# National Geographic Magazine/Volume 1/Number 1/The Great Storm of March 11 to 14, 1888

THE GREAT STORM OF MARCH 11-14, 1888.
A Summary of the remarks made by Brigadier-General A. W. Greely, Chief Signal Officer of the Army.
This storm is by no means as violent as others which have occurred in the eastern part of the United States. It is noted, however, as being one in which an unusual amount of snow fell, which, drifted by the high winds caused by the advance of an anticyclonic area in rear of the storm depression, did an enormous amount of damage to the railways in Massachusetts, southern New York, and New Jersey.
The storm centre was first noticed in the North Pacific on March 6th; whence it passed southeast from the Oregon coast to northern Texas by the 9th. The centre instead of maintaining the usual elliptical form, gradually shaped itself into an extended trough of low pressure, which covered the Mississippi and Ohio valleys during the 10th. On the morning of March 11th the barometer trough extended from Lake Superior southward to the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico; in the northern section over Lake Superior, and the southern part, over Georgia, distinct centres, with independent wind circulation, had formed.
The northern storm centre moved northeastward and disappeared, while the southern centre moved slowly eastward, passing off the Atlantic coast near Cape Hatteras. The pressure on the afternoon of March 11th was about 29.07 at the centre of both the northern and southern storms, but during the night of the 11-12th the pressure decreased in the southern storm centre, and the area instead of continuing its easterly direction moved almost directly to the north, and on the morning of March 12th was central off the New Jersey coast.
The causes which underlie the decrease of pressure and consequent increase in the violence of storms are, as yet, undetermined. The theory of "surges," that is, atmospheric waves independent of the irregular variations consequent on storms, has been urged by some, and especially by Abercromby, as the cause of the deepening of depressions in some cases or of increasing the pressure in other cases. It is possible that under this theory a "surge," passing over the United States to the eastward, as its trough became ​coincident with the centre of low pressure increased its intensity or decreased its pressure, and the consequent increase in barometric gradients added to the violence of the winds. It should be pointed out, however, that the very heavy rainfalls from Philadelphia southward to Wilmington during the 11th, and even the heavier ones over the lower valley of the Hudson and in Connecticut during the 12th, may have exercised a potent influence in depressing the barometer at the centre of this storm. However this may be, it is certain that the storm remained nearly stationary, with steadily decreasing pressure until midnight of March 12th, at which time it was central between Block Island and Wood's Holl, with an unusually low barometer of 28.92 at each station. During this day the winds were unusually high along the Atlantic coast from Eastport to Norfolk; the maximum velocities at the various stations ranging from 48 miles at New York City and New Haven to 60 miles at Atlantic City and 70 miles per hour at Block Island. These winds, though high, are not unprecedented, and if they had been accompanied only by precipitation in the form of rain, the damage on land would have been inconsiderable, but, unfortunately for the commercial interests of New York and other neighboring great cities, the passage of the low area to the eastward was followed by a cold wave of considerable severity and of unusual continuance.
The northern storm centre, which had passed eastward on the 11th, had had the usual effect of drawing in a large quantity of cold air from British America; a cold wave following the wake of this storm, as is usual during the winter season. This usual effect was intensified by the advance of a second, and more violent, cyclonic centre northward; the effect of which was to augment the cold wave already in progress by drawing in a still larger amount of cold air to re-enforce it.
As has been already alluded to, the quantity of snowfall was unusually great. The easterly and northeasterly winds had drawn a large amount of aqueous vapor from the Atlantic over New England in advance of the low area. The sudden change of temperature precipitated by far the greater portion of the aqueous vapor in the air, with the result of an almost unprecedented fall of snow over western Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the valley of the Hudson.
Professor Winslow Upton, Secretary of the New England Meteorological Society, has gathered estimates of snow from 420 ​different observers, which go to show that 40 inches or more of snow fell over the greater part of the districts named.
The deepening of the area of low pressure and the augmentation of the cold high area advancing from British America resulted in barometric gradients of unusual intensity; there be ing gradients in excess of 6, when gradients of 5 rarely occur either in the United States or Great Britain. The high winds caused by these unusual gradients had the effect of drifting the snow to an unusual extent, so that, as is well known, nearly every railroad in New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts was snow-bound; the earliest and most prolonged effects being experienced in Connecticut, which doubtless received the full benefit of the heavy snowfall in the Hudson River valley in addition to that in the western part of that State.
It is thought by some that the storm re-curved and passed northwest into Connecticut; an opinion in which I cannot concur. The international map and reports tend to show that this storm passed northeastward and was on the Banks of Nowfoundland on the 17th of March. The peculiar shape of the isobars, while the storm could be clearly defined from observations at hand, was such that it is not unreasonable to believe that the change of wind to the south at Block Island was due simply to an off-shoot of the storm from the main centre, in like manner as the storm itself was the outgrowth of a previous depression.
The track of this storm across the sea is left to Professor Hayden. These remarks are necessarily imperfect, as my official duties have been such as to prevent any careful study or examination of the storm apart from that possible on the current weather maps of the Signal Service.
THE GREAT STORM OFF THE ATLANTIC COAST OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 11th-14th, 1888.
By Everett Hayden,
In charge of the division of Marine Meteorology, Hydrographic Office, Navy Dept.
Introduction.
The history of a great ocean storm cannot be written with any completeness until a long interval of time has elapsed, when the meteorological observations taken on board hundreds of vessels of every nationality, scattered over the broad expanse of ocean, and bound, many of them, for far distant ports, can be gathered together, compared, and, where observations seem discordant, rigidly analyzed and the best data selected. It is only when based upon such a foundation that the story can fully deserve the title of history, and not romance, fact and not hypothesis. At best, there must be wide areas where the absence of vessels will forever leave some blank pages in this history, while elsewhere, along the great highways of ocean traffic, the data are absolutely complete. Last August a tropical hurricane of terrific violence swept in toward our coast from between Bermuda and the Bahamas, curved to the northward off Hatteras, and continued its destructive course past the Grand Banks toward northern Europe; hundreds of reports from masters of vessels enabled us accurately to plot its track, a great parabolic curve tangent to St. Thomas, Hatteras, Cape Race, and the northern coast of Norway. Six months later a report forwarded by the British Meteorogical Office, from a vessel homeward bound from the Equator, indicated that it originated far to the eastward, off the coast of Africa, and only the other day the log of a ship which arrived at New York, March 30th, from Calcutta, supplied data by means of which the storm track can be traced still more accurately, westward of the Cape Verde islands. Not only that, but this same vessel on the 11th of March was about 500 miles to the eastward of Bermuda, and, while the great storm was raging between Hatteras and Sandy Hook, was traversing a region to the northeastward of Bermuda from which our records are as yet very incomplete. It will thus be clearly understood that while the most earnest efforts have been made, not only to ​collect and utilize all available information, but to be careful and cautious in generalizing from the data at hand, yet this study must be considered as only preliminary to an exhaustive treatise based on more complete data than it is now possible to obtain.
