1843.] Law of Storms in India. 399 



any place to the Southward of Pondicherry, she would be carried one 

 way by the storm wave, and the opposite one, or partly so, say to 

 the S. E., East, or N. E. : by the storm current ; so that as to mere 

 Westing, the effect of the one would probably neutralise that of the 

 other. The case of ships on the Northern half of the storm, where 

 both forces are against him, should however be borne seriously in 

 mind by the seaman. It was probably the cause of the indraught which 

 wrecked the ships which were lost in this storm, and of some of the 

 others finding themselves in much shoaler water than from their run, 

 they might reasonably have supposed. Captain Biden's suggestion in 

 the port orders, to keep a due attention to the lead in these cases is then 

 founded not only on merely sound nautical experience, but upon good 

 scientific grounds also. To neglect the lead is a positive act of barratry 

 or folly, for in these storms it is impossible to estimate the true distance 

 from the coast by any other means, and the three forces, the " storm 

 wave," " storm current/' and the drift occasioned by the wind, would 

 form a complex problem in fine weather. The seaman will not fail 

 to recollect how much influence the storm wave may have upon his 

 position in places where, as in the British Channel,* a storm coming 

 from the Westward, brings with it a vast mass of water from a great 

 Ocean like the Atlantic, so that with a Southerly or South-westerly 

 gale, he finds himself set far to the Eastward by some hitherto un- 

 known but fatal current : and I trust that when I say that, if we can 

 obtain documents, we may trace out accurately the laws of these dan- 

 gerous complications, I shall add another claim to the assistance of every 

 right minded seaman, and of every friend to humanity. 



* I allude here, it will be perceived, to the two recent and harrowing catastrophes of 

 the Reliance and Conqueror. In both these cases the gale being Westerly, the vessels 

 were on the Southern half of the storm circle, and had thus both the storm wave and 

 storm current carrying them far to the Eastward of their reckoning. 



