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A Twelfth Memoir on the Law of Storms in India; being 

 the Storms of the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, 9th to 14th 

 November, 1844. By Henry Fiddington. 



The present memoir will scarcely need, at least for readers in India, 

 any introduction ; for the intense interest excited by the wrecks, and 

 wonderfully providential escape of the troops and crew, of the True 

 Briton and Runnymede, must yet be fresh in their minds. For those 

 however in other countries who may honour it with a perusal, I may 

 say that on the 9th November 1844, the barque Dido was dismasted 

 in a hurricane in the Andaman sea, into which also the transport ships 

 Briton from New South Wales, and Runnymede from England, both 

 bound to Calcutta, the two together having in European troops and crews 

 nearly 700 souls on board, were then running ; and that being caught 

 in it they were partially dismasted, and finally at about one in the 

 morning of the 12th both ships were — wonderful to relate — thrown high 

 and dry on the shore of the small or inner Andamans, the provisions of 

 the one serving most opportunely for the support of the people of the 

 other, and the whole being well able, by the troops, to defend themselves 

 against the savages : They were taken off by assistance obtained from the 

 British settlements on the Tenasserim Coast. I refer to the Summary 

 at the conclusion for details, as to the highly instructive lesson in our 

 science to be drawn from those storms ; which in brief words amount 

 to this— that the lives of a whole European Regiment were perilled to 

 the utmost possible extent, short of destruction, by the ships not heav- 

 ing to for six hours ! As far as loss of life can be weighed or counted, 

 the loss of a European Regiment in India would be equal to the loss of 

 an average, or a first-rate, battle ! 



Abridged Log of the Steamer Royal Sovereign, Capt. Marshall, 

 from Penang to Calcutta. 



On 9th November, 1844. — p.m. Light breeze SSE. and clear wea- 

 ther. 8 p.m. abreast of Seyer Island, altered course to North. Midnight 

 " fine steady breeze with drizzling rain." 



10M November, — a.m. At 1 breeze increasing; at 2 heavy gale 

 WNW. Ship hove to under balanced main-trysail. 4 a.m. gale in- 



