1848.] Fifteenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 49 



that port ; but Captain Carless has omitted to note that the Bucking- 

 hamshire had 29^ hours of drifting and sailing (a part of it in a hurri- 

 cane too) before she anchored at 7.30 p, m. on the 20th off Vingorla. 

 Perhaps her true position was at about 60 or 70 miles from that port, 

 for 102 miles is a long distance for a disabled ship to make ; but 35 

 miles would have indubitably drifted her on shore with the Westerly 

 hurricane, gale, and breezes, she had (using these words to express the 

 strength of the wind) from the time of her dismasting to daylight on 

 the following day. If we take it that for the last 24 hours the storm 

 wave was carrying her 3' per hour, this would about place her, in addi- 

 tion to her log, at 60 miles from the port ; but we cannot assume this 

 at pleasure ; and if we place this ship 72 miles further north, we make 

 the winds experienced by the others much more at variance than they 

 are.* The Mermaid and Faize Rubany were both so close in with 

 the coast that their winds, which should be about S. W. b. S. to 

 S. S. W., are marked South with the latter vessel, and W. S. W. with 

 the Mermaid just after noon ; but these can be scarcely considered as 

 the true direction, as the gale with them must have been influenced on 

 the coast side by the high land ; and to the westward the Sesostris 

 had but a moderate gale from the northward, so that we may take 

 fairly about 220 to 230 miles as the full diameter of the storm, and 

 perhaps not above 1 80 as that of the true hurricane part of it, for the 

 Mermaid and Faize Rubany, though in severe weather and much dis- 

 tress, had nothing approaching to a furious hurricane, and indeed the 

 Mermaid must have foundered if she had had such weather. 



On the \9th April, the weather appears to have moderated, and we 

 have no farther authentic traces of this storm. Capt. Carless indeed 

 alludes to bad weather in the Gulf of Cutch, experienced by the H. C. 

 Surveying Schooner Taptee, and he states that on the 19th considerable 

 magnetic disturbance was noted at Bombay, when the winds also varied 

 considerably, but nothing like a gale was felt. The Barometer on the 

 17th and 18th was very little affected, and on the 19th, at 4 p. m. was 

 lowest, with a strong breeze at N. E., so that we cannot assign any 

 further track to our hurricane, which it is probable may now have been 



* Why there is at one time a strong storm wave, and at another, in the same seas 

 and seasons none, we cannot yet say, but I have no doubt there is this anomaly. 



H 



