Lieutenant Silas Bent, 

 U.S. Navy (1820- 1887) 



Bent iierved under Commodore Matthew C. Peny on his 

 expedition to Japan, 1852 - 1854. He was placed in charge of 

 conducting hydrographic surveys and his excellent work became 

 the basis for surveys undertaken later by the Japanese 

 government. His most important work was to delineate and 

 scientifically describe the Kuroshio, or Black Tide, the great 

 northern stream of the Pacific which resembles the Gulf Stream. 

 His study was printed in Perry's official report of the Japan 

 Expedition. In 1860 Bent was detailed to the Coast Survey but 

 the following year he resigned his commission because of his 

 sympathies for the South and assumed the management of his 

 wife's family estate in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1868, he 

 pubUshed his work, THE THERMOMETRIC GATEWAYS TO 

 THE POLE, postulating that the Gulf Stream from the Atlantic 

 and the Kuroshio from the Pacific maintained an open sea about 

 the North Pole. 



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