118 On the Gales and Hurricanes of the Western Atlantic. 



wind-arrows at the point c, which, if the position be in the tempe- 

 rate latitudes, north of 30°, will be from eastward. Now, it is ob- 

 vious, that as the storm advances in its course north-eastward, this 

 vessel, if nearly stationary, will intersect the body of the gale on the 

 line cAd. As the storm advances, the wind must also veer to the 

 northward, as shown by the arrows, being at N. E. when the vessel 

 is brought under the point A, and near the close or departure of the 

 storm by its further progress eastward, the wind will have further 

 veered to the direction shown at d, which, with due allowance for 

 the progressive motion of the storm, we will set down at N. N. W. 

 The other vessel, as is equally obvious, will first take the wind from 

 the southward, as shown at e, in which quarter it will blow, with no 

 great variation, till, by the advance of the storm, the ship is brought 

 under the point B. The barometer, which had previously been fall- 

 ing, will now commence rising, and the wind, veering more westerly, 

 will, at the departure of the storm, be found in the direction shown 

 at/, which, after the allowance already referred to, may be stated at 

 W. N. W. Such, substantially, are the facts commonly reported by 

 vessels which fall under the lateral portions of the Atlantic storms, 

 and it is readily seen, that the opposite winds, which are exhibited 

 on the two different intersections of the storm, as above described, 

 will very naturally be mistaken for two separate and distinct gales. 



The phases of the wind in these gales are, however, in all cases, 

 modified more or less by the course or changing position of the ves- 

 sel exposed to its action. For example, a ship on taking the gale, 

 say at E. S. E. at the point h, on the figure, and lying-to with her 

 head to the northward, may by that means be brought to intersect 

 the storm on the line hi, and at the point i, would suddenly be taken 

 aback, with the wind say at N. N. W., as in the case of the home- 

 ward-bound fleet in 1782, and the barometer, which reaches its low- 

 est depression under the central portion of the storm, would about 

 this period be found to have commenced rising with some degree of 

 rapidity. 



A further reference to the figure will show that a ship, which may 

 be at the point G during the passage of the gale, would be exposed 

 to a heavy swell from the southward and westward ; but being be- 

 yond the organized limits of the storm,* may remain entirely unaf- 



* The terms organized and organization, are used by the writer in the sense in 

 ■which he conceives them to be applicable to all eddies, whirlpools, and whirl- 

 winds, and generally, to all fluid and aerial vortices, while in a state of activity, 



