In 1678, Athanasius Kircher published the first chart showing the Gulf Stream. Kircher believed the Gulf Stream was caused by the trade winds and their reflection, known as Sailor's Current, wind storms, and the force of the moon.
Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) was a Jesuit priest and scholar known for his prodigious activity in disseminating knowledge. Although born in Germany, he spent most of his adult life in Rome where he functioned as a one-man clearinghouse for cultural and scientific knowledge. His interests ranged from geography, astronomy, and mathematics to language, medicine and music. He once had himself lowered into the crater of Vesuvius to observe its features soon after an eruption. He wrote 44 books and over 2,000 of his manuscripts and letters survive. He assembled one of the first natural history collections, long housed in a museum that bore his name, the Museo Kircheriano in Rome.
Chart above is from Reference 1.
