1 6 : The Atlantic 



There was more than a Mason-Dixon Line that separated the North 

 from the South; there was also the Gulf Stream and the Gulf Stream 

 came first. 



10. That the Atlantic is actually a highway of culture has been dem- 

 onstrated over and over again when it has proved easier to carry peo- 

 ple, religions, political ideas and scientific inventions across the ocean 

 than to transport them over the few miles of man-made barrier that 

 separate one European country from another. 



11. The regular and highly organized system of winds and currents 

 in the North Atlantic were largely responsible for the routes followed 

 by the early European sailors in their quests for the Orient and the 

 western continents. The winds and currents accounted also for the 

 sequence in which discoveries were made. 



12. The natural organization of the Atlantic assisted the Europeans 

 and Americans in maintaining contact with each other and in estab- 

 lishing natural avenues of communication and trade. The Atlantic 

 Ocean is a natural highway to all the continents and peoples 

 grouped about its shores. 



13. In the course of history hundreds of different types of ships have 

 been developed to serve man's needs of travel and transportation. The 

 vast majority of these ship types have been designed for Atlantic 

 trade and built in Atlantic ports even when they were finally used for 

 trade in other oceans. Likewise, most of the developments in seaman- 

 ship and navigation have taken place on Atlantic voyages. 



14. From their origin in the Atlantic basin men and ships and other 

 methods of communication, arts and sciences, doctors and teachers 

 and even political theories have gone out to all parts of the world. 

 Our modern world of science and also of political and personal lib- 

 erty is in origin an Atlantic world — the anthropologist would call it 

 an Atlantic culture area. 



15. Air travel across the Atlantic has become one of the most stir- 

 ring enterprises of our time; it has not substantially altered the pat- 

 terns of communication long established on the sea but it has acceler- 

 ated and confirmed them. 



16. The Atlantic is not a natural defense to any one nation or peo- 

 ple; it is only of service to those who understand its essential charac- 

 ter and have the energy and intelligence to utilize its natural advan- 

 tages. 



In two World Wars, control of the Atlantic has been threatened and 

 the re-establishment and holding of that control proved a necessary 



