From The Navigator

The Atlantic Ocean we now sail in is the second greatest Ocean in the world (after the Pacific Ocean). The Pacific Ocean is 64 million square miles (103 square kilometers) and the Atlantic Ocean is 31.8 million square miles (51 square kilometers). Due to the theory of continental drift it is believed that the Atlantic Ocean is widening an inch every year while the Pacific Ocean is shrinking. The Atlantic Ocean takes its name either from the lost kingdom of Atlantis or, more probably, from the Atlas Mountains in Northwest Africa, which the ancients believed overlooked the entire ocean.