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CHAPTER
I.
GENERAL
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE GULF STREAM
ITS INVESTIGATIONS UP TO THE TIME OF FRANKLIN
Before
the time of Columbus's grand discovery of the New World the
coasting vessels of the Old must have recognized that there
were currents in the Atlantic Ocean which were entirely independent
of the tides; but the first indication that currents on the
coast of North America were noticed is found in the writings
of the Northmen in their description of voyages to America.
Several suggestive names were given to prominent objects of
discovery, such as Straumsoe (Isle of Currents), Straumsfjorde
(Bay of Currents), and Straummes (Cape of Currents), but their
exact location can not be identified. Some claim that the voyages
extended even to Florida, but it seems probable from later investigations
that the points named were all in the vicinity of Cape Cod.
Columbus,
before undertaking his voyage of discovery toward the west,
resided for some time on the island of Porto Santo, and it was
here that he was shown a piece of curiously carved wood that
had evidently drifted there from other lands. Strange woods
and other floating objects were continually being thrown upon
shores of Norway, Scotland, and Ireland, all of which, to a
thoughtful mind like that of Columbus, must have induced the
belief that there were other lands at no great distance to the
west, and so it is probable that to the Gulf Stream in part
the world owes the discovery of America.
In
actual observations in the Gulf Stream, or rather in the currents
contributing to it, Columbus was the pioneer. It is related
that September 19, 1492, he sounded with a deep-sea line, and
the lead, passing through the surface drift into the dead water
below, showed at once that there was a current setting his vessels
to the southward and westward. On his subsequent voyages he
remarked the strong currents of the Caribbean Sea. He says,
for example, " When I left the Dragon's mouth" (the northern
entrance to the Gulf of Paria) "I found the sea ran so strangely
to the westward that between the hour of Mass, when I weighed
anchor, and the hour of Complines, I made 65 leagues of 4 miles
each with gentle winds." He also says of the currents entering
the Caribbean between the Windward Islands, "I hold it for certain
that the waters of the sea move from east to west with the sky,
and that in passing this track they hold a more rapid course,
and have thus carried away larger tracts of land, and that from
hence has resulted the great number of islands."
On
his fourth voyage Columbus discovered and noted the strength
of the current on the coast of Honduras, although it is probable
that at this time the Gulf Stream itself in the Straits of Florida
had been found by independent navigators. Peter Martyr says
"he left in wryting that sailing from the Island of Guanassa
toward the east he found the course of the waters so vehement
and furious agaynst the fore part of his ship that he could
at no time touch the ground with his sounding plummet, but that
the contrary violence of the waters would bear it up from the
bottom. He affirmeth also that he could never in one day with
a good wynde wynn one mile of the course of the waters.
Columbus
speculated as to the cause of these currents. He thought that
the equatorial waters followed the motions of the heavens about
the world--that is, the rotary motion by which the stars and
air revolve about the globe (as was the opinion of the time),
so also the water was supposed to partake of the same motion.
John
and Sebastian Cabot, in 1497, crossed the North Atlantic Ocean,
rediscovering the coast of Labrador. From this point they steered
to the southward and westward, "so coasting still by the shore
that he was brought so far into the south by reason of the land
bending so much to the southward that he was then almost equal
in latitude to the sea called Fretum Herculeum, having the north
pole elevate in manner in the same degree. He sayled likewise
in this track so far toward the weste that he hadde the Island
of Cuba in his left hande in manner in the same degree of longitude."
* * * "He sayeth that he found the like course of the waters
towarde the west, but the same to run more softly and gently
then the swift waters which the Spanyards found in their navigation
southward."
It
is probable that the Cabots did not double Cape Hatteras and
discover the Gulf Stream. It is thought by some that they entered
the Straits of Florida, but from the testimony of Peter Martyr,
quoted above, they were north of Hatteras and probably in the
vicinity of the Delaware, but in the longitude of Columbus's
discoveries in the West Indies. They did, however, notice the
fact that a gentle counter current existed.
The
Cortereals, between 1500 and 1502, on several voyages extending
from Labrador toward Cuba, probably crossed the Gulf Stream
and may have recognized its strength, but very little is known
as to the exact localities visited.
In
the year 1508 the Island of Cuba was for the first time circumnavigated.
Sebastian de Ocampo, under the authority of the Governor of
Hispaniola, sailed along the northern coast of the island through
the old Bahama Channel and around the western point, Cape San
Antonio. In this voyage eight months were occupied, and as it
was against the Gulf Stream it would seem that he must have
noticed it. As the times demanded however the custom of secrecy
on all expeditions, no record has been left of the fact.
