Crèvecœur to William Temple Franklin, [7 April? 1783]
Crèvecœur to William Temple Franklin
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Paris Monday 12: o:clock [April 7, 1783?]2
Sir,
Agreable To your Grand Father’s Promises, I beg you’d Send me by the bearer some Copies of the Interesting Map you Gave me the other Day which has been given to & has Singularly pleased the Mis. de Castries.3
I Remain very Respectfully, sir, Your Very Humble Servant
St. John
Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur Franklin Junior / Passy
2. The first Monday after April 2, when BF was prompted to reply to Crèvecœur about his proposal for a packet boat service. BF’s reply, [after April 2], enclosed an annotated copy of his Gulf Stream chart, the subject of this letter.
3. Castries had Crèvecœur translate BF’s notes into French, and on April 10 sent them to Charles-Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, director of ports and arsenals, and head of the dépôt des cartes (DBF, under Claret). The cover letter said how useful it would be for navigation to have the Gulf Stream engraved on a new (and presumably more accurate) chart. “The notes that are joined to the map are exactly what Mr Franklin gives me to understand,” he wrote. “I beg you to examine everything, and if you have nothing better in your dépôt, mark this current and the observations and have the whole thing engraved.” To our knowledge, a new chart was never produced: Ellen R. Cohn, “Benjamin Franklin, Georges-Louis Le Rouge and the Franklin / Folger Chart of the Gulf Stream,” Imago Mundi, LII (2000), 136.