1842.] A Sixth Memoir on the Law of Storms in India. 631 



For the first part of this storm we may speak of the fleet as one 

 ship, being closely in company. I shall latterly, of course, separate my 

 remarks, as the ships themselves were separated. It appears from the 

 logs that from noon to midnight on the 27th, they made a little 

 Northing with the variable winds, and on the 28th, from midnight to 

 4 p. m. when they hove to, they were going from two to six knots to 

 the north, making a difference of latitude of G4 miles in the 24 hours, 

 but no Easting. This northing was an important circumstance, for the 

 storm had fairly commenced at daylight on the 28th, when the re- 

 mark in the Scaleby Castle's log is, " a. m. At this time the weather 

 had rather a threatening appearance, but the Marine Barometer had 

 not fallen a great deal." The wind was at N. N. W. and N. by W. at 

 9 a. m. with the Cumberland, and it is marked at N. N. W. at noon, 

 with all three ships. We may thus take the centre of the hurricane 

 to be bearing E. N. E. from the fleet at this time : we have no means 

 of ascertaining at what distance. 



From about 4 p. m. on the 28th, the ships were lying to on the 

 larboard tack in a severe gale rising to a hurricane, with the wind 

 veering from this time, when it was N. N. W. to N. by E. and N. 

 N. E., and N. E. by N. At midnight N. E., then East and to E. S. E. 

 by 5 p. m. with some, and finally S. E., by noon on the 30th with 

 them all. Some variations as to the times of veering occur of course, 

 for to say nothing, in such weather of log board and of copying inaccu- 

 racies, the ships were now separated. We may however say, that 

 in the 44 hours between 4 p. m. 28th and noon of 30th, the wind 

 veered from N. N. W. to S. E. or 14 points; or a point in 3 hours. It 

 was then clearly a hurricane passing close to the southward of the fleet, 

 which was drifting back to the Southward, South-westward, Westward 

 and North-westward, or round the curve of its North-western and 

 North-eastern quadrants, and from its extreme fury, their position 

 with respect to its centre, as above stated, and the fall of the Ba- 

 rometer to 28.30, where it remained for 24 hours according to the 

 Scaleby's log, we may safely suppose that they were at no great dis- 

 tance from the centre of it, and the unfortunate True Briton being 

 probably a more leewardly vessel, was carried farther to the South by 



