The Law of Storms. 207 
ing that fearful drift of twenty-three days; the “‘Sépet,” be- 
tween the two storms and escaping both; the “ Lassell,” from 
the tropics to Block Island, all the way in the grasp of the 
hurricane, without a sight of sun, moon, or stars, to fix her 
position; the “Ada Bailey,” rolling in the long swell off Hatteras 
and watching the early indications of the approaching storm for 
nearly a week before it struck her; the “ Hernan Cortes,” forced 
to stand off into fearful danger by the still greater danger of a 
lee-shore at Hatteras; and the “ City of New York,” “ Teutonic,” 
and “City of Rome,” starting on their Titanic race from Liver- 
pool for New York the day after this great hurricane swept 
past St. Thomas, and reaching their goal with it, and in spite of 
all its fury. I must dismiss this whole interesting history with the 
following abstract of the report of Capt. Simmons, of the British 
brigantine “ Victoria,” whose original report is brief and to the 
point, like all the rest (see track of the “ Victoria,” northwest 
from St. Thomas, on the first small chart): 
I passed through the cyclone, resulting in the total loss of the 
spars, sails, etc., of my vessel. The SE. sea became so heavy that I 
was obliged to heave-to. The sky was one sheet of dark gray, at times 
approaching black. The lightning was excessive only during the latter 
part of the storm ; it appeared as a continuous quivering sheet around 
a great part of the horizon, extending about 10° above it and lasting 
many seconds, unaccompanied by thunder; the compass could not be 
read, the card spinning so that the points were indistinguishable. 
The lowest barometer reading was 27.86 (aneroid, corrected by com- 
parison at Boston shortly before and at Halifax the following month). 
The importance to navigators of a true appreciation of the law 
of storms—not the mere memorization of a set of rules, but an 
intelligent comprehension of the subject—is now perhaps clearly 
evident to the reader: at any rate, that is the object I have aimed 
at, rather than a mere formal statement of generally accepted 
principles and an abstruse discussion of isobars and gradients. 
It will be seen that the probable bearing of the center, as indi- 
cated by the direction of the wind at a single station, is the great 
question, so far as the navigator is concerned. There are men who 
want and must have a hard-and-fast rule,—an 8-point, a 10-point, 
or a 12-point rule—something to act on without thought, while 
every nerve is strained to. save the ship’s spars, sails, boats, 
engines, and cargo, from damage or destruction. Under such 
circumstances, I think that perhaps the safest general plan is to 
use the old 8-point rule, but applied to the low clouds, instead of 
to the wind. This is equivalent, generally speaking, to a 10-point 
