Approach the Centre of the Ci/ctone. 543 



between the Loo-Clioo Islands and the Meiaco-sima group. 

 There was now no other egress possible than by steering W. by 

 S. to get away from the advancing centre of the whirlwind, 

 on which course we would have to steer for the N. extremity 

 of the Island of Formosa. 



The night of 18th and 19th of August was, in the fullest 

 sense of the word, a night of storms. Towards midnight we 

 once more set double-reefed foresail in order to lie our course 

 of west by south. Had we calculated aright the course of 

 the centre of the cijlone, the wind as we advanced should 

 have drawn ahead, as we were now keeping it on our 

 larboard beam. 



Day-break of the 19th found us beneath a gloomy, angry- 

 looking, cloudy grey canopy on every side, the clouds hanging 

 quite low, till they seemed to brood upon the sm*face of the 

 sea, now lashed into fury by the violence of the storm. The 

 look-out could scarcely see a cable's length clear of the ship. 

 Deluges of rain, lashes of spray, driven on board by the 

 tremendous violence of the wind, enveloped us in a strange, 

 half-mysterious obscurity. Towards the N.E. a compact 

 bank of bluish grey clouds indicated the centre of the cy- 

 clone. The motion of the ship was so violent that one of 

 her quarter boats got filled with water, which at every lurch 

 was washed upon the frigate's quarter-deck like a small cas- 

 cade. Sometimes they became so fall that they threatened 

 to wrench the davits fi*om their fastenings. The gun-deck 

 was afloat with spray lashed on board with each pitch of the 



