Connecticut western news., 1873-09-05
The United States Weather Reports.
A Practical Test Case.

An episode in the recent voyage o1
 the steamship Arndt, after she lost hel
 propeller, as reported, is so remarkable
 and instructive as to merit special at-
 tention. The disabled steamer was sig
 nailed by the Vile du Havre in latitude
 forty degrees forty-seven minutes
 east from Sandy Hook. The Vile du
 Havre, it appears, supplied her with the newspapers, which she had taken out the day previous when she left New
 York and the press despatches con- taining the Signal Service "probabili- ties of easterly winds for the Middle States decided the captain of the Arndt to base his course accordingly. If the forecast was true the steamer, now re-
 duced to her sails, might hope to run luck ;" and sure enough, for the next the vessel, under the anticipated winds, menting upon the unanticipated arrival of the late gales (which it appears. was due to meteoric conditions existing north of Canada, beyond the present scope of the weather observations), the
 
 Arndt as most brilliant offset and signal success in prognosticating the course of the winds, thus rendering "Old Pro- Liabilities triumphant in the hour of exceptional defeat. But if the predic- tions to which we refer could be utiliz- ed by steamer or sailing vessel more than five hundred miles from shore, as we have seen it actually was used, it suggests the very wide extension of the utility of the daily forecasts by distri- outing them freely on outward bound vessels. It often happens that storm centre destined to be one of great vio- fence after 1t has advanced Eastward beyond the Middle States seabort is re- ported while yet in the Gulf or Missis- sippi Valley, two or three days before it can get off the Atlantic coast and, during the interval, vessels leaving our seaboard ports might easily communi- cate (to those ships they speak inward bound) any alarming intelligence of storms approaching. The interchange of signals might be mutually beneficial to both the outward d-bounder and the inward-bounder, since it is no infre- quent thing for vessels steaming east ward to be overtaken unawares to-day and become disastrously entangled in a cyclone from which the vessel she pass ed yesterday had just emerged. But not only would such exchange of infor- nation be useful to ships sailing on parallel lines in the opposite directions, but also to those crossing each others tracks at right angles. So that by ar- ranging an additional device in the ma- rine signal code, thousands of coasters and small craft might be warned of con- ing danger, and countless large vessels sailing to and from Southern ports, while yet several hundred miles off the coast, might receive the benefit of the cautionary signals and storm warnings.
 The storm which in all probability overwhelmed the ill-fated steamer City of Boston three years ago might have been in this way indicated, both fore seen and avoided by numerous vessels which encountered its fury and many other specific illustrations could be ad- duced of the feasibility of connecting the land meteorologic condition with the provision, by vessels far out at sea, of the weather they are likely to ex- perience,