Four charts have been prepared to illustrate the meteorological conditions within the area from 25° to 50° north latitude, 50° to 85° west longitude, at 7 a. m., 75th meridian time, March 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th respectively. Data for land stations have been taken from the daily weather maps published by the U. S. Signal Service, and the set of tri-daily maps covering the period of the great storm has been invaluable for reference throughout this discussion. Marine data are from reports of marine meteorology made to this office by masters of vessels, and not only from vessels within the area charted, but from many others just beyond its limits. The refined and accurate observations taken with standard instruments at the same moment of absolute time all over the United States by the skilled observers of the Signal Service, together with those contributed to the Hydrographic Office by the voluntary co-operation of masters of vessels of every nationality, and taken with instruments compared with standards at the Branch Hydrographic Offices immediately upon arrival in port, make it safe to say that never have the data been so complete and reliable for such a discussion at such an early date.
It will not be out of place briefly to refer to certain principles of meteorology that are essential to a clear understanding of what follows. The general atmospheric movement in these latitudes is from west to east, and by far the greater proportion of all the areas of low barometer, or centers of more or less perfectly developed wind systems, that traverse the United States, move along paths which cross the Great Lakes, and thence reach out over the Gulf of St. Lawrence across the Atlantic toward Iceland and northern Europe. Another very characteristic storm path may also be referred to in this connection, the curved track along which West Indian hurricanes travel up the coast. The atmospheric movement in the tropics is, generally speaking, westward, but a hurricane starting on a westward track soon curves off to the northwest and north, and then getting into the general eastward trend of the temperate zone, falls into line and moves off to the northeast, circling about the western limits of the area of high barometer which so persistently overhangs the Azores and a ​great elliptical area to the southwestward. The circulation of the wind about these areas of low barometer, and the corresponding changes of temperature, are indicated graphically on the map: the isobars, or lines of equal barometric pressure, are, as a rule, somewhat circular in form, and the winds blow about and away from an area of "high" in a direction with the hands of a watch (in nautical parlance, "with the sun"), toward and about "low" with an opposite rotary motion, or against the hands of a watch; in front of a "low" there will therefore be, in extra tropical latitudes, warm southeasterly winds, and behind it cold northwesterly winds, the resulting changes of temperature being shown by the isotherms, or lines of equal temperature. Moreover, in a cyclonic system of this kind the westerly winds are generally far stronger than the easterly winds, the motion of the whole system from west to east increasing the apparent force of the former and decreasing that of the latter. Upon reaching the coast, such areas of low barometer, or storm systems, almost invariably develop a great increase of energy, largely due to the moisture in the atmosphere overhanging the ocean, which, when the air is chilled by contact with the cold dry air rushing in from the "high," is precipitated and becomes visible in the form of clouds, with rain or snow. The latent heat liberated by the condensation of this aqueous vapor plays a most important part in the continuance of the storm's energy and, indeed, in its increase of energy: the warm light air flowing in towards the central area of the storm rises rapidly into regions where the pressure is less, that is, where the thickness and consequently the weight of the superincumbent atmosphere is less; it therefore rapidly expands, and such expansion would result in a much more rapid cooling, and a corresponding decrease in its tendency to rise still higher, were it not for the latent heat liberated by the condensation of the moisture which it contains. Thus the forces that are conspiring to increase the energy of the storm are powerfully assisted by the presence and condensation of aqueous vapor, and the increasing updraught and rarefaction are at once marked by the decreasing barometric pressure at the center. For example, a storm was central over the Great Lakes on Jan. 25th, with lowest barometer 29.7; the following day it was central off Nantucket, barometer 29.2; and on the 27th and 28th, over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with barometer below 28.6. But such instances are so common as to make it the rule, and not the exception. ​As stated above, the isobars about an area of low barometer are somewhat circular in form; more strictly speaking, they are somewhat oval or elliptical in shape, and the more elongated the north and south axis of this ellipse, the greater the resulting changes of temperature, because, as it moves along its broad path toward the Atlantic, the indraught, or suction, is felt in front far down toward the tropics, and in rear far to the northward, beyond the territorial limits of the United States.
Similarly with regard to the general movement of areas of high barometer, certain laws of motion have been clearly established by means of studies of the daily international charts; instead of a motion toward east-northeast, these areas when north of the 40th parallel, have in general a motion towards east-southeast, and as a rule move more rapidly and with greater momentum than "lows," so that they may be said to have the right of way, when the tracks of two such systems converge or intersect. These laws, or at least that relating to the Great Lake storm track, as it may be called, soon become evident to anyone who watches the weather map from day to day, upon which are charted the systems of low and high barometer as they follow one another across the continent, bringing each its characteristic weather.
March 11th, 7 A. M.
The first of the accompanying weather charts indicates graphically the meteorological conditions over the wide area charted, comprising about 3,000,000 square miles, of which one-third is land and two-thirds water. Over the land there is a long line, or trough, of low barometer, extending from the west coast of Florida up past the eastern shore of Lake Huron, and far northward toward the southern limits of Hudson Bay. In front of this advancing line the prevailing winds are southeasterly, and the warm moist air drawn up from southern latitudes spreads a warm wave along the coast, with generally cloudy weather and heavy rains, especially south of Hatteras; the Signal Service observer at Pensacola, for example, reports the heavy rain-fall of 4.05 inches on the 10th. About midway of this trough of low barometer there is a long narrow region of light variable winds; of rapid changes in meteorological conditions; calms, shifts of wind, intervals of clearing weather; then overcast again, with cooler and fresh northwesterly winds, increasing to a gale. The ​front line of this advancing battalion of cold northwesterly winds is more than a thousand miles in length, and covers the whole breadth of the United States its right flank is on the Gulf, its left rests on the Great Lakes, or even farther north; the temperature falls rapidly at its approach, with frost far south into Louisiana and Mississippi, and heavy snow in central Kentucky and eastern Tennessee. The long swaying line is advancing toward the coast at the rate of about 600 miles a day, followed by a ridge of high barometer reaching from Texas to Dakota and Manitoba. At points along the trough the barometer ranges from 29.70, a hundred miles north of Toronto, to 29.86 at Pittsburg, 29.88 at Augusta, and 29.94 at Cedar Keys. Along the ridge the barometer is very high; 30.7 to the northward about Lake Winnipeg, 30.6 in Wyoming, 307 in Indian Territory, and 30.5 south of the Rio Grande. The difference of pressure from trough to ridge is thus measured by about an inch of mercury in the barometer. Moreover, the chart shows that there is another ridge of high barometer in advance, curving down off the coast from northern Newfoundland, where the pressure is 30.6, toward Santo Domingo, where the pressure is 30.3, and passing midway between Hatteras and Bermuda. Farther to the eastward the concentric isobars show the presence of a storm which originated about Bermuda on the 9th, and is moving off toward Europe where, in a few days, it may cause northwesterly gales with snow to the northward of its track, and southeasterly gales with rain to the southward. Storm reports from various vessels show that this storm was of hurricane violence, with heavy squalls and high seas, but it need not be referred to in this connection further than to say that it sent back a long rolling swell from northeast, felt all along the Alantic sea-board the morning of the 11th, and quite distinct from that caused by the freshening gale from the southeast.
