1834.] Remarks on the Marine Barometer, 178 



ment, anxious as we naturally were, to ascertain the fate of a fleet 

 from which we had separated eleven weeks before under such 

 unpropitious circ-umstances. This suspense, however, was of short 

 duration ; our worthy Commodore, with five of his convoy, were soon 

 discovered to be safe at anchor in the Bay, the remainmg three 

 ships were missing, and, sad to tell, have never since been heard of. 

 Of those which were safe, four, mciuding the seventy-four gim-ship, 

 had been in more or less danger of foundering in the storm, whilst 

 two escaped without injury ; owing, as it appeared from a compa- 

 rison of Journals, to their having escaped the brunt of the storm by 

 being rons derabiy to windward of the others ; thus corroborat- 

 ing, the theory with which I commenced, in my endeavours to prove 

 that where the storm begins there will it soonest end ; a great part 

 of the third day, which was by far the most tempestuous with us, 

 these two ships lay perfectly becalmed. 



Such were the disastrous effects of this memorable hurricane, from 

 a summary of which I think myself entitled to draw the following 

 practical inference ; namely, that had we instantly attended to the 

 timely warning of the Barometer, by bringing the ship to the wind, 

 and making preparations for the storm, instead of scudding before 

 it, until we could scud no longer, we should have escaped with as 

 little injury as the two ships I have just alluded to, and that had 

 the three unfortunate ships which foundered in the storm pursued 

 a similar course, which it may be fairly presumed they did not, a 

 very different fate might have befallen them too. 



But, lest the fatal catastrophe of this hurricane should not be 

 deemed suflSciently conclusive, I shall mention the result of another, 

 no less fatal in its consequences, which was encountered in the fol- 

 lowing season by another fleet of Indiamen, nearly in the same la- 

 titude and longitude, whilst under convoy of the late Lord Exmouth. 

 On this occasion four of the finest ships of the fleet, crowded with 

 passengers from Calcutta, were supposed to have foundered, as 

 they were missino^ immediately after the storm, and were never 

 heard of rnore. The last time they were seen was by Lord Exmouth 

 himself, when they were observed to be scudding before the gale, 

 whilst the rest of the fleet were lying- to. 



Here, then, we have another melancholy instance in point, which, 

 coupled with the preceding, ought to satisfy the mind of the most 

 sceptical seaman, as to the infallibility of the Barometer in indicating 

 the approach of hurricanes, within the tropics more particalarly, 



