INFLUENCE OF THE GULF STREAM UPON CLIMATES. 61 



tion, and the wind blowing in another, creates a sea that is often 

 frightful. 



88. In the month of December, 1853, the fine new steam-ship 

 San Francisco sailed from New York with a regiment of United 

 States troops on board, bound around Cape Horn for California. 

 She was overtaken, while crossing the Gulf Stream, by a gale of 

 wind, in which she was dreadfully crippled. Her decks were 

 swept, and by one single blow of those terrible seas that the 

 storms there raise, one hundred and seventy-nine souls, officers 

 and soldiers, were washed overboard and drowned. ' 



The day after this disaster she was seen by one vessel, and 

 again the next day, December 26th, by another, but neither of 

 them could render her any assistance. 



When these two vessels arrived in tHe United States and re- 

 ported what they had seen, the most painful apprehensions were 

 entertained by friends for the safety of those on board the steam- 

 er. Vessels were sent out to search for and relieve her. But 

 which way should these vessels go ? w^here should they look ? 



An appeal was made to know what light the system of re- 

 searches carried on at the National Observatory concerning winds 

 and currents could throw upon the subject. 



89. The materials that had been discussed were examined, and 

 a chart was prepared to show the course of the Gulf Stream at 

 that season of the year. (See the limits of the Gulf Stream for 

 March, Plate VI.) Upon the supposition that the steamer had been 

 completely disabled, the lines a b w^ere drawn to define the limits 

 of her drift. Between these two lines, it was said, the steamer, if 

 she could neither steam nor sail after the gale, had drifted. 



90. By request, I prepared instructions for two revenue cutters 

 that were sent to search for her. One of them, being at New 

 London, was told to go along the dotted track leading to c, ex- 

 pecting thereby to keep inside of the line along which the steamer 

 had drifted, with the view of intercepting and speaking homeward- 

 bound vessels that might have seen the wreck. 



91. The cutter was to proceed to <?, where she might expect to 

 fall in with the line of drift taken by the steamer. The last that 

 was seen of that ill-fated vessel was when she was at o, but a few 