Meteorological Conditions off the Coast.
While this trough of low barometer, with all its attendant phenomena, is advancing rapidly eastward toward the Atlantic, and the cold wave in its train is spreading over towns, counties aud states—crossing the Great Lakes, moving up the Ohio valley, and extending far south over the Gulf of Mexico—we may pause for a moment to consider a factor which is to play a most important part in the warfare of the elements so soon to rage with ​destructive violence between Hatteras and Block Island, and finally to disturb the weather of the entire North Atlantic north of the 20th parallel.
The great warm ocean current called the Gulf Stream has, to most people, a more or less vague, mythical existence. The words sound familiar, but the thing itself is only an abstract idea; it lacks reality, for want of any personal experience or knowledge of its characteristic effects. To the navigator of the North Atlantic it is a reality; it has a concrete, definite existence; it is an element which enters into the calculations of his every-day life—sometimes as a friend, to help him on his course, sometimes as an enemy, to endanger, harass, and delay. Briefly, the warm waters of the tropics are carried slowly and steadily westward by the broad equatorial drift-current, and banked up in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, there to constitute the head or source of the Gulf Stream, by which the greater portion is drained off through the straits of Florida in a comparatively narrow and swiftly moving stream. This great movement goes on unceasingly, subject, however, to certain variations which the changing seasons bring with them. As the sun advances northward in the spring, the southeast trades creep up toward and across the equator, the volume of that portion of the equatorial current which is diverted to the northward of Cape San Roque is gradually increased, and this increase is soon felt far to the westward, in the Yucatan and Florida straits. Figures fail utterly to give even an approximate idea of the amount of heat thus conveyed from the tropics to the north temperate zone by the ceaseless pulsations of this mighty engine of oceanic circulation. To put it in some tangible shape for the mind to grasp, however, suppose we consider the amount of energy, in the form of heat, that would be liberated were this great volume of water reduced in temperature to the freezing point. Suppose, again, that we convert the number of heat-units thus obtained into units of work, so many foot-pounds, and thence ascertain the corresponding horse-power, in order to compare it with something with which we are familiar. Considering only the portion of the Gulf Stream that flows between Cape Florida and the Great Bahama bank, we find from the latest and most reliable data, collected by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, that the area of cross section is 10.97 square miles (geographic or sea miles, of 6,086 feet each); mean velocity, at this time of the year, 1.305 miles per hour; mean temperature, 71° F. These ​figures for mean velocity and temperature from surface to bottom are, it will be noticed, far below those for the surface current alone, where the velocity is often as great as five knots an hour, and the temperature as high as 80°. The indicated horse-power of a great ocean steamship—"La Bourgogne," "Werra," "Umbria" and "City of New York," for example—is from 9,000 to 16,000; that of some modern vessels of war is still greater; the "Vulcan," now building for the British Government, is 20,000, and the "Sardegna," for the Italian Government, 22,800. Again, if we convert into its equivalent horse-power the potential energy of the 270,000 cubic feet of water per second that rush down the rapids of Niagara and make their headlong plunge of 160 feet over the American and Horse-shoe falls, we get the enormous sum of 5,847,000. The Gulf Stream, however, is every hour carrying north through the straits of Florida fourteen and three-tenths cubic miles of water (more than three thousand times the the volume of Niagara), equivalent, considering the amount of heat it contains from 71° to 32° F., to three trillion and sixty three billion horse-power, or more than five hundred thousand times as much as all of these combined; indeed, considering only the amount of heat from 71° to 50°, it is still two hundred and seventy-five thousand times as great.
Sweeping northward toward Hatteras with its widening torrent, its volume still further increased by new supplies drawn in from the Bahamas and the northern coast of Cuba, its color a liquid ultramarine like the dark blue of the Mediterranean, or of some deep mountain lake, it then spreads northeastward toward the Grand banks of Newfoundland, and with decreasing velocity and lower temperature gradually merges into the general easterly drift that sets toward the shores of Europe about the 40th parallel.
The cold inshore current must also be considered, because it is to great contrasts of temperature that the violence of storms is very largely due. East of Newfoundland the Labrador current flows southward, and during the spring and summer months carries gigantic icebergs and masses of field-ice into the tracks of transatlantic steamships. Upon meeting the Gulf Stream, a portion of this cold current underruns it, and continues on its course at the bottom of the sea; another portion is deflected to the southwest, and flows, counter to the Gulf Stream, along the coast as far south as Hatteras.
The broad features of these great ocean currents have thus ​been briefly outlined, and, although they are subject to considerable variation as to temperature, velocity, and limits, in response to the varying forces that act upon them, this general view must suffice for the present purpose.
Now to consider for a moment some of the phenomena resulting from the presence and relative positions of these ocean currents, so far as such phenomena bear upon the great storm now under consideration. With the Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for March there was issued a Supplement descriptive of water-spouts off the Atlantic coast of the United States during January and February. Additional interest and importance have been given to the facts, there grouped together and published, by their evident bearing upon the conditions that gave rise to the tremendous increase of violence attendant upon the approach of this trough of low barometer toward the coast. In it were given descriptions, in greater or less detail, of as many as forty waterspouts reported by masters of vessels during these two months, at various positions off the coast, from the northern coast of Cuba to the Grand banks; and since that Supplement was published many other similar reports have been received. Moreover, it was pointed out that the conditions that gave rise to such remarkable and dangerous phenomena are due to the interaction between the warm moist air overhanging the Gulf stream and the cold dry air brought over it by northwesterly winds from the coast, and from over the cold inshore current, and the greater the differences of temperature and moisture, the greater the resulting energy of action. Reports were also quoted showing that the Gulf Stream was beginning to re-assert itself after a period of comparative quiescence during the winter months, and with increasing strength and volume was approaching its northern limits, as the sun moved north in declination.
