PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION. 271 were set down in a table of degrees, it will explain what we mean. Stark calm. A fine breeze. A small gale. A fresh gale. A topsail gale. Blows fresh. A hard gale of wind. A storm. A tempest. Just half these tarpaulin article, I presume, would have passed in those days for a storm; and that our sailors call a top sail gale would have drove the navigators of those ages into harbours: when our sailors reef a topsail, they would have handed all their sails; and when we go under a main course, they would have run afore it for life to the next port they could make: when our hard gale blows, they would have cried a tempest; and about the fret of wind they would be all at their prayers. And if we should reckon by this account, we are a stormy country indeed, our seas are no more navigable now for such sailors than they were then: if the Japanesses, the East Indians, and such like navigators were to come with their thin cockle shell barks and calico sails; if Cleopatra's fleet, or Cæsar's great ships with which he fought the battle of Actium, were to come upon our seas, there hardly comes a March or a September in twenty years but would blow them to pieces, and then the poor remnant that got home, would go and talk of a terrible country where there is nothing but storms and tempests; when all the matter is, the weakness of their shipping, and the ignorance of their seamen and I make no question but our ships ride out many a worse storm than that terrible tempest which scattered Julius Cæsar's fleet, or the same that drove Eneas on the coast of Carthage. And in modern times we have a famous instance in the Spanish Armada; which, after it rather frighted than damaged by Sir Francis Drake's machines, not then known by the name of fire ships, were scattered by a terrible storm, and lost upon every shore. The case is plain, it was all owing to the accident of navigation they had, no doubt, a hard gale of wind, and perhaps a storm; but they were also on an enemy's coast, their pilots out of their knowledge, no harbour to run into, and an enemy astern, that when once they separated, fear drove them from one danger to another, and away they went to the northward, where they had nothing but God's mercy, and the winds and seas to help them. In all those storms and distresses which ruined that fleet, we do not find an account of the loss of one ship, either of the English or Dutch; the Queen's fleet rode it out in the downs, which all men know is none of the best roads in the world; and the Dutch rode among the flats of the Flemish coast, while the vast galleons not so well fitted for the weather, were forced to keep the sea, and were driven to and fro till they had got out of their knowledge; and like men desperate, embraced every danger they came near. This long digression I could not but think needful, in order to clear up the case, having never met with anything on this head before at the same time it is allowed, and histories are full of the particulars, that we have often very high winds, and sometimes violent tempests in these northern parts of the world; but I am still of opinion, such a tempest never happenned before as that which is the subject of these sheets: and I refer the reader to the particulars. CHAPTER. III. OF THE STORM IN GENERAL. BEFORE we come to examine the damage suffered by this terrible night, and give a particular relation of its dismal effects; it is necessary to give a summary account of the thing itself, with all its affrightning circumstances. It had blown exceeding hard, as I have already observed, for about fourteen days past; and that so hard, that we thought it terrible weather: several stacks of chimnies were blown down, and several ships were lost, and the tiles in many places were blown off from the houses; and the nearer it came to the fatal 26th of November, the tempestuousness of the weather encreased. On the Wednesday morning before, being the 24th of November, it was fair weather, and blew hard; but not so as to give any apprehensions, till about four o'clock in the afternoon the wind increased, and with squalls of rain and terrible gusts blew very furiously. EXTRACT FROM ROYAL SOCIETY'S TRANSACTIONS. 273 The collector of these sheets narrowly escaped the mischief of a part of a house, which fell on the evening of that day by the violence of the wind; and abundance of tiles were blown off the houses that night: the wind continued with unusual violence all the next day and night; and had not the great storm followed so soon, this had passed for a great wind. On Friday morning, it continued to blow exceeding hard, but not so as that it gave any apprehensions of danger within doors; towards night it increased: and about ten o'clock, our barometers informed us that the night would be very tempestuous; the Mercury sunk lower than ever I had observed it on any occasion whatsoever, which made me suppose the tube had been handled and disturbed by the children. But as my observations of this nature are not regular enough to supply the reader with a full information, the disorders of that dreadful night have found me other employment, expecting every moment when the house I was in would bury us all in its own ruins; I have therefore subjoined a letter from an ingenious gentleman on this very head, directed to the Royal Society, and printed in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 289, P. 1530, as follows:A Letter from the Reverend Mr. William Derham, F.R.S., containing his