1848.] Sixteenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 527 



and N. N. W. as it did. From the best calculation I can make of the 

 Orient's position at noon on the 2/th, she was in Lat. 11° 3 1 7 South ; 

 Long. 77° 00 ; East, and the Grand Dnsquesne was at this time 205 

 miles to the E. S. E. of her, with a gale commencing in the usual 

 way, with torrents of rain and wind, till noon, from N. E. to East, 

 showing that she was on the outer verge of a separate vortex.* 



The Duncan also, at this time, Noon 27th, being 223 miles to the 

 S. E. b. S. of the Orient, was under double-reefs, with the wind at about 

 East. In the afternoon she was preparing for bad weather, being also 

 just on the verge of a vortex, which both ships soon after fell into, the 

 Duncan heaving to at 6 p. m., and the Grand Dusquesne running down 

 on a S. W. and W, S. W. course to midnight, (when she hove or 

 broached to) so as to approach the centre rapidly, for she was obliged 

 to cut away her mainmast by 3 a. m. on the 28th. I have thus placed the 

 centre of the Orient's hurricane for this day in 11° 30 7 S. ; Long. 76° 

 30' East, or 30 miles to the Westward of her position, extending the 

 circle to 150 miles in diameter only, as supposing another vortex forming 

 for the Duncan and Grand Dusquesne, to the Eastward, which by the 

 wind, must have been the case. We can say nothing of the Maria 

 Somes position on this day, or rather of the supposed position of that 

 vessel according to the very imperfect log and newspaper accounts which 

 we have from her ; and she had at this time the wind about West, so 

 that she was on the Northern edge of another vortex. Her very low 

 Barometer (which appears to have remained so from the previous bad 

 weather) is some evidence that it was affected by the Orient and Grand 

 Dusquesne's storms. f 



For the 28th of March we find the Orient running and drifting down 

 with a gale (always from the North) 65 miles to the S. S. W. of 

 her position on the 2/th ; and as the wind was North at noon the 

 centre of her storm must either have moved down parallel to her track or 



* This ship unfortunately had no Barometer, at least none is noticed, and this is the 

 more to be regretted that she probably from her position felt the effects of both storms. 



t The only instance in which I have been able to obtain a good Barometer note 

 when contemporaneous and closely parallel storms were undoubtedly raging, is that of 

 the ship Eliza, Capt. McCarthy, IX. Memoir, Jour. As. Soc. Vol. XIT. p. — in which 

 a sudden fall of an inch took place, both storms travelling with considerable rapidity. 

 In the case before us the storms were nearly stationary, that is moving very slowly, as 

 we shall sec. 



