SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.

Heave-to on Port Tack to note Shift of Wind.

Wind hauls to right Ship is in right semi-circle Run with wind on port quar

For plotting the position of the ship within the storm from time to time it is convenient to construct a storm-card like

Fig. 2, Plate 135. This should be on tracing cloth and on a good scale. The ship is then drawn on a sheet of paper and the storm-card moved over it in accordance with the motion of the center as determined from the successive observations made as above described. A rough estimate may generally be made of the distance of the center, from the character of the weather, the force of the wind, the fall of the barometer, etc.

It is hardly necessary to say that circumstances may require the modification of the foregoing rules in many directions. One of the most frequent reasons for such modifications is the proximity to land. The influence of this point upon the course to be adopted will be greatly affected by the way in which it is known that the wind will shift. There is less danger in closing with a coast if it is certain that the shifts of wind will be offshore and not on. So with regard to seeking an anchorage. It may be safe to anchor in an open roadstead if the shifts of wind are bound to be such as to give a lee; it would be hazardous to anchor if the reverse were the case.

Naturally, also, the seaworthiness of the ship, her speed, and many other conditions, are factors in the problem of manœuvring.

The latitude in which the storm is encountered makes a difference because of the difference in intensity; and a vessel may

safely hold her course through a storm in the North Atlantic which she would take every means to avoid in the tropics. On the other hand, it is easier to avoid a storm in the tropics than in high latitudes, because of the difference in the area which it covers. The diameter of a hurricane in the tropics rarely exceeds 300 miles, while in high latitudes it may be a thousand miles or more.

The curvature of the track must be taken into consideration. Vessels have been known to escape from a slow-moving hurricane toward the concave side of the track, only to run into it again after it had recurved.

The preceding directions have especial reference to sailing vessels, but in their general principles they are perfectly applicable to steamers. There is, however, this important difference to be noted; that as a steamer is not dependent for her course upon the direction of the wind, she is much freer to manœuvre and may almost always, unless in the neighborhood of land, keep far enough from the center of the storm to avoid all serious danger. This, however, is true only when the storm is of comparatively limited area and with a center clearly defined; as in positions 1, 2, 3 and 4, of Plate 132. It is evident that when the storm has spread out over thousands of miles, as in positions 5 and 6, with an elongated trough of low pressure in place of a sharply-defined center, it is hopeless for even a steamer to attempt to avoid it. In such a gale, the directions of the following Chapter (Handling a Steamer in Heavy Weather) become important; and if applied with some reference to the changes in weather which may be anticipated from a study of Plate 132, they furnish all the directions which should be needed to carry a steamer through any gale in which she has a fair amount of sea-room.

Another point of difference between a steamer and a sailing vessel has to do with the rule for lying-to in the manageable semi-circle. The rule for a sailing ship is to lie-to on the "coming-up" tack in spite of the fact that this brings her head toward the center. For a steamer, the rule in general is to lie-to always with the head away from the center, in order that such headway as is made may be all in the direction of safety.

The Pilot Charts of the North Atlantic and North Pacific

Oceans, issued by the Hydrographic Office of the United States Navy Department, should be familiar to all mariners. These are in substance Monthly Weather Maps of the Ocean and contain a large amount of valuable information not elsewhere to be found, upon a great variety of topics.

STORM SIGNALS.

Most of the civilized nations of the world give warning to mariners of the approach of storms. These notices are received by telegraph at various stations along the coast and indicate the approach of storms and the expected direction of the wind. In the United States the system of weather-signals is very complete, information of the approach of storms being received from various stations in the United States and even throughout the West Indies. These warnings are published at the various seaports by the display of flags by day and by lanterns at night, and by bulletins and reports furnished to newspapers. Every effort is made to give these warnings as early as possible at all points where they may be of service to mariners and others.

UNITED STATES STORM SIGNALS.-Storm signals are displayed by the United States Weather Bureau at a large number of stations situated on the coasts of the United States. Many of these stations are equipped for signalling by the International Code, and are prepared to transmit by telegraph the messages of passing vessels.

Storm-Warning Flags.—(a) A red flag, with a black center, indicates that a storm of marked violence is expected.

(b) The pennants displayed with the flags indicate the direction of the wind; red, easterly (from north, through east, to south); white, westerly (from south, through west, to north). The pennant above the flag indicates that the wind is expected to blow from the northerly quadrants; below, from southerly quadrants. (c) By night a red light indicates easterly winds, and a white light below a red light, westerly winds.

Hurricane Warnings.—(a) Two red flags with black centers displayed one above the other indicate the expected approach of a tropical hurricane, and also of those extremely severe and dangerous storms which occasionally move across the lakes and northern Atlantic coast.

(b) Hurricane signals are not displayed at night.

§ I.

CHAPTER XVIII.

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