en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whirlpool

Merriam-Webster's dictionary entry for maelstrom gives the word's first known use as 1588, which directly contradicts the article's claim that Poe's 1841 story was the first English use. Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day page further explains that the term became popularized in 19th-century English partly through writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne. So Poe helped spread the word in English literature, but he did not introduce its first English usage.

The article appears to confuse the depth of the salt-mine system beneath Lake Peigneur with the post-disaster depth of the lake itself. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette states that after the 1980 accident, the former 11-foot-deep freshwater lake became a 200-foot-deep saltwater lake. A Louisiana State University-reported account of the disaster likewise says the lake drained into the mine and then refilled, but does not support a 1,300-foot lake depth; the 1,300-foot figure is associated in popular retellings with the mine level, not the resulting lake basin. So the claim that the lake itself became 1,300 feet deep is incorrect.

Reliable retrospective accounts do not support the article's numbers. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette says the whirlpool swallowed 11 barges and a tugboat. A Louisiana State University account carried by ScienceDaily likewise says that within hours the sinkhole consumed a tugboat and 11 barges. Those sources directly contradict the claim that the disaster caused the loss of nineteen barges and eight tug boats.

Two credible sources contradict the claimed 32 km/h (20 mph) current speed. Store norske leksikon, Norway's national encyclopedia, says the current speed in Moskstraumen can reach up to six knots, which is about 11 km/h. An oceanography paper in Continental Shelf Research states that the tidal current runs up to 5 m/s, which is about 18 km/h. Both figures are substantially lower than 32 km/h, so the article's maximum-speed claim is inaccurate.