The
first record, on which the evidence is satisfactory, of the
discovery of the Gulf Stream current, is that of Ponce de Leon
in his expedition in 1513 in search of the fountain of youth.
In company with the afterwards famous navigator, Antonio de
Alaminos, he sailed from Porto Rico, along the northeastern
side of the Bahamas, and crossed the Gulf Stream somewhere above
Cape Canaveral. After reaching a latitude of about 30o
north he turned and skirted the coast as far as Tortugas, thus
stemming the current for a distance of several hundred miles.
Referring to these currents, their journal says that they saw
a current which, though they had a good wind, they could not
stem. It seemed that they were going through the water fast,
but they soon recognized the fact that they were being driven
back and that the current was stronger than the wind. Two vessels,
which were somewhat nearer the coast, came to anchor; the third
vessel, a brig, being in deeper water, could not anchor, and
was soon "carried away by the current and lost from sight although
it was a clear day." Ponce de Leon, on this expedition, crossed
the stream no less than four times, and Alaminos received his
first apprenticeship in its navigation, which in after years
proved to be of great benefit to him.
During
the next few years the Spaniards crossed and recrossed the Stream
between Cuba and Florida many times in their search for gold,
and of course gained much practical knowledge of the strength
and velocity of its currents.
It
is interesting to note the speculations of the day as to the
cause of this startling phenomenon, and its result on the sailing
route to Europe. Peter Martyr in one of his letters written
in 1515, being evidently as yet uninformed as to results of
Ponce de Leon's expedition, says:
Here
we must somewhat digresse from cosmography, and make a philosophical
discourse to search the secret of Nature. For when as they all
affirm with one consent that the sea runneth there from east
to west, as swiftly as if it were a ryver falling from high
mountaynes, I thought it not goode to let such matter slipp
untouched. The which, while I consider I am drawn into no small
ambyguetie and doubt, whyther those waters have their course
which flowe with so continual a tract in the circuite from the
easte, as though they fledde to the weste never to retourne,
and yet neyther the weste thereby any whit more fylled nor the
east emptied.
If
we say that they fall to their centre (as in the nature of heavier
things) and assign the equinoctial hyll to be the centre (as
some affirme), what centre shall we appoint to be able to receive
so great abundance of water, or what circumference shall be
found wet. They which have searched those coasts have yet found
no like reason to be here.
Many
think that there should be certayne large strayghts or entrances
in the corner of that great land which we describe to be eight
times larger than Italie, and the corner of that land to be
full of gulfes, whereby they suppose that some strayghts should
pass through the same lying to the weste side of the Island
of Cuba, and that the said strayghts swallowe up those waters
and so conveys the same into the weste, and from thence again
into the easte ocean or north seas as some think. Others will,
that the Gulf of that great lande, be closed up and the lande
to reach far to the north in the back side of Cuba, so that
it embrace the north landes which the frozen sea encompasseth
under the north pole, and all the lande of these coasts should
joyne together as one firme lande. Whereby they conjecture that
these waters should be turned about by the object or resistance
of that lande so tending toward the North, as we see the waters
turned about the crooked banks of certayne ryvers. But this
agreeth not in all points, for they also who have searched the
frozen sea, and sayled from thence into the weste doe likewise
affirme that those north seas flowe continually toward the weste
although nothing so swiftly. * * * Wherefore it is not only
more likely to be true but also of necessity to be concluded,
that between both these landes hitherto unknown, there should
be great certayne open places whereby the waters should thus
continually passe from easte into the weste, which waters I
suppose to be driven about the Globe by the incessant moving
and impulsion of the heavens, and not to be swallowed up and
cast out again by the breathing of Demo-gorgon as some have
imagined, because they see the seas increase and decrease, flowe
and reflowe. The
same writer continues at a later date:
Let
us now therefore speake somewhat again of the later news and
opinion as concerning the swift course of the sea toward the
weste about the Coast of Paria. So it is therefore that Andreas
Moralis, the pilot, and Ouidas (of whom we have made mention
before) repayred to me at my house in the time of Matrite. As
we met thus together there arose a contention between them two
as concerning this course of the ocean. They both agree that
these landes and regions pertayning to the Dominion of Castile,
do with one continuale tract and perpetual bond embrace as one
whole firme lande or continent all the mayne lande lying to
the north of Cuba and the other islands, being also northwest
from both Cuba and Hispaniola. Yet as touching the course of
the waters they vary in opinion; for Andreas will, that his
violent course of the water be received into the lappe of the
supposed continent, which bendeth so much and extendeth so farre
toward the north, as we have said, and that by the object or
resistance of the lande so bending and crooking the water as
it were, rebounde in compasse and by the force thereof be driven
about the north side of Cuba and the other islands excluded
outside the circle called Tropicus Cancri, where the largeness
of the sea may receive the waters falling from the narrow streams
and thereby represse that inordinate course by reason that the
sea is there very large and great.
