216 Raleigh's Tyfoon of 1835. 



Methods for Escaping its Violence. 



The professional readers of the Nautical Magazine will naturally 

 inquire for the best method by which the Raleigh might have 

 avoided the heart of the tyfoon, had its true character, and proba- 

 ble course, been known. To this I answer, that the Raleigh being 

 bound to the Bashee islands, and having sea room, a,nd the gale 

 having set in from N. or N. N. E., which showed that the ship 

 was then not far from the centre of its path, its greatest severity 

 could have been avoided by either of the following methods : 



Firsts by tacking to the N. W.,- upon the wind, and, as the lat- 

 ter veered eastward, hauling up for Formosa and the Bashee isl- 

 ands, sb far and as fast as the veering of the gale in this direction 

 might allow. 



Second, by standing away to W. S. W. with a view of saving 

 time as well as distance, in the escape, and keeping off more to 

 the southward, as the wind should veer to the westward ; and 

 when the barometer began to rise, by bearing away, under the 

 heel of the storm, for her point of destination. 



The advantage of the first method would consist in having to 

 run a shorter distance off her course, in order to avoid the centre 

 of the gale. Its disadvantages consist in being too much headed 

 off at the outset, and perhaps, in getting too far northward to- 

 make the best of the S. W. monsoon, after the gale should have 

 terminated. The advantages of the second method would con- 

 sist, in running off more rapidly, with a fair wind and sea ; in get- 

 ting under the southern semi-circuit of the gale, where, owing to 

 the course of the wind being counter to the progress of the storm, 

 it becomes less violent ; in having almost throughout, a fair, in- 

 stead of a head wind ; and, finally, in being left by the storm to 

 the windward of the point of destination, as regards the existing 

 monsoon. The disadvantage, if any, of this method would con- 

 sist in the greater extent of the rout ; but as this would be accom- 

 plished under far more favorable circumstances, and probably in 

 much less time than the northern, it can hardly be counted as an 

 objection. It would, however, have been necessary to avoid the 

 Paracels, in shaping the southern course. 



The second method for avoiding the heart of this storm, there- 

 fore, would appear to have been preferable. But had the ship 

 fallen under the more northern portion of the gale, toward the dot- 



