THE MOVING WATERS 



plicated inter-relationships of the currents nearer the 

 surface, and the tides and tidal waves of the oceans. 



In all the world's seas, currents are wheeling slowly in 

 movements which have carried the waters round and 

 round incessantly for countless centuries. Taken over a 

 long period, the precision of such complicated move- 

 ments justifies the use of the phrase: "like clockwork". 

 The ''mainspring", empowering all the complicated 

 movements, is the sun's heat, but the ''escapement", 

 controlling the power, is the tidal and current system of 

 the oceans, for the winds, transmitting the power, can 

 only be likened to a carefully calculated "train" of clock- 

 work wheels, of which the trades are the largest. In this 

 analogy, the Gulf Stream fits in as the escapement wheel 

 itself, which steadily releases the power transmitted by 

 the wheels from the mainspring. 



Using six ships, which zigzagged, 150 miles apart, in 

 and out of the surface of the Gulf Stream, an expedition 

 organized by the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office in 

 1 95 1 surveyed a part of the course of that enormous 

 body of water as it swept between Cape Hatteras and the 

 Grand Banks. 



The Gulf Stream issues from the Gulf of Mexico under 

 tremendous pressure, caused by its confined passage 

 through the Florida Strait, runs parallel with the 

 American coast as far as Newfoundland and then sweeps 

 on in the direction of Europe and Africa, sphtting into 

 four separate branches of the main river of water. Until 

 the U.S. Navy's expedition, the course of the Stream 

 had not been accurately checked for any considerable part 

 of its length. The survey elicited some fascinating facts. 



The ships used radar to check their positions, and the 

 flow and varying temperature of the moving waters were 

 carefully measured at intervals. The maximum speed of 

 the Gulf Stream over the area was found to be six miles 

 an hour — higher than the average speed of the Stream 

 over its entire course. The great pressure imposed upon 



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