Such, then, were the meteorological conditions off the coast, awaiting the attack of the advance guard of this long line of cold northwesterly gales,—conditions still further intensified by the freshening gale that sprung up from the southeast at its approach, drawing re-enforcements of warm, moist ocean air from far down within the tropics. The energy developed when storm systems of only ordinary character and severity reach the Atlantic on their eastward march toward northern Europe is well-known, and need not be referred to further: let us now return to the consideration of this storm which is advancing toward the coast at the ​rate of about 600 miles a day, in the form of a great arched squall whose front is more than a thousand miles in length, and which is followed, far down the line, by northwesterly gales and temperatures below the freezing point.
The Night of the 11th-12th.
Sunday afternoon, at 3 o'clock, the line of the storm center, or trough, extended in a curved line, convex to the east, from Lake Ontario down through New York State and Pennsylvania, along about the middle of Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, across North Carolina to Point Lookout, and thence down through eastern Florida to Key West. Northeasterly, easterly, and southeasterly gales were therefore felt all along the coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Florida Keys, except in the bight between Lookout and Cañaveral, where the barometer had already reached and passed its lowest point and the wind was northwest, with much cooler weather. Reference to the Barometer Diagram shows pretty clearly that the trough passed Norfolk a short time before it reached Hatteras, where the lowest reading was undoubtedly lower, the evening of the 11th, than it was at Norfolk.
By 10 a. m. the line has advanced as far east as the 74th meridian. Telegraphic reports are soon all in from signal stations along the coast. The barometer is rising at Hatteras and Norfolk and still falling at Atlantic City, New York, and Block Island, but there is little or no indication of the fury of the storm off shore along the 74th meridian, from the 30th to the 40th parallel, where the cold northwesterly gale is sweeping over the great warm ocean current, carrying air at a temperature below the freezing point over water above 75° Fahrenheit, and where the barometer is falling more and more rapidly, the gale becoming a storm, and the storm a hurricane. Nor are there any indications that the area of high barometer about Newfoundland is slowing down, blocking the advance of the rapidly increasing storm, and about to hold the center of the line in check to the westward of Nantucket for days, which seem like weeks, while a terrific northwest gale plays havoc along the coast from Montauk Point to Hatteras, and until the right flank of the line has swung around to the eastward far enough to cut off the supply of warm moist air pouring in from the southeast. Long before midnight the welcome "good night" message has flashed along the wires to all the signal stations from the Atlantic to the Pacific slope, whilst ​at sea, aboard scores of vessels, from the little fishing-schooner and pilot-boat to the great transatlantic liner, a life-or-death struggle with the elements is being waged, with heroism none the less real because it is in self-defence, and none the less admirable because it cannot always avert disaster.
The accompanying Track Chart gives the tracks of as many vessels as can be shown without confusion, and illustrates very clearly where data for this discussion are most complete, as well as where additional information is specially needed. Thus it is here plainly evident that vessels are always most numerous to the eastward of New York (along the transatlantic route), and to the southward, off the coast. To the southeastward, however, about the Bermudas, there is a large area from which comparatively few reports have been received, although additional data will doubtless be obtained from outward-bound sailing vessels, upon their return. Of all the days in the week, Saturday, in particular, is the day on which the greatest number of vessels sail from New York. The 10th of March, for instance, as many as eight transatlantic liners got under way. Out in mid-ocean there were plowing their way toward our coast, to encounter the storm west of the 50th meridian, one steamship bound for Halifax, five for Boston, nineteen for New York, one for Philadelphia, one for Baltimore, and two for New Orleans. Northward bound, off the coast, were six more, not to mention here the many sailing vessels engaged in the coasting or foreign trade, whose sails whiten the waters of our coasts.
Of all the steamships that sailed from New York on the 10th, those bound south, with hardly a single exception, encountered the storm in all its fury, off the coast. Eastward-bound vessels escaped its greatest violence, although all met with strong head winds and heavy seas, and, had the storm not delayed between Block Island and Nantucket on the 12th and 13th, would have been overtaken by it off the Grand banks. Without quoting in detail the reports received, let us see what they indicate regarding the general character of the storm during the night, preparatory to our consideration of the weather chart for 7 a. m. March 12th. To do so, be it remembered, is a very different task from that which is involved in the study and comparison of observations taken with standard instruments at fixed stations ashore. Here our stations are constantly changing their positions; different observers read the instruments at different hours; ​the instruments themselves vary greatly in quality, and while some of them may have been compared with standards very recently, there are others whose errors are only approximately known. Moreover, when a vessel is pitching and rolling in a storm at sea, in imminent danger of foundering, it is, of course, impossible to set the vernier of the barometer scale and read off the height of the mercury with very great precision. It will thus be readily understood that the many hundreds of observations carefully taken and recorded for the Hydrographic Office by masters of vessels are necessarily more or less discordant, although the results obtained rest on the averages of so many reports that the probable error is always very small. An exhaustive study of reports from vessels at various positions along the coast, from the Straits of Florida to Sandy Hook, together with the records of the coast stations of the U. S. Signal Service, indicates a continuous eastward movement of the trough of low barometer during the night, accompanied by a rapid deepening of the depression. All along the coast we have the same sequence of phenomena, in greater or less intensity, according to the latitude of the vessel, as we noticed here in Washington that Sunday afternoon, when the warm southeasterly wind, with rain, died out, and after a short pause a cold northwesterly gale swept through the city, piling up the snow in heavy drifts, with trains belated or blockaded, and telegraphic communication cut off almost entirely with the outer world. It was a wild, stormy night ashore, but it was ten-fold more so off the coast, where the lights at Hatteras, Currituck, Assateague, Barnegat, and Sandy Hook mark the outline of one of the most dangerous coasts the navigator has to guard against. To bring the scene vividly before the mind would require far more time than I have at my disposal, and I can only regret that I cannot quote a few reports to give some idea of the violence of the storm.
