Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura SeaStokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura Sea
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
(*Footnote. Although this hurricane has been noticed, and the Favourite's
Log published in the Nautical Magazine, I think it will be useful to
continue the practice of entering into some detail respecting every
hurricane that came under my observation. This storm, it appears, was
encountered off Mangaia, one of the Harvey Isles, lying about midway
between the Society and Hapai Groups. The Favourite was in latitude 21
degrees 58 minutes South, longitude 158 degrees 02 minutes West, five
miles South-West by West from Mangaia, at noon on the 17th December,
1842, steering West by South 1/2 South before a moderate gale from
East-North-East, with cloudy rainy weather. At 3 P.M. she had gone 27
miles, when the wind, which had increased to a strong gale, veering to
North-East, the course before it was now South-West; but at the end of
another hour, having run eight miles, the wind increased to a storm, and
veering again to the eastward, the ship was brought to the wind on the
port tack under a main trysail. For the hours 5 and 6, she headed from
South to South-West, which would give for the direction of the wind about
South-East by East. At 6.30 a man was washed away with the lee
quarter-boat. At 8, the wind had veered to South by West, having blown a
hurricane, with constant rain for the last hour; at 9 most of the
half-ports were washed away, the sea making a clean sweep over the decks.
By midnight the wind had subsided to a whole gale; but still veering had
reached the West-South-West point, and at 3 the next morning it was
blowing only a moderate breeze from West-North-West, with tolerably clear
weather. Sail was now made, and a South-West by South course held for 28
miles, when by the noon observation the latitude was 22 degrees 1 minute
South, longitude, by chronometer, 158 degrees 44 minutes West. The day
following the hurricane the wind was moderate from the westward; and on
that previous to it of about the same strength from the northward. The
ship's position at noon of the latter day was about 130 miles to the
North-East by East of Mangaia Island. The duration of this storm, then,
may be considered to have been from 4 P.M. to midnight, in which eight
hours the wind had veered gradually from East round by South to
West-South-West. The veering being much more rapid between 8 and 9 P.M.
when the storm was at its height, the ship must at that time, have been
nearer the focus. The tack on which the Favourite was hove to carried her
into the course of the hurricane, or rather placed her in a position to
be overtaken by it, as it passed along to the southward and westward; but
as the ship broke off to the westward and northward, she fell out of its
north-western edge. Doubtless, if a West-North-West course had been
pursued in the first instance, or at noon on the 17th, the Favourite
would have avoided the storm. It is to be regretted that the barometer
was broken in the commencement of the hurricane, when it was unusually
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura Sea — John Shaqi
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