1849.] Seventeenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 281 



with the wind at N. E. till she plunged into the Cyclone, at N. W. (and 

 indeed she could not heave to with Cape Engano only 70 miles under 

 her lee) we may say that from 6 a. m. to noon she made at least 50 

 miles to the S. East, which would place her at noon in Lat. 19° 5' N. ; 

 Long. 123° 37' with the wind at N. W. and the centre of the Cyclone 

 consequently a short distance to the N. E. of her, since it veered at or 

 by 3 a. m. to S. S. W. and shortly after to S. S. E. or 14 points in 

 15 or 16 hours. The average shift then was one of from N. W. to 

 S. S. W. which indicates a track from the E. b. N. to the W. b. S. 



In the second Cyclone we have only a vague position given, but the 

 veering, if we allow it on the grounds I have before stated to have been 

 a true Cyclone, is a very remarkable one, for it indicates a nearly meri- 

 dional track, and one trending to the Eastward, or from the S. b. W. to 

 the N. b. E. and I therefore note it here, though I can only mark it on 

 the Chart conjecturally as follows. 



If we take the ship to have made the best of her way towards Hong 

 Kong from her last position, by running through the Bashee passage, 

 she may have been on the 1 1th, say at noon, when 350 miles from Hong 

 Kong, in Lat. 20° 50' N. ; Long. 120° 20' East, from which position 

 the South point of Formosa lies about N. N. E. 70 miles. 



We are at a loss to know if the ship ran any distance, or was only 

 drifted during the whole of the 24 hours from about daylight 11th, to 

 daylight on the 12th, when so near the rocks of Formosa, for any run 

 would make the track of the Cyclone even farther to the Westward of 

 the meridian than we can now venture to assign it, but as she was partly 

 disabled she could scarcely venture to run far in such weather, and the 

 drift she made is not an excessive one in a Cyclone. I have therefore 

 set it down, at a venture, as a track from the S. S. W. to the N. N. E. 

 meaning by this expression that I have no doubt, if the newspaper 

 account be correctly printed* that the track certainly did incline to the 

 Eastward of the Meridian, but how much so we are uncertain, though 

 from what we have seen it may have done so enough to pass to the 

 Eastward of the South point of Formosa ! 



* I cannot here, unfortunately, refer to the Singapore Free Press of 1845. 



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