By means of a careful comparison of many reports, it is evident that although the general trough-like form of the storm remained, yet another secondary storm center, and one of very great energy, formed off shore, north of Hatteras, as soon as the line had passed the coast. It was this center, fully equal to a tropical hurricane in violence, and rendered still more dangerous by freezing weather and blinding snow, which raged with such fury off Sandy Hook and Block Island for two days,—days likely to be long memorable along the coast. Its long continuance was probably due to ​the retardation of the center of the line, in its eastward motion, by the area of high barometer about Newfoundland; thus this storm center delayed between Block Island and Nantucket while the northern and southern flanks of the line swung around to the eastward, the advance of the lower one gradually cutting off the supply of warm moist air rushing up from lower latitudes into contact with the cold northwesterly gale sweeping down from off the coast between Hatteras and Montauk point. So far as the ocean is concerned, the 12th of March saw the great storm at its maximum, and its wide extent and terrific violence make it one of the most severe ever experienced off our coast.
The deepening of the depression is well illustrated by the fact that the lowest reading of the barometer at 7 a. m. was 29.88, at Augusta, Ga.; at 3 p. m., 29.68, at Wilmington, N. C.; at 11 p. m., on board the "Andes," 29.35; and at 7 a. m., the following morning it was as low as 29.20,—an average rate of decrease of pressure at the center of very nearly .23 in eight hours, and a maximum, from reliable observations, of .33.
March 12th, 13th, and 14th.
The Weather Chart for 7 a. m., March 12th, shows the line, or trough, with isobars closely crowded together southward of Block Island, but still of a general elliptical shape, the lower portion of the line swinging eastward toward Bermuda, and carrying with it violent squalls of rain and hail far below the 35th parallel. The high land of Cuba and Santo Domingo prevented its effects from reaching the Caribbean Sea, although it was distinctly noticed by a vessel south of Cape Maysi, in the Windward channel, where there were three hours of very heavy rain, and a shift of wind to NW by N. The isotherm of 32° F. reaches from Central Georgia to the coast below Norfolk, and thence out over the Atlantic to a point about one hundred miles south of Block Island, and thence due north, inshore of Cape Cod, explaining the fact that so little snow, comparatively, fell in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts; from about Cape Aun it runs eastward to Cape Sable, and farther east it is carried southward again by the northeasterly winds off the Grand banks. These northeasterly winds are part of the cyclonic system shown to the eastward of this and the preceding chart; farther south they become northerly and northwesterly, and it will be noticed that they have now carried the isotherm of 70° below the limits of the chart. Thus ​this chart shows very clearly the positions of warm and cold waves relative to such cyclonic systems: first there is this cool wave in rear of the eastern cyclonic system, then a warm wave in front of the system advancing from the coast, and finally a cold wave of marked intensity following in its train.
It was probably during the night of the 12th that the lowest barometric pressure and the steepest gradients occurred. Although several vessels report lower readings, yet a careful consideration of all the data at hand indicates that about the lowest reliable readings are those taken at 10 p. m. at Wood's Holl, Mass. (28.92), Nantucket (28.93), Providence, R. I. (28.98), and Block Island (29.00). The steepest barometic gradients, so far as indicated by data at hand, are also those that occurred at this time, and are as follows, taking Block Island as the initial point and distances in nautical miles: at New London, 26 miles, the barometer stood 29.11, giving a difference of pressure in 15 miles of .063 inch; New Haven, 62 miles, 29.36, .087; New York, 116 miles, 29.64, .083; Albany, 126 miles, 29.76, .090. At 7 a. m. the following day, very low readings are also reported: New Bedford, Mass., 28.91, Block Island, 28.92, and Wood's Holl, 28.96.
The chart for 7 a. m., March 13th, shows a marked decrease in the intensity of the storm, although the area over which stormy winds are blowing is still enormous, comprising, as it does, almost the entire region charted. From the Great Lakes and northern Vermont to the northern coast of Cuba the wind is blowing a gale from a direction almost invariably northwest, whilst westerly winds and low temperatures have spread over a wide tract of ocean south of the 40th parallel. North of this parallel, the prevailing winds are easterly, the isobars extending in a general easterly and westerly direction. At the storm center off Block Island the pressure is 28.90, but the gradients are not so steep as on the preceding chart, and the severity of the storm, both ashore and at sea, has begun to diminish. About this center, too, the isobars are noticeably circular in form, showing that, although it first formed as an elliptical area, it gradually assumed the character of a true revolving storm, remaining almost stationary between Block Island and Nantucket until it had actually "blown itself out," while the great storm of which it was a conspicuous but not essential part was continuing its eastward progress. The enormous influx of cold air brought down by the long continued northwesterly gale is graphically shown on this chart by the ​large extent and deepening intensity of the blue tint, where the temperatures are below the freezing point. From the northwestern to the southeastern portion of the chart we find a difference in temperature of more than 80° F. (from below -10° to above 70°); the steepest barometric gradient is found to the northwest of Block Island, where the pressure varies 1.80 inches in 750 miles (gradient, .036 inch in 15 nautical miles), and .66 inch in 126 miles (Block Island to Albany, N. Y.; gradient, .079). On the chart for 7 a. m., March 14th, the depression off Block Island has almost filled up, and the stormy winds have died out and become light and variable, with occasional snow squalls. The other storm center has now regained its ascendency, and is situated about two hundred miles southeast from Sable Island, with a pressure about 29.3. The great wave of low barometer has overspread the entire western portion of the North Atlantic, with unsettled squally weather from Labrador to the Windward Islands. The area of high pressure in advance has moved eastward, to be felt over the British Isles from the 17th to the 21st of the month, followed by a rapid fall of the barometer as this great atmospheric disturbance moves along its circuit round the northern hemisphere. The isotherm of 32° is still south of Hatteras, reaching well out off shore, and thence northward, tangent to Cape Cod, as far as central Maine, and thence eastward to St. Johns, Newfoundland. Great contrasts of temperature and pressure are still indicated, but considerably less marked than on the preceding chart, and the normal conditions are being gradually restored.
Conclusion.
The great storm that has thus been briefly described, as well as can be done from the data now at hand and in the limited time at our disposal, has furnished a most striking and instructive example of a somewhat unusual class of storms, and this on such a grand scale, and in a part of the world where the data for its study are so complete, that it must long remain a memorable instance. Instead of a more or less circular area of low barometer at the storm center, there is here a great trough of "low" between two ridges of "high," the whole system moving rapidly eastward, and including "within the arc of its majestic sweep," almost the entire width of the temperate zone. The "trough phenomena," as an eminent meteorologist has called the violent squalls, with shifts ​of wind and change of conditions at about the time of lowest barometer, are here illustrated most impressively. Such changes are, of course, to be expected and guarded against in every storm, and sailors have long ago summed them up, to store away in memory for practical use when occasion demands, in the well-known lines,—
   "First rise after low Indicates a stronger blow."
