that winds are expected from the northwest quadrant; when below, from the southwest quadrant.

Night Storm Warnings-By night a red light will indicate easterly winds; a white above a red light will indicate westerly winds.

Hurricane Warning (two storm warning flags, red with black centers, displayed one above the other) indicates the expected approach of a tropical hurricane or of an extremely severe and dangerous storm.

No night hurricane warnings are displayed.

A yellow flag with white center is a cautionary signal. Signals should be read from the top of the staff downward. These signals indicate the weather forecasts for the twenty-four hours commencing at 8 o'clock a. m.

UNITED STATES WEATHER SIGNALS.-When displayed on poles, the signals should be arranged to read downward; when displayed from horizontal supports, a small streamer should be attached to indicate the point from which the signals are to be read.

The morning forecasts only (i.e., those issued from the a.m. reports) will be utilized for the display of weather signals, and the flags displayed will represent only the forecast applicable to the twenty-four hours beginning at 8 p.m. of the day the flags are hoisted. (Plate 159.)

If more than one kind of weather is predicted for the period from 8 p.m. to 8 p.m., the conditions first named in the forecast will be represented by the uppermost weather flag in a vertical hoist, or by the weather flag nearest to the small streamer indicating the point, in a horizontal hoist, from which the signals are to be read. If two temperature forecasts are made for this period, the first-named only will be represented by the temperature flag in its proper position.

When cold-wave signals are ordered, or when the regular forecast contains warnings of a cold wave, the cold-wave signal will be displayed alone, and in no case will flags representing the weather element be displayed on the same staff with the cold-wave signal.

If the forecasts contain a prediction, “moderate cold wave," "decidedly low temperature," "decided fall in temperature," "much colder," etc., the cold-wave flag will not be displayed but the temperature flag will be hoisted below the proper weather flag.

Flags will be invariably lowered at sunset of the day the hoist is made, and no flags will be displayed on the following day until the receipt of the next succeeding morning forecast.

Number I indicates clear or fair weather. Number 2 indicates rain or snow. Number 3 indicates that local rains or showers will occur, and that the rainfall will not be general. Number 4 always refers to temperature; when placed above numbers 1, 2 and 3 it indicates warmer weather; when placed below numbers 1, 2 and 3 it indicates colder weather; when not displayed, the indications are that the temperature will remain stationary, or that the change in temperature will not vary more than four degrees from the temperature of the same hour of the preceding day from March to October, inclusive, and not more than six degrees for the remaining months of the year. Number 5 indicates the approach of a sudden and decided fall in temperature. When number 5 is displayed, number 4 is always omitted.

Examples:-Nos. I and 4, "Fair weather. Colder."
Nos. 4 and 2, "Warmer.

Rain or snow."

Nos. 4, 1 and 2, "Warmer, fair weather, followed

by rain or snow."

Nos. 1 and 5, "Fair weather. Cold wave."

§ I.

CHAPTER XX.

HANDLING STEAMERS IN HEAVY WEATHER.

The conventional way of handling a steamer when the weather is too heavy for her to proceed on her course is to bring her up until she has the sea on the bow and to hold her there by the engines and the helm, assisted by such after sail as may be available. In this position, most steamers have a constant tendency to fall off, and can only be held up by giving them way enough for the rudder to exercise considerable steering power. They are thus, to some extent, forced into the sea, and the more it is necessary to force them, the greater the strain to which they are subjected, and the greater the probability of their taking water on board in dangerous quantities. This method of riding out a gale has been handed down from the days of bluff-bowed sailing ships and of steamers with more or less complete sail power. Such ships were held up to wind and sea by their ample after sail, with little or no headway. If they fell off-as from time to time they did-and started to gather way, the hard down helm and after sail would bring them promptly back to meet the sea. Thus they came up and fell off, making some little way through the water, but none of it against the sea; and, in the main, drifting steadily to leeward. For such ships, this was and is the ideal way of riding out a gale. But a modern steamer, whether man-of-war, liner or tramp, carries very little after sail and is commonly long and sharp. The propeller acts as a drag, tending to hold her stern up to the sea, and this tendency is assisted by the excess of draft which such steamers usually have aft. To hold such a steamer bows on to the sea, she must be forced into it—not at great speed, perhaps, but sufficiently to strain the ship severely and to suggest grave doubt as to the wisdom of this method of lying to.

The opinion is gaining ground of late years that a steamer of this type should run slowly before a sea or lie to with the

sea astern or on the quarter; and this view is supported both by theoretical considerations and by a convincing amount of practical experience.

If we watch any buoyant object floating in waves which are of some size as compared with the object itself, we shall see that so long as it floats freely, it floats easily, with no indication of strain and with little or no wash on its upper surfaces. If it is forced to lie in some other position than that which it naturally takes, all this is changed; it ceases to ride easily, and the waves break over it more or less. If it is forced through the water, even on the heading which it naturally takes, signs of strain become apparent, and the sea washes over it. If it is forced against the sea, the wash will be greater than on any other course, and as the speed in this direction increases, it dives into and cuts through the waves instead of riding over them.

We might anticipate for this that the easiest position for a ship in a heavy sea would be that which she would herself take if left at rest and free from the constraint of engines, helm and sails. For steamers of the type we are now considering (modern steamers of average characteristics), this seems to be generally true. Such a steamer, if left to herself in a seaway will usually fall off until she has the sea abaft the beam, the propeller acting as a drag and holding her stern up. In this position she will roll deeply, but easily, and will drift to leeward, leaving a comparatively smooth wake on the weather beam and quarter, rolling deeply, but in most cases easily, and taking little or no water on board. If oil is used along the weather side and astern, the wake can be converted into an "oil-slick" and all danger of seas breaking on board effectually prevented.

If she rolls dangerously, she may be kept away more, either by setting head sail, by using a drag over the stern, or by turning over the engines just fast enough to give her steerage-way; for it seems to be established also, as the result of experience, that a steamer may safely run with the sea aft or quartering, provided she runs very slowly. Clearly this is not "running" in the old sense of that term, according to which a vessel going before the sea was forced to her utmost speed with the idea of keeping ahead of the waves, which were expected to "poop" her if they overtook her. It will be seen from the statements of a large number of shipmasters who have tried the experiment of slowing down or stopping when running before a heavy sea, that