

1854.] A Twenty-third Memoir on the Law of Storms. 54i7 



But there are some details of great interest in these papers which 

 appear to me to indicate that this ship may possibly have been 

 caught at the junction of the two Cyclones ! or at least to have 

 experienced one or more tornados (and this is the word too used in 

 the log and protest) at or near to the centre of the Cyclone into 

 which she ran. In the following brief summary which is compiled 

 from both the log and the protest, the expressions between commas 

 are those of the documents themselves. 



The Portsmouth appears to have run up with strong gales from 

 the S. W. and S. S. W. which veered to S. East when she hove to, 

 and soon had it "blowing a perfect hurricane" which blew away her 

 close-reefed main topsail, and sails from the gaskets, and reduced 

 her to bare poles, wind still at S. East, ballast shifting from the ship 

 lying on her beam ends. 



" At 3 p. m. it fell nearly calm with a light breeze from south ; 

 Barometer suddenly fell from 29.40 to 28.30 ! Deck covered with 

 snipes, butterflies, locusts and grasshoppers, water discoloured, ship 

 drifting towards the land ; 5 p.m. tornado struck the ship from the 

 southward ; bent the cables ; 7, ship on her beam ends with her 

 ballast shifted, and expected she would go over, cut away main 

 and mizen masts and lost foretopmast. At 10, moderate wind at 

 S. S. W. but Barometer still at 28.30 ; midnight a third tornado 

 struck the ship from S. S. "W". more severe than before. The wind 

 now burst wp* both main and after hatches, and the dead-lights 

 from the cabin, windows," says the Protest. The log extract says, 

 "Hatches bursting off in spite of bars and spikes, Round-house 

 blown all to pieces and dead-lights from the stern windows." Protest 

 again says, " The carved work was blown from the stern, the Round- 

 house on deck blown to pieces, and no man could stand on deck 

 without holding on." 2 a. m. Barometer rising ; 6 a. m. gale abated. 



From this detail, there appears clearly to have been separate 

 centres, or local tornados, formed at the edges or by the interference 

 of the two Cyclones ? for the first calm and extraordinary fall of the 

 Barometers occurs at 3 p. m. ; then at an interval of two hours, or 5 

 p.m. a tornado (used hereto express the violent burst of a furious gale) 



* So in the originals, but I had no opportunity, I regret to say, of making 

 inquiries as the ship had left Calcutta, when the documents reached me. 



4 c 2 