One thing to which attention is particularly called is the fact that storms of only ordinary severity are likely, upon reaching the coast, to develop greatly increased energy. As has been already pointed out, there can be no doubt but that this is especially so in a storm of this kind, where the isobars are elongated in a north and south direction. The accompanying Barometer Diagram, if studied in connection with the Track Chart and the Weather Chart for March 11th, illustrates very clearly this deepening of the depression at the storm center. The formation and persistency off Block Island of a secondary storm center of such energy as was developed in this case, however, it would seem wholly impossible to have foretold, and a prediction to that effect made under similar circumstances would probably prove wrong in at least nine cases out of ten. But it may be safely said that the establishment of telegraphic signal stations at outlying points off the coast is a matter of great importance, not only to our extensive shipping interests, but to the people of all our great seaboard cities as well. To the northward, telegraphic reports from such stations would furnish data by which to watch the movement of areas of high barometer, upon which that of the succeeding "low" so largely depends; and to the southward, to give warning of the approach and progress of the terrific hurricanes which, summer after summer, bring devastation and destruction along our Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and of which this great storm is an approximate example and a timely reminder. In this connection, also, there is another important result to be gained scientific research and practical inventive genius, advancing hand in hand for the benefit of mankind, have discovered not only the laws governing the formation of the dense banks of fog that have made the Grand Banks dreaded by navigators but also the means by which certain facts may be observed, telegraphed, charted, and studied a thousand miles away, and the occurrence of fog predicted with almost unfailing ​accuracy, even whilst the very elements themselves are only preparing for its formation. By means of such predictions, the safety of navigation along the greatest highway of ocean traffic in the world would be vastly increased,—routes traversed yearly at almost railway speed by vessels intrusted with more than a million human lives, and property of an aggregate value of fully a billion dollars. What is everybody's business is too often nobody's business, and if no single nation is going to undertake this work, an international congress should be formed to do so, with full authority to act and power to enforce its decisions.
Probably nothing will more forcibly attract the attention of the practical navigator than the new and striking illustrations which have been furnished by reports from various masters of vessels, caught in the terrific winds and violent cross seas of this great storm, relative to the use of oil to prevent heavy broken seas from coming on board. Although this property of oil has been known from time immemorial, it has only recently come into general use, and it is good cause for congratulation, considering the great benefits to be so easily and so cheaply gained, that the U. S. Hydrographic Office is acknowledged to have taken the lead in the revival of knowledge regarding it, and in its practical use at sea. It is difficult to select one from among the many reports at hand, but the following brief extract from the report made by boat-keeper Robinson, in behalf of the pilots of New York pilot-boat No. 3 (the "Charles H. Marshall"), cannot fail to be read with interest. The gallant and successful struggle made by the crew of this little vessel for two long days and nights against such terrific odds is one of the most thrilling incidents of the storm, and well illustrates the dangers to which these hardy men are constantly exposed.
The "Charles H. Marshall" was off Barnegat the forenoon of the 11th, and, as the weather looked threatening, two more reefs were put in the sails and she was headed to the northward, intending to run into port for shelter. During the afternoon the breeze increased to a strong gale, and sail was reduced still further. When about 18 miles S.E. from the lighuship, a dense fog shut in, and it was decided to remain outside and ride out the storm. The wind hauled to the eastward toward midnight, and at 3 a. m. it looked so threatening in the N.W. that a fourth reef was taken in the mainsail and the foresail was treble-reefed. In half an hour the wind died out completely, and the vessel lay ​in the trough of a heavy S.E. sea, that was threatening every moment to engulf her. She was then about 12 miles E.S.E. from Sandy Hook lightship, and in twenty minutes the gale struck her with such force from N.W. that she was thrown on her beam ends; she instantly righted again, however, but in two hours was so covered with ice that she looked like a small iceberg. By 8 a. m. the wind had increased to a hurricane, the little vessel pitching and tossing in a terrific cross-sea, and only by the united efforts of the entire crew was it possible to partially lower and lash down the foresail and fore-staysail. No one but those on board can realize the danger she was in from the huge breaking seas that rolled down upon her; the snow and rain came with such force that it was impossible to look to windward, and the vessel was lying broadside to wind and sea. A drag was rigged with a heavy log, anchor, and hawser, to keep her head to sea and break the force of the waves, but it had little effect, and it was evident that something must be done to save the vessel. Three oil bags were made of duck, half filled with oakum saturated with oil, and hung over the side forward, amidships, and on the weather quarter. It is admitted that this is all that saved the boat and the lives of all on board, for the oil prevented the seas from breaking, and they swept past as heavy rolling swells. Another drag was rigged and launched, although not without great exertion and danger, and this helped a little. Heavy iron bolts had to be put in the oil bags to keep them in the water, and there the little vessel lay, fighting for life against the storm, refilling the oil bags every half hour, and fearing every instant that some passing vessel would run her down, as it was impossible to see a hundred feet in any direction. The boat looked like a wreck; she was covered with ice and it seemed impossible for her to remain afloat until daylight. The oil bags were replenished every half hour during the night, all hands king turn about to go on deck and fill them, crawling along the deck on hands and knees and secured with a rope in case of being washed overboard. Just before midnight a heavy sea struck the boat and sent her over on her side; everything movable was thrown to leeward, and the water rushed down the forward hatch. But again she righted, and the fight went on. The morning of the 13th, it was still blowing with hurricane force, the wind shrieking past in terrific squalls. It cleared up a little towards evening, and she wore around to head to the ​northward and eastward, but not without having her deck swept by a heavy sea. It moderated and cleared up the next day, and after five hours of hard work the vessel was cleared of ice, and sail set for home. She had been driven 100 miles before the storm, fighting every inch of the way, her crew without a chance to sleep, frost-bitten, clothes drenched and no dry ones to put on, food and fuel giving out, but they brought her into port without the loss of a spar or a sail, and she took her station on the bar as usual.
