1858.] A Twenty- Fifth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 195 



d. There was also more danger than an utter want of sea room, 

 for, short of making a S. "W". course at least, which for the first hour 

 or two was out of the question, a single hour's run must have carried 

 the Pluto into say nine or at most ten fathoms water. 



7. And in a Cyclone, this shoaling of the water, it should be 

 held in mind, is a fearful danger. The deep water sea is, we know, 

 terrific, but in small soundings it becomes exactly a surf from all 

 quarters, in which nothing can live. I was assured by eye-witnesses 

 in 1812, when the wreck of H. M.'s Frigate Dover was yet lying on 

 the beach at Madras, that the surf in the great Cyclone of 1809 

 broke in nine fathoms water ; and you yourself, Sir, know well what 

 the sea is at the entrance to Bombay Harbour, if the shore is too 

 closely borrowed on in the S. W. Monsoon. If the Pluto then had 

 even cleared the shoal off the point, I think that in any thing less 

 than twelve fathoms, she must have been swamped. It is impossi- 

 ble for the most sanguine to suppose that she could have passed it 

 at that distance ; and to Captain Boon's resolutely steaming out for 

 the deep water, whether it was done in the contemplation of this 

 peculiar danger or not, I think we owe the preservation of the 

 vessel. When the track was ascertained, Captain Boon could not 

 get to the E. N. E. to be a little out of the way of the centre, for 

 his engines were already powerless. 



8. The case then altogether appears to be one of those unfor- 

 tunate ones in which for want of sea-room nothing can be done to 

 avoid the centre ; but the advantage which the law of storms* ill 

 gives us is that the sailor knows what is coming, and, as Captain 

 Boon has most creditably done in this case, takes his precautions 

 accordingly, so far as he can. 



I am Sir, 

 Tour's very obediently. 



H. P. 

 Calcutta, May 13th, 1854. 



