the arrows between the two outer circles showing the direction of the wind according to his law. The dotted arrows mark the central direction of the wind, as maintained by Mr. Espy. Due North. It will be remarked, that the wind on the north side of Mr. Redfield's whirlwind blows from the east ; on the south side, from the west; on the east, from the south; and on the west, from the north. The centripetal storm of Mr. Espy, as shown by the dotted arrows, blows from the point indicated by the compass direction, in the line of the radius, and his wind is always at right angles to Mr. Redfield's. It would not seem very difficult, then, to make up our judgment on this matter, if we were supplied with correct statements of the direction of the wind in different parts of the storm at the same time. The most valuable information gathered by Colonel Reid is that relating to the hurricanes of October, 1780, the most terrible recorded in West Indian history. Three great storms happened in the same month. The first destroyed the town of Savanna-la-Mar, and wrecked the British frigate Phenix. The second, and by far the severest, desolated the island of Barbadoes, and inflicted great losses upon commerce and upon the British fleets. The third dis persed the Spanish fleet under Solano, in the Gulf of Mexico, after it had sailed from Havana to attack Pensacola. The faithful method adopted by Colonel Reid, of printing all the accounts in detail, affords to every one the same means of arriving at the truth. England, being then at war, had large squadrons in the West Indies, and on the American coast, and this circumstance multiplied the facilities for tracing these gales. Sir Peter Parker commanded in the West Indies, and Sir George Rodney was off New York in the Sandwich. In the squadron of the former, eight ships were lost, and their crews nearly all perished, and seven vessels were dismasted. In that under Rodney, five vessels were lost, and nine were dismasted, or severely damaged. Savanna-laMar was destroyed, the islands of Barbadoes, St. Vincent, St. Eustatia, Dominica, Grenada, and Martinique suffered dreadfully. Twenty-five or thirty thousand persons are known to have perished on the islands, besides the crews of the men-of-war already mentioned, and of numerous trading vessels which were wrecked. At Grenada alone, "nineteen sail of loaded Dutch ships were stranded and beaten to pieces." Six ships of war were anchored at the careenage of St. Lucia, when the gale began, and five of them were driven to sea, and returned to port in the most helpless condition. The language of poetry bears a literal interpreta tion. "And anchored navies from their stations drive, At Barbadoes, the family of the governor were obliged to take refuge in the cellar, the wind, in spite of every precaution, having forced a passage into all parts of the house, and torn off most of the roof. "From this asylum, they were soon driven out; the water being stopped in its passage, having found itself a course to the cellar, they knew not where to go. The water had risen four feet, and the ruins were falling from all quarters. To continue in the cellar was impossible; to return to the house equally so. The only chance left was making for the fields, which at that time appeared equally dangerous. It was, however, attempted; and the family got to the ruins of the foundation of the flagstaff, which soon after giving way, every one endeavoured to find a retreat for himself. The governor, and the few that remained, were thrown down; and it was with great difficulty they gained the cannon, under the carriage of which they took shelter. Their situation was deplorable; many of the cannon were moved; and they had reason to fear that the one under which they sat might be dismounted and crush them by its fall, or that some of the ruins which were flying about might put an end to their existence; and to render the scene still more doubtful, they were near the powder magazine. Anxiously did they look for the break of day, flattering themselves that with the light they would see a cessation of the storm; yet, when it appeared, little was the storm abated. Nothing can be compared with the terrible devastation that presented itself on all sides; not a building standing. The trees, if not torn up by the roots, were deprived of their leaves and branches; and the most luxurious spring changed, in this one night, into the dreariest winter."