INFLUENCE OF THE GULF STREAM UPON COMMERCE. Ql 



genial warmth about him, he reahzes, out there at sea, the fable 

 of Antaeus emd his mother Earth. He rises up and attempts to 

 make his port again, and is again as rudely met and beat back 

 from the northwest ; but each time that he is driven off from the 

 contest, he comes forth from this stream, like the ancient son of 

 Neptune, stronger and stronger, until, after many days, his fresh- 

 ened strength prevails, and he at last triumphs and enters his ha- 

 ven in safety ; though in this contest he sometimes falls to rise no 

 more, for it is often terrible. Many ships annually founder in 

 these gales ; and I might name instances, for they are not uncom- 

 mon, in which vessels bound to Norfolk or Baltimore, with their 

 crews enervated in tropical climates, have encountered, as far 

 down as the Capes of Virginia, snow-storms that have driven them 

 back into the Gulf Stream time and again, and have kept them 

 out for forty, fifty, and even for sixty days, trying to make an an- 

 chorage. 



80. Nevertheless, the presence of the warm waters of the Gulf 

 Stream, with their summer heat in mid-winter, off the shores of 

 New England, is a great boon to navigation. At this season of 

 the year especially, the number of wrecks and the loss of life along 

 the Atlantic sea-front are frightful. The month's average of 

 wrecks has been as high as three a day. How many escape by 

 seeking refuge from the cold in the warm waters of the Gulf 

 Stream is matter of conjecture. Suffice it to say, that before 

 their temperature was known, vessels thus distressed knew of no 

 place of refuge short of the West Indies ; and the newspapers of 

 that day — Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette among them — inform 

 us that it was no uncommon occurrence for vessels, bound for the 

 Capes of the Delaw^are in winter, to be blown off and to go to the 

 West Indies, and there w^ait for the return of spring before they 

 w^ould attempt another approach to this part of the coast. 



81. Accordingly, Dr. Frankhn's discovery with regard to the 

 Gulf Stream temperature was loo\ed upon as one of great import- 

 ance, not only on account of its affording to the frosted mariner in 

 winter a convenient refuge from the snow-storm, but because of 

 its serving the navigator with an excellent land-mark or beacon 

 for our coast in all weathers. And so view^ing it, the doctor con- 

 cealed his discovery, for we were then at war with England. It 

 was then not uncommon for vessels to be as much as 10° out in 



