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النشر الإلكتروني
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Author of the "Deviation of the Compass in Iron Ships Considered Practically," "How to Find the
Stars," "The Seaman's Annual," &c., &c.

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PUBLISHER

AT

(Late J. W. NORIE & WILSON,)

OF CHARTS AND NAUTICAL WORKS,

THE NAVIGATION WAREHOUSE AND NAVAL ACADEMY,

157, LEADENHALL STREET, E.C.

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PREFACE.

THE progress of meteorology and a more systematized method of observation having developed new views in respect to the nature and origin of Storms, the subject has, during the last ten or dozen years, been one of continual discussion and much controversy. This work has been written to give, in brief, the history of the development of the Law of Storms,―to contrast the old "circular," with the later "spiral," theory, and to show to what extent the old practical rules for storm-sailing require modification.

157, LEADENHALL STREET,

LONDON, May, 1876.

W. H. R.

THE

LAW OF STORMS

CONSIDERED PRACTICALLY.

Hurricane, Typhoon, and Cyclone* are but different names for the same natural phenomenon-a fierce tempest of wind and rain, with thunder and lightning, accompanied by a heavy cross sea, and marked by a very low barometer. The wind in such storms does not blow in straight lines, but, according to the popular idea, it has a horizontal rotation, as if on an axis; the centre of the storm is a calm, with the sea still rough, but the sun shining by day or the stars by night; immediately around this central calm area is the dark bank of cloud where the hurricane is blowing with its greatest strength; and a ship that has entered the calm with one wind leaves it with another blowing from an opposite, or nearly opposite, direction, indicating that while there is a movement of horizontal rotation, the storm-field is also subjected to a movement of translation.

Such tempests are especially characteristic of, though not confined to, the tropical regions; they very frequently invade extra-tropical regions, and even occasionally originate in the latter; they are subject to laws, as are all physical phenomena; and as it is of vital importance that a ship should not be navigated into or through the storm-field, which tradition and experience have alike pronounced to be disastrous, practical rules have been deduced from the Law of Storms, by the aid of which the seaman may avoid the danger, or escape from it when he happens to be caught there.

* The term Hurricane comes through the Spanish huracan, which is said to be derived from a West Indian native word, imitative of rushing wind. Ty-foong is a Chinese word indicating a great or mighty wind. Cyclone, as applied to the revolving gales of Indian seas, is said to have first been used by Piddington in his eighteenth memoir on storms, which appeared in Jour. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, vol. xviii

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