Early Days on Nantucket 67 



lad to the sea, and there gave him the heart of a 

 hero. 



In 1712 Hussey showed the way to deep-water 

 fishing. With every voyage thereafter the eager 

 whalemen sailed farther from the home port. The 

 Gulf Stream was reached, and abundant wealth 

 was found there because of the whale food that 

 floated along the edge of its current. The whalers 

 were the first sailors to recognize the existence 

 of this remarkable river of the sea, and through 

 them all American captains learned to avoid it 

 when westward bound across the Atlantic. They 

 told the English captains about it, but for many 

 years the proud Briton refused to take instruction 

 from any colonial, even though Franklin (whose 

 mother was a daughter of Peter Folger, a Nan- 

 tucket whaleman) made a chart of the stream 

 that had general circulation. 



Cruising along the Gulf Stream the whalers 

 went south to the Hatteras grounds, and on to the 

 coast of Cuba. Cruising north and east they went 

 to the Banks of Newfoundland and on to the waters 

 about the Azores and Madeira, where a narrow 

 space, quickly crossed, separated them from the 

 grounds on the coast of Africa. 



