EFFECT OF WESTERLY WINDS ON THE CHANNEL. 379 



VII. 



On the Effect of westerly Winds In raising the Level of the 

 British Channel. In a Letter to the Right lion. Sir 

 Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B- P. R. S. By James Ree- 

 nelx, Esq. F. R. S. * 



7 



IN the il Observations on a Current that often prevails to Strong westerly 

 the Westward of Scilly," which I had the honour to lay ^TeVoT'the ° 

 before the Royal Society many years .ago, I slightly men- Channel, 

 tioned, as connected with the same subject, the effect of 

 strong westerly winds in raising the level of the British 

 Channel ; and the escape of the superincumbent waters 

 through the Strait of Dover, into the then lower level of 

 the North Sea. 



The recent loss of the Britannia East India ship, Cap- Loss of the Bri- 

 tain Birch, on the Goodwin Sands, has impressed this fact tannia » 

 more strongly on my mind ; as I have no doubt that her loss 

 was occasioned by a current, produced by the running off 

 of the accumulated waters ; a violent gale from the westward 

 then prevailing. The circumstances under which she was 

 lost, were generally these : 



In January last she sailed from her anchorage between 

 Dover and the South Foreland (on her way to Portsmouth), 

 and was soon after assailed by a violent gale between the 

 west and south-west. The thick weather preventing a view 

 of the lights, the pilot was left entirely to the reckoning 

 and the lead ; and when it was concluded, that the ship was 

 quite clear of the Goodwin, she struck on the north-eastern 

 extremity of the southernmost of those sands. And this dif- 

 ference between the reckoning (after due allowance being 

 made for the tides) and the actual position, I conclude was 

 owing to the northerly stream of current, which caught owing to a 

 the ship when she drifted to the back, or eastern side of the ^fromS" 

 Goodwin. Strait of Dover. 



The fact of the high level of the Channel, during strong 

 winds between the W. and SW., cannot be doubted: be- 



♦Philos. Trans, for 1809, p. 400. 



