The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-01-21
many OF them as 1aborers.'- Any excuse Toe
laziness is good enough to those who do not
wish to learn living"


The late stormy passages of our trans
atlantic steamships, on their trips from
Liverpool to this port, present some very
Instructive lessons in navigation and re-
veal some of the most important atmos-
pheric phenomena. The difficult and tedious
battling with fierce northwe st and westerly
gales and head seas has been the experience
of nearly every westward bound vessel
crossing the Atlantic this mouth. This fact
has, perhaps, impressed US the more, as it
stands in striking contrast with the mild and
genial weather that has prevailed ashore. But
it il q well known and normal phenomenon,
which every sailor and traveller is too familiar
with, although there have been seasons when
1t was abnormally intensified, as in January,
1892, when the weather in Great Britain and
France was '.most extraordinarily hot, damp,
stormy and oppressive, with westerly and
southwesterly gales almost without intermis-
sion and the barometer lower than had been
known for thirty-fve years BEFORE"
The prevalence of these furious westerly
winds in the North Atlantic it is highly i'm
portant for seamen to comprehend, and some
of our best meteorologists have made them a
special study.
According to our old teachings and old maps
we have been led to suppose that the trade
wind belt occupied the Tropic Zone from one
side Of the Atlantic to the other, and this has
always been the generally accepted theory.
In accordance with its requirements, it has
been always held that the southwest anti
A. plxv lyuo he
winds"), which blow north Of the parallel
of forty degrees north latitude and the So
called region Of the ''roaring forties, returned
to the Polar regions just the same quantity Of
air that the opposite current withdrew from
them. Without attempting theoretical dis
cussion of this subject it is enough for our
purpose to say that recently revealed facts
give us different system Of atmospheric cir
cuation
First, we have a broad and grand upper
current of equatorial air which sweeps from
the West Indies and the Mexican Gulf toward
the northeast over the track of the Gulf
Stream, and is projected toward England and
Norway. To balance this we have an equally
grand current of Polar air streaming over
Northeastern America and over the north
western side of the Atlantic. The first, or
equatorial, current-a Gulf Stream in the air
which began as an upper current of air, sails
with tremendous velocity from the lower to
the higher latitude until it touches the ocean
between New York and Liverpool, and there
runs obliquely against the northerly Polar air
current, producing, as resultant, the furious
westerly and southwesterly gales of which we
speak. This is by no means matter of
theory, but of observation as opposed to
theory, and we believe it was first pointed out
by Captain R. Inglis Marine Superintendent
of the Cunard line of steamers.
Drawing line northeast from the Caribbean
Sea, clear of the Florida coast, it cuts the
Cunard steamer track between the meridians
of forty degrees and fifty degrees west, and
this line, il is believed, as nearly as possible
marks the western margin Of the great south
west equatorial current In a remarkable
voyage from Havre to New York, in screw
steamer, few years ago, Captain Inglis put
this theory to an erperimentup crucis, and
whenever he was buffeted by the westerly
wind, by putting his ships head off to the
northwest the more wind was found to north
ward and the more the ships way increased
BY attending to this simple rule he not only
demonstrated his own views to be correct, but
also beat one of the fastest and most powerful
of the Cunard steamships q whole day. He
has shown that if ship is going east she
may carry a southwest or westerly wind all the
way across the Atlantic.
As has been suggested by many meteorolo-
gists and seamen, it is of the utmost import
ance to determine by observations where the
line of contact at different seasons Is to be
located. It would be of immsnse benefit to
commerce if We could so definitely fix the
boundaries Of this great Gulf Stream in the
air and the marginal disturbance it creates
when it is impinged upon by the Polar cur
rent from the north that vessels bound from
England to America could insure northery
winds by keeping to the north, and, on the
return passage, southerly winds by keeping
more southerly course.
Only the other day the Algeria was twenty
days in making her trip, which for this splen
did and powerful Cunarder is enormously
long; other steamers have recently been
greatly imperilled and shattered by attempt
ing to run headlong through these head seas
and westerly gales. 1t is almost certain, as
Captain Toynbee, the Marine Superintendent
Of the English Meteorological Office, and other
able seamen have shown, that there is usually
no necessity for encountering these winter
gales. 1t is positively bad and reckless sea-
manship to run into them, or, at least,
to run against them, when by slight
.northcriy detour the westward passage might
be made with the loss of only day or two.