Do the pages of history contain the record of a more gallant fight! Nothing could show more graphically than this brief report, the violence and long duration of the storm. No wonder that this terrific northwest gale drove the ocean itself before it, so that the very tides did not resume their normal heights for nearly a week at certain ports along the coast, and the Gulf Stream itself was far south of its usual limits. The damage and destruction wrought ashore are too fresh in mind to be referred to here, and losses along the coast can only be mentioned briefly. Below Hatteras there was little damage done to shipping. In Chesapeake Bay, 2 barks, 77 schooners, and 17 sloops were blown ashore, sunk, or damaged; in Delaware Bay, 37 vessels; along the New Jersey coast and in the Horse-shoe at Sandy Hook, 13; in New York harbor and along the Long Island coast, 20; and along the New England coast, 9. The names of six vessels that were abandoned at sea have been reported, and there are at least nine others missing, among them the lamented New York pilot boats "Phantom" and "Enchantress," and the yacht "Cythera." Several of these abandoned vessels have taken their places amongst the derelicts whose positions and erratic tracks are plotted each month on the Pilot Chart, that other vessels may be warned of the danger of collision; the sch. "W. L. White," for instance, started off to the eastward in the Gulf Stream, and will soon become a source of anxiety to the captains of steamships along the transatlantic route, and furnish a brief sensation to the passengers when she is sighted. There is thus an intensely human side to the history of a great ocean storm, and to one who reads these brief records of facts and at the same time gives some little play to his imagination, there is a very pathetic side to the picture. In the words of Longfellow,—
WEATHER CHART.--MARCH 11.
Meteorological conditions at noon, Greenwich mean time (7 A. M., 75th meridian time).
Barometer.—Isobars in full black lines for each tenth of an inch, reduced pressure. The trough of low barometer is shown by a line of dashes.
Temperature.—Isotherms in dotted black lines for each ten degrees Fahr. Temperatures below freezing (32° F.) in shades of blue, and above freezing in red.
Wind.—The small black arrows fly with the wind at the position where each is plotted. The force of wind is indicated in a general way by the number of feathers on the arrows, according to the scale given in the following table:
| Plotted on Chart. | Plotted on Chart. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Pounds per square foot. | Miles per hour. | Kilometers per hour. | Meters per second. |
| Plotted on Chart. | Plotted on Chart. | 0—12 | 0—10 | 0—8 | 0—7 | 0—6 | Pounds per square foot. | Miles per hour. | Kilometers per hour. | Meters per second. |
| | Calm. | 0—12 | 0—10 | 0—8 | 0—7 | 0—6 | 0.0000—0.00 | 0.00—0.0 | 0.00—00.0 | 0.00—0.0 |
| | 1 | 1— 2 | 1— 2 | 1—8 | 1—2 | 1—8 | 0.00—00.40 | 0. — 9. | 0. — 14.4 | 0. — 4. |
| | 2 | 3— 4 | 3— 4 | 2—8 | 3—4 | 2—8 | 0.41— 2.53 | 9.1—22.5 | 14.5— 36.2 | 4.1—10.1 |
| | 3 | 5— 7 | 5— 6 | 3—4 | 5—8 | 3—8 | 2.54— 8.20 | 22.6—40.5 | 36.3— 65.2 | 10.2—18.1 |
| | 4 | 8—10 | 7— 8 | 5—6 | 6—8 | 4—5 | 8.21—22.90 | 40.6—67.5 | 65.8—108.7 | 18.2—30.1 |
| | 5 | 11—12 | 9—10 | 7—8 | 7—8 | 6—8 | 22.91 and over. | 67.6 and over. | 108.8 and over. | 30.2 and over. |
It will be noticed that the Beaufort scale (0-12), in general use at sea, has been converted into the international scale (0-10) for the sake of clearness in plotting data on the chart. The absence of arrows over large areas indicates absence of simultaneous data; at sea, however, this has been partly compensated for in the construction of the entry information obtained from journals and special storm reports of vessels in the vicinity.
WEATHER CHART.--MARCH 12.
Meteorological conditions at noon, Greenwich mean time (7 A. M., 75th meridian time).
Barometer.—Isobars in full black lines for each tenth of an inch, reduced pressure. The trough of low barometer is shown by a line of dashes.
Temperature.—Isotherms in dotted black lines for each ten degrees Fahr. Temperatures below freezing (32° F.) in shades of blue, and above freezing in red.
Wind.—The small black arrows fly with the wind at the position where each is plotted. The force of wind is indicated in a general way by the number of feathers on the arrows, according to the scale given in the following table:
| Plotted on Chart. | Plotted on Chart. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Pounds per square foot. | Miles per hour. | Kilometers per hour. | Meters per second. |
| Plotted on Chart. | Plotted on Chart. | 0—12 | 0—10 | 0—8 | 0—7 | 0—6 | Pounds per square foot. | Miles per hour. | Kilometers per hour. | Meters per second. |
| | Calm. | 0—12 | 0—10 | 0—8 | 0—7 | 0—6 | 0.0000—0.00 | 0.00—0.0 | 0.00—00.0 | 0.00—0.0 |
| | 1 | 1— 2 | 1— 2 | 1—8 | 1—2 | 1—8 | 0.00—00.40 | 0. — 9. | 0. — 14.4 | 0. — 4. |
| | 2 | 3— 4 | 3— 4 | 2—8 | 3—4 | 2—8 | 0.41— 2.53 | 9.1—22.5 | 14.5— 36.2 | 4.1—10.1 |
| | 3 | 5— 7 | 5— 6 | 3—4 | 5—8 | 3—8 | 2.54— 8.20 | 22.6—40.5 | 36.3— 65.2 | 10.2—18.1 |
| | 4 | 8—10 | 7— 8 | 5—6 | 6—8 | 4—5 | 8.21—22.90 | 40.6—67.5 | 65.8—108.7 | 18.2—30.1 |
| | 5 | 11—12 | 9—10 | 7—8 | 7—8 | 6—8 | 22.91 and over. | 67.6 and over. | 108.8 and over. | 30.2 and over. |
It will be noticed that the Beaufort scale (0-12), in general use at sea, has been converted into the international scale (0-10) for the sake of clearness in plotting data on the chart. The absence of arrows over large areas indicates absence of simultaneous data; at sea, however, this has been partly compensated for in the construction of the chart by information obtained from journals and special storm reports of vessels in the vicinity.
WEATHER CHART.--MARCH 13.
Meteorological conditions at noon, Greenwich mean time (7 A. M., 75th meridian time).
Barometer.—Isobars in full black lines for each tenth of an inch, reduced pressure. The trough of low barometer is shown by a line of dashes.
Temperature.—Isotherms in dotted black lines for each ten degrees Fahr. Temperatures below freezing (32° F.) in shades of blue, and above freezing in red.
