Back in the days of sailing vessels, British and American sea captains
were faced with a peculiar problem. In crossing westward from England to
Boston, the voyage was much slower than when crossing eastward from Boston to
England. In fact, the westward crossing took an additional two weeks, which
represented considerable loss of time and energy. The owners of the vessels
carried their problem to Benjamin
Franklin, who was Deputy
Postmaster General at that time. Franklin, in turn, consulted a veteran sea
captain named Timothy Folger.