The
Admiral himself, Diegas Colonus, sonne and heyre of Christophorus
Colonus the first finder of these landes, being demanded of
me what he found or perceived in sayling to and from, answered
that there was much difficultie in retourning the same way by
which they go; but whereas they first take their way by the
mayne sea toward the north before they direct their course to
Spayne, he sayth that in that tract he felt the shippe sometymes
a little driven back by the contrary course of the waters yet
supposed that this chaunceth only by the ordinary flowing and
reflowing of the sea, and the same not to be enforced by the
circumflection of the water rebounding in compass as we have
sayde; but thinketh that this mayne lande or supposed continent
should somewhere be open.
*
* * * * * * * * * * *
Ouidas
agreeth with Andreas Moralis as touching the continual adherence
of closeness of the sayde continent, yet neither that the water
shoulde so beat agaynst the bending back of the weste lande,
or be in such sort repulsed and driven into the mayne sea; but
sayth that he hath diligently considered that the waters runne
from the deepest and wyddest of the mayne sea toward the weste.
Also that sayling near into the shore in small vessels, he found
the same waters retourne agayne toward the east, so that in
the same place they runne together with contrarie course.
*
* * Thus have we made you partner of such things as they have
given us and written their divers opinions. We will then give
more certayne reasons when more certayne truth shall be known.
We must in the meantime leane to opinions until the day come
appointed of God to reveal this secret of nature with the perfect
knowledge of the pointe of the pole Starre. It
is certainly most remarkable, when we consider how imperfect
was their knowledge of the form or extent of the continent,
that their views should have been so near the truth. The Gulf
of Mexico was not discovered until 1517, and explored the year
after, when the current on the western of the Straits of Yucatan
must have been found. Ocampo, in circumnavigating Cuba, judging
from experience of the present day, could have found only the
tidal currents in the vicinity of Cap San Antonio. The current
in the passages in the eastern Caribbean was known to be strong
and westerly, and on the Honduras coast the same. Alaminos and
Ponce de Leon had found the current in the Straits of Florida,
and evidently some of the speculators determined that the land
was continuous and in some way the two parts of the flowing
stream of water were connected.
Antonio
de Alaminos was without doubt the most experienced navigator
and pilot in the West Indian waters. He had been chief pilot
with Columbus on his last voyage, had been with Ponce de Leon
around and among the Bahamas and along the coast of Florida
from St. Augustine to Tortugas, and had crossed and recrossed
the stream several times. He had afterwards been with Cordova
and Grijalva exploring the coast of Yucatan and the Gulf of
Mexico. He was familiar with the fact that there was a passage
north of Cuba from Gulf to the Ocean, but beyond the Straits
to the northward was unknown to him. He thought, however, as
Herrera says, "that these mighty currents ought to empty somewhere
into an open space." Upon fitting out the expedition for the
conquest of Mexico, Cortez gave the chief command of the fleet
to Alaminos, and when, later, it was thought necessary to send
dispatches and presents to Spain, he was given the fastest vessel
to carry the Envoys. Instructions were given him to hold his
course north of Cuba and pass into the Atlantic through the
Straits of Florida, not touching at any port in the West Indies.
Probably this route was suggested to Cortez by Alaminos as being
most favorable for a quick passage, and one by which he would
be sure to avoid a chance meeting with an enemy either of his
own or of a foreign country. The vessel sailed from Vera Cruz
July 26, 1519, and after disobeying his instructions by making
a stop at the port of Marien on the north side of Cuba, Alaminos
passed through the Straits of Florida and reached Spain in safety.
It is of course doubtful how far he followed the Gulf Stream,
but it is probable that he did so well up the coast toward Cape
Hatteras. His voyage changed the course of navigation from the
West Indian ports and contributed largely toward the growth
of Havana. This port soon became the rendezvous of the West
Indian trading fleet, the distributing point of goods from Europe,
and the starting port for the return home.
