The Great Storin of March 11-U, 1888. 49 



at sea, aboard scores of vessels, from the little fisliing-schooner 

 and pilot-boat to the great transatlantic liner, a life-or-death 

 struggle with the elements is being waged, with heroism none the 

 less real because it is in self-defence, and none the less admirable 

 because it cannot always avert disaster. 



The accompanying Track Chart gives the tracks of as many 

 vessels as can be shown without confusion, and illustrates very 

 cleai'ly where data for this discussion are most complete, as well 

 as where additional information is specially needed. Thus it is 

 here plainly evident that vessels are always most numerous to the 

 eastward of New York (along the transatlantic route), and to the 

 southward, off the coast. To the southeastward, however, about 

 the Bermudas, there is a large area from which comparatively 

 few reports have been received, although additional data will 

 doubtless be obtained from outward-bound sailing vessels, upon 

 their return. Of all the days in the week, Saturday, in particular, 

 is the day on which the greatest number of vessels sail from New 

 York. The 10th of March, for instance, as many as eight trans- 

 atlantic liners got under way. Out in mid-ocean there were 

 plowing their way toward our coast, to encounter the storm west 

 of the 50th meridian, one steamship bound for Halifax, five for 

 Boston, nineteen for New York, one for Philadelphia, one for 

 Baltimore, and two for New Orleans. Northward bound, off the 

 coast, were six more, not to mention here the many sailing vessels 

 engaged in the coasting^or foreign ti'ade, whose sails whiten the 

 waters of our coasts. 



Of all the steamships that sailed from New York on the 10th, 

 those bound south, with hardly a single exception, encountered 

 the storm in all its fury, off the coast. Eastward-bound vessels 

 escaped its greatest violence, although all met with strong head 

 winds and heavy seas, and, had the storm not delayed between 

 Block Island and Nantucket on the 12th and 13th, would have 

 been overtaken by it off the Grand banks. Without quoting 

 in detail the reports i-eceived, let us see what they indicate 

 regarding the general character of the storm during the night, 

 preparatory to our consideration of the weather chart for 7 A. M. 

 March 12th. To do so, be it remembered, is a very different task 

 from that which is involved in the study and comparison of ob- 

 servations taken with standard instruments at fixed stations 

 ashore. Here our stations are constantly changing their posi- 

 tions ; different observers read the instruments at different hours; 

 4 