Observations concerning the late Storm. Sir-According to my promise at the general meeting of the R. S. on St. Andrew's day, I here send you inclosed the account of my ingenious and inquisitive friend Richard Towneley, Esq.; concerning the state of the atmosphere in that part of Lancashire where he liveth, in the late dismal storm. And I hope it will not be unacceptable, to accompany his with my own observations at Upminster; especially since I shall not weary you with a long history of the ́ devastations, &c., but rather some particulars of a more philosophical consideration. And first, I do not think it improper to look back to the preceding seasons of the year. I scarce believe I shall go out of the way, to reflect as far back as April, May, June and July; because all these were wet months in our southern parts. In April there fell 12.49 lbs. of rain through my tunnel: and about 6, 7, 8, or 9, lbs. I esteem a moderate VOL. V. T quantity for Upminster. In May, there fell more than in any month of any year since the year 1696, viz. 20.77 lbs. June likewise was a dripping month, in which fell 14.55 lbs. And July, although it had considerable intermissions, yet had 14.19 lbs. above 11 lbs. of which fell on July 28th and 29th in violent showers. And I remember the newspapers gave accounts of great rains that month from divers. places of Europe; but the north of England (which also escaped the violence of the late storm) was not so remarkably wet in any of those months; at least not in that great proportion more than we, as usually they are; as I guess from the tables of rain, with which Mr. Towneley hath favoured me. Particularly July was a dry month with them, there being no more than 3.65 lbs. of rain fell through Mr. Towneley's tunnel of the same diameter with mine. From these months let us pass to September, and that we shall find to have been a wet month, especially the latter part of it; there fell of rain in that month, 14.86 lbs October and November last, although not remarkably wet, yet have been open warm months for the most part. My thermometer (whose freezing point is about 84) hath been very seldom below 100 all this winter, and especially in November. Thus I have laid before you as short account as I could of the preceding disposition of the year, particularly as to wet and warmth, because I am of opinion that these had a great influence in the late storm; not only in causing a replention of vapours in the atmosphere, but also in raising such nitro-sulphureous or other heterogeneous matter, which when mixed together might make a sort of explosion (like fired gunpowder) in the atmosphere. And, from this explosion, I judge those corruscations or flashes in the storm to have proceeded, which most people as well as myself observed, and which some took for lightning. But these things I leave to better judgments, such as that very ingenious. member of our society, who hath undertaken the province of the late tempest; to whom, if you please, you may impart these papers; Mr. Halley, you know, I mean. From preliminaries it is time to proceed nearer to the tempest itself. And the foregoing day, viz. Thursday, Nov. 25, I think deserveth regard. In the morning of that day. was a little rain, the winds high in the afternoon S. b. E. STRENGTH OF THE WIND. 275 and S. In the evening there was lightning; and between 9 and 10 of the clock at night, a violent, but short storm of wind, and much rain at Upminster; and of hail in some other places, which did some damage: there fell in that storm 1.65 lbs. of rain. The next morning, which was Friday, Nov, 26. the wind was S.SW. and high all day, and so continued till I was in bed and asleep. About 12 that night, the storm awakened me, which gradually increased till near 3 that morning; and from thence till near 7, it continued in the greatest excess: and then began to abate, and the mercury to rise swiftly. The barometer I found at 12 h. P.M. at 28.72, where it continued till about 6 the next morning, or 64, and then hastily rose; so that it was gotten to 82 about 8 of the clock, as in the table. How the wind sat during the late storm I cannot positively say, it being excessively dark all the while, and my vane blown down also, when I could have seen: but by information from millers, and others that were forced to venture abroad; and by my own guess, I imagine it to have blown about S. W. by S. or nearer to the S. in the beginning, and to veer about towards the west towards the end of the storm, as far as W.S.W. The degrees of the wind's strength being not measurable (that I know of, though talked of) but by guess, I thus determine, with respect to other storms. On Feb. 7, 1693. was a terrible storm that did much damage. This I number 10 degrees; the wind then W.N.W. vid Ph. Tr. No. 262. Another remarkable storm was Feb. 3. 170, at which time was the greatest descent of the Mercury ever known: this I number 9 degrees. But this last of November, I number at least 15 degrees. As to the stations of the barometer, you have Mr. Towneley's and mine in the following table, to be seen at one view. As to November 17th (whereon Mr. Towneley mentions a violent storm in Oxfordshire) it was a stormy afternoon here at Upminster, accompanied with rain, but not violent, nor mercury very low. November 11th and 12th, had both higher winds and more rain; and the mercury was those days lower than even in the last storm of Nov. 26th. Thus, sir, I have given you the truest account I can of what I thought most to deserve observation; both befor |