ΤΟ CAPTAIN ALEXANDER MILNE ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED TO 29, Upper Gloucester Place, London: 17th Dec. 1852. DEAR SIR, In the early part of my naval life, when it was my good fortune to sail with you, the nature of Hurricanes was not understood. Redfield had not provided the seaman of those days with his golden rules, nor had Sir William Reid given him his Law of Storms. The desire of being useful to our noble profession, by assisting to render these as common at sea as household words are on shore, has induced me to attempt a familiar explanation of them in the following pages, which, in remembrance of other days, are inscribed to you by DEAR SIR, Your's truly, A. B. BECHER. PREFACE. It is with much diffidence that the author of this little volume ventures to offer it to his brother seamen amidst the numerous works already extant on Hurricanes. Encouraged, however, not only by the great importance as well as the simplicity of the subject, but also by the attention which it has now obtained, he is induced to contribute his assistance in explaining those few rules by which hurricanes may be avoided. For, as every year is adding fresh proof of the truth of the Hurricane Theory, so should the knowledge of it become more general among seamen. Happily scepticism with regard to it is gone by: the mismanagement of a ship in a Hurricane belongs rather to the dark passages of our history than to these enlightened days. Few there are among our seamen, who do not know how ruinous Hurricanes have been to many a "good ship," ," how fatal indeed to many more. They who have escaped their fury by a knowledge of their principles have found how easily they are to be avoided. While to these the pursuit of this important subject may be commended in the elaborate works of Redfield, Reid, Piddington, and Thom, the object of this treatise is to explain those principles in a familiar way to others, who may not yet have given their attention to the subject. |