'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1863 to December 1864. (Edited by the Secretary.) Volume XVII.' [‎76] (105/524)

Ixxvi
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
11. From Lieutenant F. Wherland, It. N. II., Commanding
M Tudor,forwarding the following three letters to the Secretary
“ Tudor” 19M March 1863.
Dear Sir, —Having read your discussion on the Bombay tides at
the Geographical Society, I give you extracts of letters received from
Liverpool some time ago.
“Extract 1.— One morning it was high-water at 5 a. m. ; i n d ue
course the ship swung to the ebb, and continued so for two hours, when
the stream suddenly returned and ran in violently, attaining a height at
8 a. m. of 18 inches above that of three hours previously. Two nights
afeer it was high-water at about 7 p. m., and to my certain knowledge
at 11 it had not ebbed more than a foot or so. These phenomena, I
believe, not unfrequently occur on the South Coast; it was very lamely
accounted for in the Times and several other papers, but no one explains
why it never occurred here before. Although the gale equalled in
severity the “ Royal Charter Storm,” we have often had similar ones
without any effect on the tides/ ”
“ Extract 2,—I forgot to mention, that a curious phenomenon took
place the day you were spoken (October 17th) in connection with the
tides of the “ Mersey” ; it was high-water about 5 a. m., the ships swung
ebb for some time, when lo, the eyes of the Liverpool people were opened
by the fact that the stream had returned and the ships with it, and rose
18 inches above the previous high-water mark. It was accounted for
in the Times by a French writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. : — ‘The coast having been visited by
a terrible gale which lasted for several days, increased the strength of
the northern tidal wave, which ran on till quite exhausted, and its time
for receding had arrived when the southern wave, previously baffled by
its opponent, came on with double energy, and exhausted itself also.’ ”
For the past 15 years I have found the Rules of the Nautical Alma
nack sufficiently correct for docking purposes, but comparatively useless
for navigating St. George’s Channel and the Irish Sea; it is only of late
that this has been put to rights by those valuable tidal observations of
the late Admirable Beechy, which tell us Find the time of high-
water at Liveipool, from which subtract sixteen minutes, and you will
have^the time of the stream commencing to ebb throughout the Irish
Sea. Now, as we sailors make as much, if not more, use of the tidal
wave than any other class of men, I think it would be a boon for us to