AND OTHER WATER WAVES 55 



her 7th I judged by the above method to be about 

 350 feet in length. 



I have never yet seen storm-waves on the North 

 Atlantic in which the distance between the wave- 

 crests, viewed simultaneously, appeared to me 

 nearly as long as the 6oo-feet ships on which I 

 have voyaged, nor, indeed, any which appeared 

 more than 400 feet in length. This was the ap- 

 parent distance between crests during a heavy 

 swell without wind which I observed from the Red 

 Star S.S. Vaterland in March, 1901, east-bound in 

 N. Lat. 48 30', W. Long. 21 40'. 



The second, and latest, opportunity which I have 

 had of measuring very large waves on the North 

 Atlantic was on board the Atlantic Transport 

 Company's S.S. Minnehaha, east-bound from New 

 York to Southampton, on February 9, 1907, in 

 N. Lat. 48 54', W. Long. 18 20'. There was 

 only a moderate breeze from NW., but a huge 

 north-westerly swell came upon us at about 45 

 abaft the beam. The vessel did not pitch, her slow 

 and stately rolling motion was perfectly rhythmical 

 and regular, and in the absence of strong wind 

 observation was unusually easy. It was evident 

 from the great height of the swell that we were 

 only just outside the storm area, and this conclusion 

 was confirmed by a wireless message received 



4 



