The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-04-02
Map of Gulf Stream and Other Atlantic Currents

were the New England whalers, who
found their quarry only outside the
| currents warm waters. Benjamin
Franklin heard of their experiences,
and also how the coasting vessels from
Boston to Charleston, S. c., sometimes
would take three or four weeks TO
make the southwark voyage, but would
often accomplish the return trip in a
week. He found, too, that English
packets with American mails were two
Or three weeks longer on the voyage to
America than in the reverse direc-
ton.
Named by Franklin.
Franklin suggested the name, Gulf
stream" because it issues from the
Gulf of Mexico. Although it is only a
part of the grand scheme of Atlantic
ocean circulation, and though the Gulf
of Mexico is in reality only a sort of
way station for this part, the name is
generally applied to the current as it
was given by Franklin.
In the large funnel-shaped opening
between Cuba and the western extren-
ity of the Florida reefs the current is
somewhat erratic, but by the time Ha-
vana is reached it has become a regu-
lar and steady flow. As it rounds the
curve of the Florida shore the straits
contract and the current then practi-
cally fills the banks from shore to
shore and reaches almost to the bot
tom, which at this point has a greatest
depth of nearly 5000 feet. Il
AS it leaves the Straits of Florida its
direction is about north, but it gradu-
ally changes and follows a course ap-
proximately parallel to the curve of
100 fathoms depth until it arrives off
Cape Hatteras, and maintains about
the same width as when it issued from
the Straits of Florida. From this point
it starts on its course to Europe. 1t
has lost something in velocity, as well
as temperature, and as it journeys to
the eastward 1t gradually diminishes
in both, until at last it becomes gen.
tie flow.
On this part of its course it passes
not far from the Grand Banks of New
foundland, where it is met almost at
right angles by the great Labrador cur
rent, bringing down from the Arctic
a stream of cold water, pack ice and
icebergs. This floating ice, dumped
into the Gulf stream, was the cause,
not many years ago, of the appalling
Titanic disaster.
When this cold current meets that of
the Gulf stream, of much higher tenn
perature, the former underruns the
latter. The shallow-draft pack ice, be-
ing no longer under the influence of
the polar current, is carried to the
eastward by the warm Gulf stream cur
rent and soon disappears, but the deep
draft bergs are still under the infiu-
ence of the lower current running
south, as well as of the surface current |
running east, and so they continue on |
until well into the Gulf stream, some |
times reaching the thirty-ninth paral- |
lei, which is nearly 200 miles south OF |
the southernmost point of the Grand |
Banks.
sThis ice, together with the fog
which usually accompanies the meet
ing of currents of considerable differ
ences in temperature has compelled !
steamship companies to make a detour
around the region of danger.
Congress early recognized the impor-
lance of learning everything possible
about the Gulf stream and authorized
the coast survey to make observations.
In the, Straits of Florida it was found
that the greatest surface velocity was
about four miles an hour and that this
maximum was reached about eleven
miles from the Florida shore. Even at
$50 fathoms, or 1000 feet, below the
surface the great stream was found TO
be moving alcng at about mile an
hour. At this point the stream is
about forty miles wide.
Explained by Scientists.
Numerous theories have been ad.
vanced to account for the Gulf stream
and other ocean currents. But the
and the studies of the late Admiral
John Elliott Pillsbury CT the navy have
about settled the matter in favor OF
wind and wave. The trade winds ara
the real parents of the Gulf stream.
Though they vary somewhat in exact
direction and in velocity, they blow
steadily, on the average, in the same
general direction In the west, year in
and year out. Their friction induces
a current in the water in the same d.
rection. At first-if one can imagine
the beginning of the Gulf streams
1ow-cnly the merest surface skim
was driven along with the wind But
gradually the motion was communi-
Gated from layer to layer until at last
me movement extended to water hun
lreds of feet below the surface