INFLUENCE OF THE GULF STREAM UPON COMMERCE. Q^ 



disappears from her apparel ; the sailor bathes his stiffened limbs 

 in tepid waters ; feeling himself invigorated and refreshed with 

 the genial warmth about him, he realizes, out there at sea, the fa- 

 ble of Anta3us and his mother Earth. He rises up and attempts 

 to make his port again, and is again, perhaps, 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 

 freshened strength prevails, and he at last triumphs and enters his 

 haven 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 anchorage. 



102. 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 fi'ightful. 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 w^arm 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 Delaware in winter, to be blown off and to go to the 

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

 would attempt another approach to this part of the coast. 



103. Accordingly, Dr. Franklin's discovery with regard to the 

 Gulf Stream temperature was looked 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 



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