During
the half century following the remarkable voyage of Alaminos,
there were expeditions without number to the West Indies and
the mainland, and while there are minute and detailed descriptions
of the land, products, and people, yet scarcely anything is
said of the sea currents.
Sir
Humphrey Gilbert, writing before 1576, says that all the waters
of the ocean "run by nature circularly from east to west, following
the diurnal motions of the Primum Mobile." He traces the motions
of the waters from the south of Africa and says that from there
it strikes over to America. Not finding free passage "it runs
all along the eastern coast of that continent northward as far
as Cape Freddo, being the farthest known place of the same continent
toward the North, which is about 4,800 leagues." He thinks that
even if this current has not been traced all along the coast
of America, "still it must exist either in uppermost or the
nethermost part of the sea." For the reason that this current
must have a free passage somewhere Gilbert says "it must either
flow around the north of America into the South Sea or it must
needs strike over upon the coasts of Iceland, Norway, and Finmark."
He adopts the first of the alternatives, as he is anxious to
prove the existence of the Northwest Passage. In the journal
of his last voyage he mentions that in 50o north
latitude they saw ice being carried to the southward, and so
conjectured that a current must be setting in that direction.
In 1579 and again in 1583 he made two unsuccessful attempts
to establish colonies on the east coast of the present United
States, and it is curious to see how great was the influence
of the Gulf Stream, even at that time, in directing navigation.
In considering the advisability of taking the southern passage
from England or the more direct but more difficult northern
one, he says, "by what way to shape our course, either from
the south northward, or from the north southward. The first
course, that is, beginning south, without all contraversie was
the likeliest wherein we are assured to have commoditie of the
currents, which from the Cape of Florida setteth northward,
and would have furthered greatly our navigation, discovering,
from the foresaid cape toward Cape Breton and all these lands
lying to the North." The advantage of being able to provision
the vessel at the Banks of Newfoundland led them to decide upon
the northern route "although contrareity of currents descending
from the Cape of Florida into Cape Breton and Cape Race would
fall out to be great and irresistible impediments unto our further
proceeding for that year, and compel us to winter in those northern
regions."
The
records of the voyages of Martin Frobisher are of great interest
as showing the gradual extension of knowledge on the subject
of ocean currents. He crossed the northern Atlantic six times
during the years 1576-'77-'78. In the account of this third
voyage he says:
Sayling
toward the northwest parts of Ireland we mette with a great
current from out the southwest, which carried us [by our reckoning]
one point toward the northeastward of our said course, which
current seemed to us to continue itself toward Norway and other
of the northeast parts of the world, whereby we may be induced
to believe that this is the same which the Portugese mette at
Capo de Buong Speranza [Cape of Good Hope], where, stricking
over from thence to the Straits of Megellan and finding no passage
there for the narrowness of the sayde Straits, runneth alongue
to the great Bay of Mexico, where also having a let of land
it is forced to strike back again toward the northeast, as we
not only here but in another place also further northward by
goode experience this year have found. How
the currents returned to the Cape of Good Hope from the "northeast
parts of the world" is not stated, but the general course of
the Atlantic system is very fairly laid out.
About
this time there appeared the theory in "La Cosmographie" that
the currents in the Straits of Florida were caused by the rivers
emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, and this theory has been held
by writers at much later dates. In 1596 it is recorded by D.
Layfield, chaplain of the Earl of Northumberland, that between
Bermuda and the Azores they thought they observed a current,but
shortly before arriving at the latter they were sure of a current
setting southward.. The next expedition to that of Gilbert,
for settling Virginia and North Carolina, was under Captains
Amadas and Barlow. They took the southern passage, as did also
all of those under Raleigh. Some of these left the Caribbean
east of Cuba, and others continued to the westward and passed
through the Straits of Yucatan and Florida.
In
1590 John White, who had been Governor of the colony at Roanoke,
referring to the portion of the voyage from Florida Keys to
Virginia, says: "We lost sight of the coast and stood to sea
for to gaine the helpe of the current, which runneth much swifter
farre off than in sight of the coast, for from the Cape of FLORIDA
to Virginia, all along the shore, are none but eddie currents
setting to the south and southwest." This is the first instance
in which there is indicated a knowledge of an approximate position
of the axis of the Stream.
