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the phenomena was afforded by the assumption of one or more circular currents, or whirlwinds of great diameters, advancing from South West to the North East.
The theory of Professor Dove although under discussion about the same time when Mr. Redfield by an independent course of investigation arrived at the results abovementioned, was not known in the United States when the latter gentleman published his paper in the American journal of science, a fact indicated strongly in the language of Sir David Brewster when he said: “The theory of rotary storms was first suggested by Colonel Capper but we must claim for Mr. Redfield the greater honor of having fully investigated the subject, and apparently established the theory upon an impregnable basis.”
In the year 1838, Lieutenant-Colonel Reid of the Royal Engineers published a valuable work entitled “Reid on the law of storms,” in which he agreed in all particulars with the views of Redfield, and verified by personal observation all his theory; adding many substantial proofs to the same by investigations of West Indian hurricanes, and of some in the Southern Indian Ocean. Colonel Reid by his observation of storms in the Southern Indian Ocean further proved Mr. Redfield’s theory that the storms in the Southern Hemisphere revolve in a contrary direction to those in the Northern Hemisphere. Colonel Reid may be said to have reduced the science to practical use by showing how safe rules for scudding, or lying-to in a hurricane, might be deduced from the theory, and how when obliged to lie-to, ships should do so on the proper tack according to the side of the path they are on; and lastly how these storms may be made profitable to ships bound in the direction of their track, by sailing carefully on the outer circumference with a fair wind, being all the time in a safe position to heave-to and let the storm pass.
Thus by the publication of Col. Reid’s “Law of Storms” the science was reduced from a mere speculative theory to a practical law, the value of which can be fully appreciated only by the mariner when caught in one of these gales at sea.
