that it literally refers to seven seas in that language. ‘Sailing all the seas of the world’ has a different connotation to ‘Sailing the seven seas’ though they are both interpreted to mean the same thing. Just curious ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 1999, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/10 "1999-07-19T19:18:00Z")
Remember, as Songbird alludes in the Mailbag article, that seven is the number for completion in Western literature (from the Biblical use of seven to indicate completion) so seven seas implies “all” the seas. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 1999, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/11 "1999-07-20T02:58:00Z")
Where are those blasted back copies of the “Old Farmer’s Almanac” when you need them? To the best of my memory, the Seven Seas are: North Atlantic North Pacific South Atlantic South Pacific Mediterranean Ocean Indian Ocean Black Sea (?) Though it certainly is used in the meaning of having been all over the world, I think it refers specifically to the major waterways of the world where most of the international marine traffic is to be found. Then again, the phrase may be way older than the discovery of the Pacific and besides it’s late and I’ve had too much Bass Ale. Forgive me 🙂 * * * Cave Diem! Carpe Canem! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 1999, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seven-seas/2091/12 "1999-07-21T18:40:00Z")
From my high-quality Elementary School education– Mediterranean North Atlantic South Atlantic North Pacific South Pacific Indian Ocean Arctic Ocean * * * Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post