Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-05-31
A GRAND OLD HUMBUG.
The Opinion of Man Who Claims to 30
Well Acquainted with the Gulf Stream

The Opinion of Man who Claims to 80
+ Well Acquainted with the Gulf Stream.
Bermuda Correspondence New York Times.I
The Gulf stream is one of nv old ac-
quaintances, and [ propose to have
something to say about it. / have met
it IN the 4ueatan channel, have promen-
AIDED with it in its great circle around
the Gulf OF Mexico, have gone with it
through the Bahama channel, followed
it up parallel with the Florida coast.
and have been buffeted and sickened
by it In mid-Ocean, so | know it pretty
well; and [ have very little hesitation
in saying that the Gulf stream is q
grand old humbug That it is a cur
rent of water running through the
ocean, just as river runs across the
land, nobody will undertake to deny.
Ii is very few degrees warmer than
the rest of the ocean, and that is all.
Those beautiful school-book stories
about frozen ships coming down ous of
the cold north, their rigging freighted
with ice, and floating into the Gulf
stream, where the ice instantly melted
off and the sailors plunged over
board to timber their joints, are just
about as true as a good many other
school-book yarns. IF the ships went
far enough south they would strike
warm water, of course, but the gulf
stream would not have much to do with
it. The common 1ongshore idea of the
gulf stream Is that it is a vast current
of warm water, running northward, COW
cred with gulf weed, and darker and
dirtier than the rest of the ocean The
exact truth Is, no landsman alive can
tell when he is in the gulf stream or
when he IS out of it. Ii you want to
know when you're in it you have to ask
the Captain; and my private opinion is
that half the Captains can't tell it from
the rest of the ocean. The water is the
same color as other water, and it sets
slowly northward, or northeast, at the
rate of two or three or perhaps four
miles an hour. 1t is anywhere from 100
to 800 miles wide, and there are occa-
sional little sprigs of seward floating
in it. This is the gulf stream in 8 nut
shell. Its position in the ocean changes
slightly, according to season, as / have
been told by several experienced navi-
gators, so that it is liable to be found
most any time from fifty to 100 miles
out of its course. This is piece of in
formation not to be found in any text
book, and some people may not believe
1t, but Captains who are taking their,
ships through the Gulf stream two or
three times every month ought to know
more about it, I firmly believe, than
learned scientists who stay at home and
write about it from a safe distance of
thousand miles or so.
what is this Gulf stream we hear so
much about? Where does it come
from and where does it go to?" one of
our company of passengers asked me.
This was a sticker. We all know
what it is, or think we do. But where
it comes from or where it goes, is not
/ so easy to tell. So [ went to the great
! source of all accurate and interesting
information, and asked the Captain.
"There's good deal of humbug about
/ it," said Capt. Fraser. "It was once
! believed that the warm water burst out
of an immense hot spring, but that you
see, would take spring about the size
of half the globe. 1t looks clear enough
! to me where the water comes from.
! The water of the Amazon and the other
great South American rivers being
warmed by the equatorial sun is almost
hot. These rivers are constantly pour
ing a vast body of water into the ocean,
and this water, helped along by one of
the unexplainable ocean currents,
swashes around the borders Of the Gulf
of Mexico and makes the celebrated
Gulf stream. The amount of water in
the stream varies at different seasons,
Just about as much, I imagine, as the
body of water varies in these great hot
rivers"