In
1606 an observation is recorded by Lescabot, which is evidently
a meeting of the Labrador and Gulf Stream currents. He noticed
that while in latitude 45o and "six times 20 leagues
to the eastward of the Banks of Newfoundland, we found for the
space of three days the water very warm, whilst the air was
cold as before, but on the 21st of June quite suddenly we were
surrounded by fogs and cold that we thought to be in the month
of January, and the sea was extremely cold." He attributes this
to the ice from the north which comes floating "down from the
coast and sea adjoining to Newfoundland and Labrador, which
is brought thither by the sea in her natural motion."
The
influence of the Gulf Stream in the colonization of North America
was about this time very great. In 1606 the English divided
their possessions into two parts, the northern part of Virginia
(new England and vicinity) was one, and the present North Carolina
and Chesapeake Bay region the other, and for each a company
was established and commissioned by the King. The route used
in going to the first was that tried in 1602 by Capt. Bartholomew
Gosnold, crossing the Atlantic on about the fortieth parallel,
while the southern expeditions held the old passage through
the trades and Caribbean. The Dutch vessels bound to New York
adopted the West Indian route, so that Nantucket really became
the dividing line of travel, and a difference in destination
of a degree in latitude necessitated a difference of thirty
degrees in route. This seems only to be accounted for by the
real or imaginary assistance of the winds and currents in one
and the impediment of the Stream in the other. After the English
and Dutch settlements became firmly established and crossing
the Atlantic a common thing, the personal experience of navigators
was no longer thought to be of sufficient importance to print,
and the time had not yet arrived for adopting a plan of collecting
ship's journals and publishing such nautical information from
them as would be of value to others. The writers on the subject,
however, must have had access to these journals and corrected
and improved their ideas on the subject of currents, and in
the latter half of this century many works on hydrography appeared.
In
1650 Varenius gave the most complete description of currents
which had been issued up to this time. He classified them into
perpetual and periodical, special and general. The system of
which the Gulf Stream forms a part he placed as a perpetual
special motion of the sea, and describes it as a gigantic Stream
beginning at the eastern Capes of Brazil, flowing from south
to north and ending toward Florida. He adds, "a similar current
from south to north is observed along the Philippine Islands
and toward Japan." He also wrote that "some Copernicans, as
for instance Keppler, pretend that also the movement of our
globe contributes not a little toward it" (the currents), "because
the water, not being adherent to the earth but only in a loose
contact with it, cannot follow the quickness of its motion toward
the east, but is left behind toward the west, so that the sea
does not move from one part to the other, but on the contrary
it is the earth which quits or leaves the parts of the sea,
one after the other."
In
1663 Isaac Vossius wrote a work entirely devoted to the motion
of wind and sea, and in it particularly describes most of the
currents known in the present day. He says:
With
the general equatorial current, the waters run toward Brazil,
along Guyana, and enter the Gulf of Mexico. From there, turning
obliquely, they pass rapidly through the Straits of Bahama.
On the one side they bathe the coasts of Florida and Virginia
and the entire shore of North America, and on the other side
they run directly east until they reach the opposite shores
of Europe and Africa; from thence they run again to the south
and join the first movement to the west, perpetually turning
in this manner circuitously. He
emphasizes this by saying that "a ship without sails and sailors
might be conveyed solely by the force of the currents from the
Canary Islands to Brazil and Mexico, coming back from there
by way of the Florida stream toward Europe on a route some 4,000
German miles in length." Vossius's theory as to the cause of
the ocean circulation was that the heat of the tropical sun
attracted the ocean and at the same time increased its bulk
and formed, as it were, a long mountain of water, "to which
the vessels even have some difficulty in ascending when they
sail toward the line." He concluded that the sun carried this
mountain of water toward the South American shore, where it
broke and ran along the coasts. A French hydrographer, George
Fournier, some years later propounded a theory almost the opposite.
It was that the sun evaporated enough water in the tropics to
make a deep valley, and therefore the water from the poles was
forced to run toward the equator along the coast of Africa to
replace the lost water. He though that the depression always
ran before or with the sun and the arriving polar water behind
the sun and the rotary system of currents was thus produced.
In
1678 Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit, gave to the world in his
"Mundus Subterraneus," the first
published chart showing the system of ocean circulation and
the Gulf Stream (Illustration No. 31). He says of the causes
of the Gulf Stream:
This
motion touches many things, whether partly from the general
motion of the trade winds against the opposing shores of that
region and thence again reflected, which they call the Sailor's
Current, or from wind-storms, or finally from the flow and the
reflow caused by the moon's force. He
was, however, a strong believer in submarine abysses as the
cause of vortices and special currents. In 1685 a German named
Happelius
published another chart of Ocean currents (illustration
No. 32) quite similar to Kircher's. In his work he says:
The
general motion of the Ocean goes from east to west, and it is
most obvious in the torrid zone. The sun is the cause of this
general course of the sea as well as of the trade winds. The
particular motions of the sea are of two kinds, one on a straight
line and the other with a circulating or whirling movement.
