914 Eighteenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. [Sept. 



vessel got safe through, or past, the centre, she would not gain an hour 

 of time on her voyage, since, as we see in many of the foregoing logs, 

 she would on reaching the Pilot Station be ordered to sea, or if the 

 Pilot Vessel had been blown off the station the stranger might find her- 

 self hampered off the Reefs or Braces, with 24 hours of heavy weather 

 yet to go through, on a lee shore ; the Cyclones always ending at South, 

 or S. W. 



The case in which the ship is abreast of the Cyclone, which we may 

 describe as having the wind North or South blowing a gale, with a 

 falling Barometer, so that the centre bears East or West of her, is a 

 double one. If the wind is South or between S. E. and S. "W. it is 

 clear that the ship is also safely to the Eastward of the Cyclone, and 

 has only to heave to, if she has not a long run to make to the Sand- 

 heads. She will of course heave to on the starboard tack, being on the 

 right hand side, till her Barometer rises ; or if it be judged, say by the 

 violence of the S. E. squalls and the fall of the Barometer, that the 

 centre will yet pass close to her, to stand off to the N. E., unless indeed 

 the vessel be altogether hampered in the N. E. corner of the Bay.* 



If however, she has the wind between N. E. and North, it is clear 

 that the Cyclone is to the Eastward or S. Eastward of the ship, and is 

 perhaps coming direct towards her at the rate of ten knots an hour, 

 and she must now run back to cross in front of it ; always remembering 

 that every mile she runs, say to the S. S. W., after she has brought 

 the wind N. N. E., is into safety, as her rising Barometer will quickly 

 show. The reason for this is obvious ; she avoids the centre and avoids 

 the farther danger of being hampered, with perhaps a disabled ship, 

 between the Cyclone and the heads of the reefs or the coast of Orissa, 

 as may be. She may always, as she brings the wind to the ^West- 

 ward of North, haul to the Eastward and run round the Southern 

 quadrants and " under the heel" of the Cyclone, so as really to lose 

 no time while running easily before it, j- or with a quartering gale, so 

 as to avoid the racking and straining of heaving to, or of carrying sail 

 off a lee shore or riding it out when dismasted. 



For the outward-bound ships it is clear that, supposing them to leave 



* I always assume sea room as this is necessarily the sailor's first consideration. 



t As in the case of the Forth, just quoted, which though a forced manoeuvre, was 

 successful, and shows what may be done by a ship which steers well though in 

 distress. 



