YACHTSMEN, BEWARE!

55

a splendid case: the name on the men's hats, the letters at the different post-offices in the Scottish ports at which we touched, addressed to the "R. Y. S. Corsair," would be almost conclusive. They only wanted the one link-but alas! for them and their longed for reward-that was missing, at every port where I was asked for the name officially, I gave "Triumvir."

Yachtsmen, beware how you rename your vessels!

CHAPTER V.

Theory of the Winds-A Storm-Local and Rotatory Storms-Palermo -Palermo Babies-Anchor at Naples-Scylla and Charybdis-After a Calm came a Storm-Gomenizza Bay-Anchor at Corfu.

RIDAY 14th at 1 a. m. the skipper called me,

FRIDAY

with word that the wind was out S. W. So I turned out, and we got under weigh; we hailed the "G," but she replied that she would not start till day-light. The 15th, 16th, and 17th, came and went without any great change. Some squalls, some rain, and some lightning, not much of any; the wind continued light, veering from N. W. to S. W.: a never-ceasing heavy swell coming down from N.; it must have been blowing hard up in the Gulf of Lyons for us to have felt the swell so much. It is an odd thing that the northerly wind seldom blows with much force to the southward of the Balearic Islands; but the exposed northern shore, shows, by its arid look and stunted foliage, that the harsh, hard, northerly wind out of the

THEORY OF THE WINDS.

57

Gulf of Lyons, is the prevailing one; whereas at the southern part of these islands I am told, for I am not much of a botanist, that nearly every plant whether tropical or European, flourishes in even more than native luxuriance. I fancy that is a

corker, but I give it as I heard it; however, one fact is certain, the northerly wind never does blow hard to the southward of them, for which I am at a loss to account, as it is in direct contradiction to the generally received (and correctly so I believe) theory of the cause of winds. Commander Wilks, Lieut. Maury, Col. Reid, and all in fact who have given their attention to and written upon the Theory of the Winds and the Law of Storms, seem to agree upon the one point, that where the temperature of a district or region rises, a sort of vacuum is formed, causing a current of air to rush in from the colder regions to fill the vacuum and restore the equilibrium of the temperature; if this be so, and I believe there is little or no doubt about it, should not the northerly wind blow with even more force to the southward, than it does to the northward of these islands, inasmuch, as the heat of the region between them and the north coast of Africa, has an average of, I should say, at least 5° or 6o above the district to the north of them? Why then should the northerly wind be arrested, as it were,

when it reaches their parallel of latitude, and leave the region to the southward to be cooled, or the vacuum filled by the westerly and easterly winds which there prevail? I do not pretend to explain or account for it, I merely ask the question.

We caught up one of the Sardinian vessels of war that went through the straits of Gibraltar with us, and also some merchantmen that had left Gibraltar the same day we did, and it is from this fact that I consider I was wrong, when we met the easterly wind at Cape de Gatte, in going into Almeria bay for shelter, instead of following my worthy skipper's notion of reaching down to the southward to look for a better slant, as these merchant vessels would hardly have got so far ahead of us, had they fallen in with the same wind we did.

On the 17th we were becalmed nearly all day, rolling heavily; guy the boom, as you would, bang, bang, bang, bang with a worthy accompaniment from the foresail till one's head was ready to split ; at last I lost all patience, and stowed the mainsail, which improved matters a little-speared a pilot fish, and washed the dogs. At 8 p.m. a light breeze came from S. E. aneroid 297 falling.

:

18th, came on deck at 12 o'clock; breeze the same, fresher, going about six knots-lay E. by N.; towards morning wind went out more to the

southward-lay her course E. by S. Lat. at noon by account 38.22 N., by observation 38.20 N.— Long. by account 6:39, E.; by observation 6·44, E. The S. W. point of Sardinia bore E. by N. (by compass) 80 miles. Breeze freshened towards evening; same heavy northerly swell still coming under her lee-aneroid 29.6. had increased to a strong wind: foresail and double reefed mainsail. It was next to impossible, to sail her with the heavy swell; as it was we got a couple of sousings during the watch.

up

Wednesday 19th.

By 8 p. m. breeze took in jib, stowed

I was called at 4 a. m., found the aneroid down to 29.2, four-tenths in four hours. On deck it looked as dark as the grave. I asked the skipper what sort of a watch he had, "Nothing bad, sir," so it was all to come; I saw he did not fancy the aspect of affairs much more than myself, and that he had the vessel merely dodging along under a close-reefed mainsail and standing jib; about half-past four it came; even in the inky darkness I could distinguish a heavy slate coloured curtain coming down upon us, slowly but surely

"haul up the standing jib sheet !",—and upon our devoted heads it burst with all its force,