Impact of Benjamin Franklin's Charts of the Golf Stream on the Shipping Industry
The Gulf Stream is a gigantic current that flows from the Mexican Gulf, past the Florida Peninsula, U.S. East Coast and up to Cape Hatteras. The current then flows across the Atlantic towards Iceland, British Isles, and to Norway. Viewed from the Straits of Florida, the stream has a width of approximately forty miles. Its speed can go as high as five miles per hour (4.3 nautical knots). As the current flows into North Atlantic, the width widens and can increase to up to hundreds of miles at some points (Richardson 51). The amount of water carried by the ...
