Wyckoff.] £>84 [April 2, 



In view of the unvarying successful result, the time must soon come, when 

 no vessel will leave port without some cheap fish or vegetable oil, for this 

 purpose. Insurance companies, owners and masters of vessels, are all 

 too greatly interested, to have this precaution longer neglected. 



The use of oil in calming troubled waters, was evidentlj r well known 

 to the ancients, as Aristotle, Plutarch and Pliny refer to it in their writ- 

 ings. The divers in the Mediterranean still use it in the manner described 

 by Pliny — taking oil in their mouths, and ejecting a little at a time, to 

 quiet the surface and permit the rays of light to reach them. Fishermen, 

 who depend upon the spear to capture their prey, pour oil on the water to 

 calm it, and enable them to clearly see the fish. The hardy fishermen of 

 the north of Scotland and along the shores of Norway, have known this 

 use of oil for centuries. When crossing a dangerous bar or tide-rip, or 

 when landing through surf, they press the livers of the fish until the oil 

 exudes, and then throw them in advance of their boats. The Lisbon 

 fishermen carry oil with them, and use it in crossing the bar of the Tagus, 

 in rough weather. Whalers have resorted to oil and blubber, in severe 

 storms, for the last two hundred years. Very recently, an old whaler 

 informed me, that it was their custom to hang large pieces of blubber over 

 each quarter of their vessel, when running before a heavy sea, and- it 

 entirely prevented the water coming on board. 



The members of this Societ}^ should take special interest in this subject, 

 because its founder made many experiments, and left his views on record 

 regarding the great utility of oil for this purpose. On a stormy day, he 

 calmed the surface of a pond covering a half acre, by pouring a single tea- 

 spoonful of oil upon its windward side. He afterwards made other labo- 

 rious tests upon the waves of the sea, and gave a scientific explanation of 

 the manner in which the oil acted. This explanation is still believed to be 

 substantially correct. 



Molecules of water move with freedom, and the friction of air in motion 

 upon the surface of a body of water, produces undulations. These 

 increase in size, proportionately, to the depth of water, the distance they 

 can proceed to leeward, the strength of the wind and the time it is acting. 

 There is a limit, of course, to this increase in height ; none probabl} r ever 

 exceeding forty feet. 



The precursor of a cyclone in the North Atlantic, is often, what is 

 known to seamen, as a heavy swell. It may be perfectly calm when this 

 reaches a vessel. It is simply a long, high undulation ; started by the 

 storm, and traversing the ocean in advance of it. Off the coast of Cali- 

 fornia, I have experienced the tremendous swells, made by a westerly 

 wind across the immense stretch of the North Pacific. These undulations 

 were as high as any I have ever seen, and yet, on calm days, I have often 

 ridden them in an ordinary whale boat. These swells correspond to oiled 

 waves. The boat or vessel slides up their front slope, and down the rear. 

 Let a sudden gale spring up, like the " Northers " in the Gulf of Mexico, 

 and the harmless swells becomes raging seas. How is this change effected ? 



