106 ANNUAL KECOllD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



The ship was near the south end of Formosa, and was struck 

 by a typhoon with the wind at the northeast, and the centre 

 bearing apparently east-southeast. The captain, believing 

 the gale to be traveling to the northward, supposed himself 

 to be in the left-hand semicircle, and continued on the port 

 tack, heading to the eastward, as near his course as possible, 

 and evidently had an eye to business, thinking that the cen- 

 tre of the storm would pass to the noithAvard ere he could 

 be near enough to be in any danger, and he apparently de- 

 sired to approach the centre as near as would be consistent 

 Avith safety, in order to take advantage of the westerly winds 

 bv which he would be able to make o-ood time for Yokohama. 

 This would have been all right had the gale traveled north 

 as he supposed, but the sequel shows that seamen should 

 never form hasty conclusions in cases where deliberation may 

 be employed to advantage. If the captain had hove the ship 

 to at once, and awaited the first change of wind, he would 

 have discovered that the vortex Avas not traveling north, for, 

 in that case, the Avind Avould have shifted to the north-north- 

 east, or have backed, and not have veered to the right as it 

 actually did. After j^ressing rapidly on, his falling barom- 

 eter, the increasing force of the gales of Avind, and the short- 

 ening of the interval betAveen them, the approach of darker 

 and denser clouds, and the appearance of lightning in great 

 quantities, all told the story of the vortex coming nearer the 

 ship, and the captain evidently suddenly concluded that the 

 gale Avas not traveling north, but Avestward, and that he Avas 

 bound nearly for its centre. During the first twelve hours 

 of the gale the ship had sailed and drifted toAvard the centre 

 until Avithin eighty-six miles of it, Avhen she Avas put on the 

 starboard tack. Had the captain done this at the beginning 

 of the gale, she Avould not have approached the centre Avithin 

 one hundred and fifty miles. There are tAVO essential rules 

 of vast importance to seamen to be remembered in connection 

 Avith circular gales, and Avhich Avill always be a safe guide. 

 The first of these is that the Avind in the rio-ht-hand semicir- 

 cle always changes to the right of the point from Avhich it 

 blows, and, second, that the Avind in the left-hand semicircle 

 always changes to the left of the point from Avhich it blows. 

 Again, in the northern hemisphere, the bearing of the centre 

 of the gale is nearly eight points to the right of the direction 



