34 C. Little — Cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. No. 2, 



blowing and hard squalls with continuous rain. High head sea and 

 heavy swell from S. 10-0 — Bar: keeping steady, wind hauled E. x N., but 

 the weather did not improve .11-30 — Bar : 29*84, altered course E. x S, 

 storm centre then bearing S.W. x S. from the direction of the wind. 

 12-0 — Wind still E. xN., strong wind and high sea with very heavy 

 squalls, Bar: 29-80. 1-0— Wind back to E.N.E. 2-0— Bar: 2975, 

 wind N.E. and the weather getting worse, showing storm was crossing 

 our bows. Altered course to S.W. and went full speed. 2-6, wind back 

 N.N.E. and the swell which was very heavy came from S.S.E. 2-25, 

 wind hauled E.N.E. 3-0 Bar : 29*60, wind back for a few minutes to 

 N.N.E. but went round almost at once to E.N.E. 3-25, Bar : 29*50, wind 

 E.N.E. 3-40, wind E, both wind and sea decreasing but heavy swell 

 from S.S.W., which taken with the hauling of the wind and the rapid 

 fall of the Bar. showed storm was setting nearer and crossing our bows, 

 so altered course S.E., having run 18 miles on the previous course : the 

 Bar. now remained steady for a bit but then commenced to fall and the 

 weather to get very much worse. At 4 Bar : 29*45, wind backing 

 again to E.N.E., very strong, with a high confused sea and heavy swell 

 from S.S.W. 5-10, Bar: 2940, wind again backed to N.E. and weather 

 got worse and worse, showing that storm had probably recurved and 

 was coming towards us. So the course was again altered to S.W. At 

 5-15 a terrific squall struck the vessel with hurricane force N.N.E., 

 carrying away awnings, after boat and doing damage generally ; this 

 kept on with unabated force till 7-15, when the wind which gradually 

 backed from N.N.E. through N to N.N.W. suddenly shifted to N.W., 

 and the Bar : which was pumping badly from 29*35 to 29*40 suddenly 

 jumped up a tenth and a half ; from this the weather rapidly improved, 

 the vessel being kept before the wind until at 8-30 with the wind still 

 N.W. ; Bar : rising we went on our course again full speed." 

 The accompanying charts show more clearly — 



(1) that from 8 a.m. of the 15th, when the centre of the cyclone 

 was about 200 miles distant, until 8 p.m. of the same day when 

 the centre had passed to the north-east of the vessel, the 

 officers were engaged in a continued effort to follow the instruc- 

 tions of the Handbook. 



(2) that the general effect of trying to follow the rules, was not to 



keep the ship away from the storm area, but to carry her 

 directly towards the approaching centre. 



(3) that the failure to avoid the storm centre was due to the re- 

 curving which is so conspicuous a feature of the storm. 



It may be said that recurving is so frequently present in cyclones 

 in November that it should have been possible to allow for it on this 



