1842.] A Sixth Memoir on the Law of Storms in India. 621 



I now proceed to the deductions to be drawn from the foregoing 

 documents, but before I do so. I should remark, for the information of 

 those unacquainted with the fact, that the East India Company's 

 China ships were, though merchantmen, vessels of from 12 to 1400 

 tons, mounting upwards of thirty guns, with crews and officers in pro- 

 portion, and these last in their day, men of the first acquirements and 

 talents in their profession. When we find, therefore, that such ships, 

 well found and managed as they were, suffered so much from the 

 storm, we must recollect that their logs express pretty nearly what a 

 good Frigate or sixty-four gun ship of the old times, would have found 

 it : Weather in which smaller merchant vessels would have been re- 

 duced much sooner to bare poles. 



It is evident from the inspection of the tables, that one of the 

 storms was travelling from the South-eastward to the North-westward, 

 for it began on the 20th with the Camden, Bombay Castle, Ganges, 

 and Coutts close to the Eastern edge of the Macclesfield bank, six de- 

 grees South of the entrance of Canton river, while near the Coast of 

 China, the ships were standing in for it with fine weather. 



The table of the 20th, it will be seen, gives two directions of the 

 wind for the Southern storm, N. N. E. for the Camden and Bombay, 

 and N. E. by N. for the Ganges. Taking these as tangents, and pro- 

 jecting carefully for the centre of the storm from the ships' positions, 

 they will be found to place it about the Island of Mindoro, or 

 S. E. by E. i E. of the ships, distance 380 miles. Perhaps the centre 

 was not really so far off, as, the angle being so acute, considerable error 

 may occur, but this is quite evidence enough to show, that the storm 

 did commence to the E. S. E. of this part of the Fleet. I have not 

 therefore marked a centre for this day, but carried the Track from 

 that quarter. 



On the 21st, there was still fine weather on the Coast of China, but 

 with the southern division of the fleet, the storm by noon was so heavy 

 as to bring them under close reefed top-sails with top-gallant masts 

 and yards down, and all other preparations for bad weather. It should 

 be noticed that these four ships of the southern division form again two 

 smaller divisions. The Camden and Bombay Castle together, being 

 just to the Eastward of the Macclesfield, and the Ganges and Coutts, 

 also in company with each other, about eighty miles to the E. N. E. 



4 N 



