'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎53] (70/258)

THE CYCLONE AT BOMBAY, 1854.
Uii
the 2nd, about ten hours after it passed, and found none of the ordinary traces
of a gale, such as a heavy swell and troubled sky ; nor do her instruments,
when she was some 200 miles south of it, seem to have been at all affected,
and 15° seems to have been its extreme south limit. The steamer Feroze,
which arrived from Aden at 5 a. m. on the 5th, was probably some 600 miles off
shore as the hurricane crossed her path : none of its effects were experienced,
and no trace of it discovered by her : so that the ships Tara, Arracan, Nor
wood, and Futteh Moombaruck, forming a line nearly parallel with the shore
were probably w ithin ten miles of its centre, and within thirty or forty of its
outer limit. To the northward it is defined by the position of the Carnac off
Bassein, when she ought to have met it; to the north-west by the ghauts beyond
Callian. Its shore limits, again, are uncertain ; but as we know it did not
extend so far as Poona, and as we find no complaints along the Konkun or
Malabar Coast, we may fairly conclude that it made but little way inland—
certainly not extending so far as the base of the mountains.
These I believe include the log-books of all the vessels, small as their num
ber is, exposed to the influence of the hurricane. The H. C. S. Feroze, as just
stated, on her way from Aden with the mails, arrived at Bombay at 6 a. m.
on the 5th November, and was probably 700 miles to the S. W. of us on the
afternoon of the 1st. Her barometer was not at all affected, and she experi
enced no traces of the gale. The Camac steamer, on her voyage southward
from Surat, was off Bassein, twenty miles north of Bombay, at 4 a. m., and
though she ought to have met the first segment of the cyclone at about 1, and
the second about 7, she experienced nothing but a somewhat troubled sky,
with the winds a little rougher than usual.
From all these circumstances put together, the following facts seem very
clearly established:—
1.—The Bombay hurricane of the 1st and 2nd November made its appear
ance suddenly, on the afternoon of the first of these days, its outer edge about
sixty miles off shore, and with a perfectly well defined boundary all around
its margin extending to about 300 miles south of Bombay.* 2. The course
of its centre, which travelled at the rate of fifteen miles an hour, was N. by
W., in nearly a straight line, keeping about ten miles off shore. 3. Immedi
ately on passing Bombay, its path took an eastward bend towards Tanna and
Callian, leaving Bassein and the islands along shore to the northward un
touched. 4. As it approached the Ghauts, 70 miles to the N. W. of us,
after traversing a distance of 300 miles in twenty-four hours, it vanished
almost as abruptly as it appeared. The centre, in all likelihood scarcely
travelled 200 miles : the diameter of the storm circle seems to have been
betwixt 100 and 120 miles, and with the gyration or rest of its circum
ference, the gale at any given point would seem to begin or cease. The fol
lowing extract of a note from Dr. Impey, then Civil Surgeon, Poona,
with the return from the observatories, is all that is known of its manifes
tations in the Deccan; and beyond the region of its actual sweep the state of
the weather and instruments seem nowhere to have been affected by it:
* My only authority for carrying it so far south is the following—the position the southern-
most of the vessels whose logs we have quoted occupied on experiencing it. It is quite possi
ble, at the same time that what was supposed a portion of our hurricane was the thunderstorm )
the 29th, 30th, and 31st, October.