1839] 



RuiCf for iayivg Ships to in Hurricangs. 



389 



direction of the spear head. It will be seen that the black ships 

 are always coming up, and the white ships always breaking off ; and 

 that they are on opposite tacks on opposite sides of the circles. Thus, 

 the Astrea, commanded by the hue Sir C. Schomberg, was on the pro- 

 per tack on the 20th of March, 1811 ; and an inspection of thelogof 

 that ship shows how^ gradually she came up ; but the Burcleiuh, on the 

 22d of January, 1S31, having had the wind from east-south-east, veering 

 to south, and then to south-souili-west, thereby proving her to be in the 

 right-hand semicircle of a storm moving southerly, was in the wrong 

 position whenlaid-to on the larboard tack. Had she been on the other 

 tack, the wind in veering would have drawn aft ; then, perhaps, she 

 would not have lain so long " with her broadside in the trough of the 

 sea, and with her lee-waist full of water." 



If hurricanes were to move in the opposite course to that wliich they 

 have hitherto been found to follow, then would the rule be reversed ; 

 for the white ships would come up, and the black ships breiik off. 



It can require no comnients to point our, that if the wind in storms 

 follows a fixed law, much advantage may be gained by the knowledge 

 of that law. 



In following the tracks of storms here detailed, we find that the hur- 

 ricane drawn on Chart VI. pis>cd over the Island of Antigua in six 

 hours. Yet the ship Judith and E>iher, not far from that island, was 

 tw'enty-four hours in the same storm ; for that ship ran along with it ; 

 and many other instances of the same nature occur in this inquiiy. 



If one side of a storm be to a ship in her voyage a foul wind, the op- 

 posite side of the same storm would be a fair one. Thus, within the 

 tropics in the Indian Ocean, the left-h;ind semicircle is a fair wind for 

 ships in their voyages from India to the Cape of Good Hope, whilst the 

 right-hand side w ill assist the voyages of outward bound ships : but 

 there is this important difference, that in the fi.st ca^e ships would carry 

 the fair wind with them ; whereas in the other semi -ircle, owing to the 

 ship sailing in the contrary direction to the prufrression of the gale, she 

 would have the benefit of it during a short time only. Thus, if a hurri- 

 cane coming from the eastward were passing over Mauritius, moving at 

 the rate of ten miles an hour, and a ship sailing eastward were to fall 

 into the side of the storm next the equator, the ship and storm would 

 pass each other in half the time in which the hurricane would pass over 

 the island, since they would be travelling at the same rates, but in 

 opposite directions. 



