24 Seventeenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. [Jan. 



June 29th. — The vessel appears to have steamed on as if wholly unconscious 

 of any danger ahead, though the increasing gale must have warned them of it, if 

 they did not believe their Barometer; and a reference to the Horn Book of Storms* 

 (p. 10 and 16 of the first, and 10 and 16 of the 2d edition) must have demon- 

 strated to them beyond controversy that they were on the Northern side of the 

 track of a tyfoon and steaming as directly as they could for its awfully dangerous 

 centre ! or in other words, placing themselves wantonly in a position in which 

 the finest frigate in the navy may be blown over like a paper boat: and from 

 which hundreds of well found ships have never escaped to tell their tale! and 

 they were doing this with a deeply laden and encumbered vessel ! 



By half past noon she had steamed into the centre of the tyfoon, being at noon 

 in latitude 18° 22' N. ; Long. 112° 48' East ; or at B on the chart. Her course 

 made good was S. 32 W. 103 miles since noon of the 28th ; her track is made 

 curved on the chart to shew how she probably steamed and drifted. 



It will be observed that between the first noted fall of the Barometer at 6 p. 

 m. and this time Noon 29th, eighteen hours elapsed, and as during the last six 

 hours she could have made but little way, we may fairly allow her to have run 

 down at the rate of five miles per hour (or 90 miles of the 103) which she made 

 between Noon of the 28th and 6 a. m. of the 29th ; and that for the last 60 

 miles of this 90, or from a. (her position at 6 p. m.) to b. which we may estimate 

 to be that of 6 a. m. we may fairly say she was forcing herself into mischief. The 

 distance from a. to B also, or 70 miles, must be about the semi-diameter of the 

 Tyfoon where violent. The sequel of this mistake, which might have been de- 

 tailed and predicted beforehand, even if we had not another word from her, was 

 the shift of wind to the S. W. and the remaining half of the Tyfoon which so 

 nearly completed the Pluto's destruction. f 



The Siewa was on the 28th, at Noon, in Lat. 17° 21' N. ; Long. 113° 38' 

 East ; with a commencement of bad weather, increasing till the next day (wind 

 not stated) when at Noon 29th she was in a full hurricane in Lat. 18° 8' N. ; 

 112° 32' East; throwing cargo overboard, having thus committed on the oppo- 

 site side of the storm the same error as the Pluto ; i. e. ran up 78 miles to the 

 N. 53° W. into the heart of it, for at 3 p. m. she was in the calm centre with a 

 shift of wind to N. W. veering to the South West at midnight, when it began to 

 moderate as the tyfoon was travelling from her. Her track is marked on the 

 chart. 



The Nemesis from Bombay is said to have been farther to the South, in 1 6° 

 N. and to have first experienced the Tyfoon at 2 p. m. on the 28th, from the 

 N. W., veering gradually to S. S. E. Her position is not given. 



* If they had it on board ? 



t She lost her funnel, rudder, &c. &c. and drifting back in an utterly disabled 

 state, struck on the rocks of Hong Kong, where she was nearly lost. 