Wind.—The small black arrows fly with the wind at the position where each is plotted. The force of wind is indicated in a general way by the number of feathers on the arrows, according to the scale given in the following table:
| Plotted on Chart. | Plotted on Chart. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Pounds per square foot. | Miles per hour. | Kilometers per hour. | Meters per second. |
| Plotted on Chart. | Plotted on Chart. | 0—12 | 0—10 | 0—8 | 0—7 | 0—6 | Pounds per square foot. | Miles per hour. | Kilometers per hour. | Meters per second. |
| | Calm. | 0—12 | 0—10 | 0—8 | 0—7 | 0—6 | 0.0000—0.00 | 0.00—0.0 | 0.00—00.0 | 0.00—0.0 |
| | 1 | 1— 2 | 1— 2 | 1—8 | 1—2 | 1—8 | 0.00—00.40 | 0. — 9. | 0. — 14.4 | 0. — 4. |
| | 2 | 3— 4 | 3— 4 | 2—8 | 3—4 | 2—8 | 0.41— 2.53 | 9.1—22.5 | 14.5— 36.2 | 4.1—10.1 |
| | 3 | 5— 7 | 5— 6 | 3—4 | 5—8 | 3—8 | 2.54— 8.20 | 22.6—40.5 | 36.3— 65.2 | 10.2—18.1 |
| | 4 | 8—10 | 7— 8 | 5—6 | 6—8 | 4—5 | 8.21—22.90 | 40.6—67.5 | 65.8—108.7 | 18.2—30.1 |
| | 5 | 11—12 | 9—10 | 7—8 | 7—8 | 6—8 | 22.91 and over. | 67.6 and over. | 108.8 and over. | 30.2 and over. |
It will be noticed that the Beaufort scale (0-12), in general use at sea, has been converted into the international scale (0-10) for the sake of clearness in plotting data on the chart. The absence of arrows over large areas indicates absence of simultaneous data; at sea, however, this has been partly compensated for in the construction of the chart by information obtained from journals and special storm reports of vessels in the vicinity.
WEATHER CHART.--MARCH 14.
Meteorological conditions at noon, Greenwich mean time (7 A. M., 75th meridian time).
Barometer.―Isobars in full black lines for each tenth of an inch, reduced pressure. The trough of low barometer is shown by a line of dashes.
Temperature.―Isotherms in dotted black lines for each ten degrees Fahr. Temperatures below freezing (32° F.) in shades of blue, and above freezing in red.
Wind.―The small black arrows fly with the wind at the position where each is plotted. The force of wind is indicated in a general way by the number of feathers on the arrows, according to the scale given in the following table:
| Plotted on Chart. | Plotted on Chart. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Force, by Scales in practical use. | Pounds per square foot. | Miles per hour. | Kilometers per hour. | Meters per second. |
| Plotted on Chart. | Plotted on Chart. | 0—12 | 0—10 | 0—8 | 0—7 | 0—6 | Pounds per square foot. | Miles per hour. | Kilometers per hour. | Meters per second. |
| | Calm. | 0—12 | 0—10 | 0—8 | 0—7 | 0—6 | 0.0000—0.00 | 0.00—0.0 | 0.00—00.0 | 0.00—0.0 |
| | 1 | 1— 2 | 1— 2 | 1—8 | 1—2 | 1—8 | 0.00—00.40 | 0. — 9. | 0. — 14.4 | 0. — 4. |
| | 2 | 3— 4 | 3— 4 | 2—8 | 3—4 | 2—8 | 0.41— 2.53 | 9.1—22.5 | 14.5— 36.2 | 4.1—10.1 |
| | 3 | 5— 7 | 5— 6 | 3—4 | 5—8 | 3—8 | 2.54— 8.20 | 22.6—40.5 | 36.3— 65.2 | 10.2—18.1 |
| | 4 | 8—10 | 7— 8 | 5—6 | 6—8 | 4—5 | 8.21—22.90 | 40.6—67.5 | 65.8—108.7 | 18.2—30.1 |
| | 5 | 11—12 | 9—10 | 7—8 | 7—8 | 6—8 | 22.91 and over. | 67.6 and over. | 108.8 and over. | 30.2 and over. |
It will be noticed that the Beaufort scale (0-12), in general use at sea, has been converted into the international scale (0-10) for the sake of clearness in plotting data on the chart. The absence of arrows over large areas indicates absence of simultaneous data; at sea, however, this has been partly compensated for in the construction of the chart by information obtained from journals and special storm reports of vessels in the vicinity.
TRACK CHART.
Positions of the trough of low barometer and tracks of vessels, March 11-14, 1888.
Positions at 7 A. M. (Greenwich noon) are indicated on the chart by a point; at noon, ship's time, by a small circle.
Black.—The line of dashes indicates the position of the trough of low barometer, or the line of sudden change from easterly to westerly winds, with brief intervals of calm, shifts of wind in heavy squalls of rain or snow, colder, and, finally, clearing weather.
Red.—Positions and names of land stations and names and tracks of vessels plotted in red are those whose barometer curves are shown in the accompanying Barometer Diagram.
Blue.—The tracks of certain other vessels from which storm reports have been received are plotted in blue. In addition to these, however, storm reports have been received from the following vessels, omitted from the chart in order to avoid confusion:
Transatlantic steamships, westward bound: Glendevon, Lydian Monarch, St. Ronans, Werra.
Coasting steamships, bound south: El Monte, Morgan City, New Orleans. Bound north: Newport.
Sailing vessels off the coast from Montauk point to cape Cañaveral: Spartan, Charles H. Marshall, Caprice, Coryphene, Phebe, Isane Orbeton, John H. Krantz, Arcot, Iroquois, Welaka, Serene, Warren B. Potter, Normandy, Lottic Stewart, Melissa Trask, Wilhelm Birkedal, Johanna, James S. Stone, Auita.
BAROMETER DIAGARAM.
Illustrating the fluctuations of the barometer from noon, March 11, to noon, March 14 (75th meridian time).
Barometer Curves.—As it is only practicable to illustrate graphically the Imrometer records of a few vessels and land stations, the following have been selected as being of special interest; the small circles mark the points of observation:
| SIGNAL STATIONS. | VESSELS. |
| Norfolk. | British steamship Andes. |
| Hatteras. | American schooner Kensett. |
| Atlantic City. | British steamship Lord Clive. |
| New York. | American schooner Lida Fowler. |
| Block Island. | American schooner George Walker. |
| Nantucket. | British steamship Serapis. |
| Yarmouth, N. S. | British ship Glenburn. |
Barometer Normal.—The barometer normal for the 50-square from latitude 35° to 40° N., longitude 65° to 70° W., assumed for the present purpose as the normal for the entire area, is 29.98, and is indicated by the blue line on the diagram.
The positions of the above-mentioned signal-stations and the tracks of these seven vessels are all indicated in red on the accompanying Track Chart. This diagram should therefore be studied in connection with the chart, in order to form a clear idea of the general eastward movement of the trough of low barometer, and the accompanying rapid deepening of the depression upon reaching the coast.