Of those which run in a straight line some are constant, regular,
and perpetual the whole year through. Some show themselves only
at times and change even in direction, are irregular, depending
much on the direction of the wind. In the Atlantic from the
Brazilian Cape to St. Augustine toward the Antilles and Florida
is a constant and perpetual course of the sea from the south
to north. About
this time the question began to be agitated in the minds of
scientists as to how the strange fruits and woods were deposited
on the shores of Ireland, Scotland, and other northern lands.
The molucca bean was frequently found there, and the fact was
thought to be proof of either a northeast of northwest passage
to the East Indies. In 1696 Dr. Hans Sloan proved that these
beans came from Jamaica. He says:
It
is very easy to conceive that, growing in Jamaica, and having
got to sea by the rivers, they may be carried by the winds and
by the current which is forced through the Gulf of Florida,
going there constantly east into the North American Sea; but
how they should come the rest of their voyage I can not tell,
unless it be thought reasonable that the beans, being brought
north by the current from the Gulf of Florida, are put into
the westerly winds' way, and may be supposed by this means at
last to arrive at Scotland. This
is exactly the opinion of many people at the present day.
In
1702 and again in 1720 the fact was stated that the Gulf Stream
ran the strongest in the Straits of Florida during strong northerly
winds, and as an explanation of this phenomenon Professor Leval
thought that it could only be accounted for by the supposition
that during the north winds in the channel in the Gulf of Mexico
they were blowing from a more northwesterly direction, and in
this was pushed the waters of the Gulf into the Straits and
so forced them through the latter with increased velocity. The
French route from Louisiana to Europe followed the Gulf Stream
along the North Atlantic coast toward the Banks of Newfoundland,
differing considerably from the more southern route taken by
the Spaniards, but while adopting this most expeditious track
they went to the other extreme in sailing from their Gulf to
their West Indian possessions. They followed the Stream well
up toward the Grand Banks, then south to the trade winds and
west to their port.
Up
to this time, with the exception of Kircher and Happelius in
1679 and 1685, there seems to have been no attempt to indicate
the Gulf Stream upon the charts, and even these were more for
scientific interest than for the practical benefit of mariners.
One chart published in 1630 by the Earl of Northumberland gave
the words "Corrento verso Greco," placed about half a degree
from Cape Hatteras; but with this exception up to the first
half of the eighteenth century, charts generally only show an
inscription between Cuba and Florida, "Canalis Bahama versus
Septentrionem semper fluit," or its translation into other languages.
About the middle of the eighteenth century arrows appeared on
the charts of the British colonies to indicate coast currents,
and at the same time French charts indicated currents in the
Caribbean and in the Straits of Florida in like manner. In 1772
detached indications of the Gulf Stream currents appear, and
in 1775 on a special map of Carolina there are arrows near the
coast pointing to the southward and westward, and farther off
the coast pointing North.
That
the want of knowledge as to the limits of the Stream was felt
is shown by the length of time consumed in passages between
the same ports in opposition directions. A voyage from Boston,
Massachusetts, to Charleston, South Carolina, would sometimes
take three or four weeks, while a return trip would frequently
be made in one week. The coasting captains and whalemen, however,
were gaining experience regarding the Stream, and to the latter
more than all others, up to the time of the Revolutionary War,
Franklin was indebted for the information which led to the publication
of his chart of the great Ocean current.
These
whalers extended their search as far south as Bahama and as
far east as Newfoundland, or even to the longitude of the Azores.
They discovered that the whales appeared to the north of a certain
line and to the south of another line, and were but rarely seen
between the two, and these lines they concluded were the limits
of the Gulf Stream. The whale fishery soon became the school
for American navigators, particularly of New England vessels,
and in this way knowledge of the Gulf Stream was introduced
into the commercial traffic of the times. The American shipmasters,
from their superior information on the subject of currents,
inaugurated a change in the sailing route from Europe, by which
they could save two weeks or more in the passage. From England
they crossed the Newfoundland Banks in about latitude 44 and
45 degrees, and thence on a course inside the limits of the
Stream.
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