The Press., 1922-10-12
WAVES MOVE FAST
Average Speed of More Than
 Forty Miles an Hour.
Fortunately, Their Velocity and Power Are Materially Reduced as
 They Near the Shore.

When the wind blows fiercely most dwellers in towns, particularly in those near the sea, think of them selves what 6 stormy time our ships and sailors must be having, says writer in a London paper, according to the Montreal Herald.
 StOrm-waves around the shores of these islands frequently have immense force behind them, treating blocks of stone and heavy timbers as playthings, smashing like match sticks apparently the most substantial obstacles.
 During one storm in the SOlent, near Hurst castle, the waves exerted such force ninety feet below the surface that stones weighing 300 pounds or more were torn from their resting places and hurled on the beach, to- gether with heavy masses of seaweed attached to them.
 It is in the deep ocean where the stOrm-Wave is seen in its full majesty. Forty, fifty and even sixty feet is the height to which the pillows of the At lantic, the Indian ocean, and the Southern will rise in times of tempest.
 In pre-steam days a British man-Of- war encountered an unusually heavy gale of wind just outside the Bay of Biscay. Between two seas her storm trysailS were totally becalmed, while the crest of each sea was above the level of the center of her mainyard. The mainyard was sixty feet above the water-line.
 The water from a wave-as distinct from the body of the wave itself-has been known to do serious damage to vessels of great height above the deck. One notable instance of the kind was the smashing of the port lifebOat of d Hamburg-American liner, dashed on the bridge deck eighty feet above the sealine.
 Giant stOrm-waveS of the ocean have an average speed of rather more than forty miles an hour. Their length is the distance from crest to crest. This is about 400 feet for the Atlantic the waves of the profoundly deep Pacific ocean.
 Of course, 1t has to be remembered that giant waves in the open ocean can move with perfect freedom. It is when they begin to touch bottom" in comparatively shallow water that their great speed is reduced-luckily for the fronts of the British coast resorts.
 The velocity of the stOrm-wind in the Atlantic is frequently several miles an hour greater than the velocity O1 the wave. This results in a good deal of spraying, which, in very severe weather, sometimes seriously thickens and ObscureS the air.
 At the seaside in summer we may sometimes see spraying caused by g ing wavelet.
 During gale on the British coast il will be noticed that the waves begin to break long way out. That Is be cause these waves, being big ones touch bottom the sooner. Their lower part moves forward at It's old speed
 The result is that the upper part curls over and breaks.
 In very deep water a giant wave has been known to touch bottom and stil up the fine sand there at a depth O1 1,200 feet.
 On fine autumn day we may some times see a procession of big ground sVells' coming shOreward and break ing on the beach with the boom of dis tant thunder. They represent the dis turbance of the sea caused by stOrn far out to sea. By closely observing the direction from which these swells come one can form an idea of where the storm is situated. Sometimes th' waves travel faster than the storm and even give warning of its approach