* Such are the awful scenes which the study of this subject leads us to contemplate. One anecdote illumines for a moment the dark gloom. The Endymion, Laurel, and Andromache were to the east of Martinique, and on a lee shore. The Endymion just cleared the northeast point of the island; but the two latter vessels were wrecked, and twenty-five of the crew of the Laurel alone were saved. These men, of course, were made prisoners. They were sent by the Marquis de Bouillé to the British governor at St. Lucia, with a letter, saying that he could not detain them as prisoners from the chances of a catastrophe common to all. "How far that little candle throws his beams!" In the first storm, on the third of the month, Mr. Espy has selected the time when the centre is supposed to have passed over Lucia bay, about six o'clock, P. M. The records of the storm at this moment are very incomplete; all winds to the west of south and north are wanting; that is, for one half of the circle, and those on the other half are confined to a small space. This hurricane, we incline to believe, originated on the island of Jamaica. It is first heard of at Port Royal, where it raged more than twelve hours before it reached Savanna-la-Mar. This fact, which Mr. Espy omitted to notice, is entirely inconsistent with his theory; for, according to that, as the wind was from the southeast, the centre of the storm should have been far to the north of Jamaica, before the first part reached Savannala-Mar. Neither has Mr. Espy given the exact directions of the wind upon his sketch; his south is nearer south by * Gentlemen's Magazine of 1780. Reid, pp. 347, 384. west, and the south-southeast at Port Royal is southeast. These may be errors of the engraver, but they favor his views. But the data of the storm are not sufficient at this point to authorize its use as a demonstration of either theory.* When we pass to the two next recorded stages of its progress, where it overtook Admiral Rowley's squadron, and the ships belonging to Sir George Rodney's fleet, the whole body of the evidence is in harmony with the rotary law, and irreconcilable with the rectilinear hypothesis. As Mr. Espy has avoided these tests, we will not dwell upon them, but proceed to examine the hurricane of the 11th and 12th, at the point chosen by himself. It is to be observed, however, that whilst Mr. Redfield and Colonel Reid give charts of the whole track of the storm, Mr. Espy limits his projections to one period. If his principle be correct, it applies equally to all periods, and to no one more than another. The following sketch is copied from Mr. Espy's book.† "Chart of the great Barbadoes hurricane, October 11th, 1780, showing the course of the wind at 6, P. M. 1. Montagu, from 6 to 8, P. M. 4. Endymion, from P. M. of the 10th to 12th. 5. Albemarle, from 4 P. M. till next day. 2. Amazon, at 2, P. M. 3. Alcmene, from 5 till 9, P.M. "The dotted line is the course which the centre of the storm moved in." * Among the documents relating to this storm is a letter from Lieutenant Archer to his mother, giving an account of the loss of the Phenix, written in a very graphic style, and filled with details of touching interest, such as created the universal popularity of Mr. Dana's "Two Years before the Mast." It is too long to quote, but we recommend its perusal. + Espy, p. 199. These arrows point inwards to a central space; but when we have made the necessary corrections, the character of the testimony will be changed. The wind of the Montagu which Mr. Espy has put down W. by N. is really N. N. E.* The wind of the Amazon instead of being N. W. is N. E.f There is a palpable error in the log of the Alcmene; for the wind is marked N. W. when the ship's head in the adjoining column is N. W. also ; the "Remarks," as well as the log of the Amazon, which vessel was very near the Alcmene, show that N. W. is a misprint for N. E. The wind of the Endymion is not N. E. as given by Mr. Espy, but E. N. E. § Mr. Espy's position of the Albemarle is wrong; that ship was further to the north and east than he represents her. At St. Vincent, the wind was a little to the west of N. W. and not W. by S. The winds at St. Lucia, so minutely noted as to time, are not to be found in Colonel Reid's documents.T The wind at Barbadoes is loosely given, and at long intervals,** so that it is impossible to determine the precise direction at 6, P. M. We shall not make use of it. Finally, Mr. Espy has omitted the Vengeance and the Egmont altogether, though they were within the space included in his chart. Of the nine arrows, then, in Mr. Espy's projection, eight are positively erroneous, and the ninth (Barbadoes) is uncertain; two other data of equal importance are omitted. In the following projection, the arrows are pointed the right way. The reader will perceive, that the mass of air between the circles exhibits a uniform rotary character. In any particular section, the whole tendency is from right to left, and in no instance is it reversed. The course of the wind sometimes deviates a little, as at the Albemarle and Endymion. The difficulty of observing the exact direction of the wind in a tempest, both at sea and on shore, particularly in the former case, where the motion is violent and unceasing, must be taken into consideration. The winds, too, in their fierce contention will be diverted from regular action. It is rather to be wondered at, that so slight a variation from a steady motion in rotation should be found in so many different ac* Reid, p. 365. § p. 371. **There is a contradiction between the log of the Albemarle and the account in the Gentleman's Magazine, as to the direction of the wind at 10 o'clock of the 10th. The Albemarle must be right; otherwise she could not have gone to sea, and doubled the point of the island. t Ibid. p. 367. + p. 357. |
