“The dreadful spout
Which shipmen do the hurricano call
Constring’d in mass by the almighty sun.”
SHAKSPEARE (_Troilus and Cressida_.)
In number three hundred and two of the Monthly Magazine, Sir Richard
Phillips, in describing a waterspout observed by him, points out the
connection between those phenomena and hurricanes, and offers a very
philosophical explanation of the formation of the former. It happened to
him, he observes, on the twenty-seventh of June, 1817, about seven in
the evening, to witness the formation, operation and extinction of what
is called a waterspout. His attention was drawn to a sudden hurricane
which nearly tore up the shrubs and vegetables in the western gardens,
and filled the air with leaves and small collections of the recently cut
grass. Very dark clouds had collected over the adjacent country, and
some stormy rain, accompanied by several strokes of lightning, followed
this hurricane of wind. The violence lasted a few minutes, and it was
evident that a whirlwind agitated a variety of substances which had been
raised into the air. The storm proceeded from west to east, that is,
from Hampstead over Kentish-Town, toward Holloway. In about five
minutes, in the direction of the latter place, a magnificent projection
was visible from the clouds, somewhat like a tunnel, with the smallest
part downward. It descended two-thirds of the distance from the clouds
toward the earth, and evidently consisted of parts of clouds descending
in a vortex, violently agitated like smoke from the chimney of a furnace
recently supplied with fuel. It then shortened, and appeared to be drawn
up toward the stratum of clouds, and finally drew itself into the cloud;
but a small cone, or projecting thread, of varying size and length,
continued for ten minutes. At the time, and for half an hour after, a
severe storm of rain was visibly falling from the ruins of clouds
connected with it, the extent being exactly defined by the breadth of
Holloway, Highgate and Hornsey. About two hours after, it was found that
one of the heaviest torrents of rain remembered by the inhabitants, had
fallen around the foot of Highgate hill; and some persons having seen
the projected cloud, an absolute belief existed that a waterspout had
burst at the crossing of the new and old roads. On proceeding toward
London, various accounts agreeing with the superstition or preconceived
notions of the bystanders were given; and at one place it appeared that
some haymakers were stacking hay from a wagon which stood between two
ricks, and that the same whirlwind which passed over Kentish-Town, had
passed over the loaded wagon with an impetus sufficient to carry it
about twenty yards from its station, and to put the men on it and on the
rick, in fear of their lives. Passing the road, it carried with it a
stream of hay, and, nearly unroofing a shed on the other side, filled
the air to a great hight with fragments of hay, leaves and boughs of
trees, which resembled a vast flight of birds. A family in the vicinity
beheld the descending cloud, or waterspout, pass over, and saw its
train, which, at the time, they took to be a flight of birds. They
afterward beheld the descending cloud draw itself upward, and they and
other witnesses described it as a vast mass of smoke working about in
agitation; to them it was nearly vertical in a northern direction; and
to persons a quarter of a mile north, it was nearly vertical in a
southern direction; and all agree that it drew itself up without rain,
and was followed near the earth by the train of light bodies. It
appeared also, on various testimony, to let itself down in a gradual and
hesitating manner, beginning with a sort of knob in the cloud, and then
descending lower, and curling and twisting about till it shortened, and
gradually drew itself into the cloud.
The inferences which Sir Richard draws from what he saw and heard, are
as follows. That the phenomenon called a waterspout is a mere collection
of clouds, of the same rarity as the mass whence they are drawn. That
the descent is a mechanical effect of the whirlwind, which creating a
vacuum, or high degree of rarefaction, extending between the clouds and
the earth, the clouds descend in it by their gravity, or by the pressure
of the surrounding clouds or air. That the convolutions of the
descending mass, and the sensible whirlwind felt at the earth, as well
as the appearance of the commencement, increase and decrease of the
mass, all demonstrate the whirl of the air to be the mechanical cause.
That the same vortex, whirl or eddy of the air, which occasions the
clouds to descend, occasions the loose bodies on the earth to ascend.
That, if in this case the lower surface had been water, the same
mechanical power would have raised a body of foam, vapor and water,
toward the clouds. That, as soon as the vortex or whirl exhausts or
dissipates itself, the phenomena terminate by the fall to the lower
surface of the light bodies or water, and by the ascent of the cloud.
That when water constitutes the light body of the lower surface, it is
probable that the aqueous vapor of the cloud, by coalescing with it, may
occasion the clouds to condense, and fall at that point, as through a
siphon. That if the descending cloud be highly electrified, and the
vortex pass over a conducting body, as a church steeple, it is probable
it may be condensed by an electrical concussion, and fall at that spot,
discharging whatever has been taken up from the lower surface, and
producing the strange phenomena of showers of frogs, fish, &c. And,
lastly, it appears certain, that the action of the air on the mass of
clouds, pressing toward the mouth of the vortex as to a funnel, (which,
in this case, it exactly represented,) occasioned such a condensation as
to augment the simultaneous fall of rain to a prodigy.
In the month of July, 1800, a waterspout was seen rapidly to approach a
ship navigating between the Lipari islands. It had the appearance of a
viscid fluid, tapering in its descent, and proceeding from the cloud to
join the sea. It moved at the rate of about two miles an hour, with a
loud sound of rain, passing the stern of the ship, and wetting the after
part of the mainsail. It was thence concluded that waterspouts are not
continuous columns of water, which has been confirmed by subsequent
observations.
In November, 1801, about twenty miles from Trieste, in the Adriatic sea,
a waterspout was seen eight miles to the southward: round its lower
extremity was a mist, twelve feet high, nearly of the form of an Ionian
capital, with very large volutes, the spout resting obliquely on its
crown. At some distance from this spout, the sea began to be agitated,
and a mist rose to the hight of about four feet: a projection then
descended from the black cloud which was impending, and met the
ascending mist about twenty feet above the sea, the last ten yards of
the distance being described with great rapidity. A cloud of a light
color appeared to ascend in this cloud like quicksilver in a glass tube.
The first spout then snapped at about one-third of its hight, the
inferior part subsiding gradually, and the superior curling upward.
Several other projections from the cloud, appeared with corresponding
agitations of the water below, but not always in spouts vertically under
them: seven spouts in all were formed, and two other projections
reabsorbed. Some of the spouts were not only oblique, but curved, the
ascending cloud moving most rapidly in those which were vertical. They
lasted from three to five minutes, and their dissipation was not
attended with any fall of rain. For some days before the weather had
been very rainy, with a south-east wind, but not any rain had fallen on
the day of observation.
In some cases, however, the waterspout at sea, is a continuous column of
water, carried upward from the surface of the waves, and possibly
meeting with water brought down from the clouds and condensed by the
force of the revolving hurricane. Such waterspouts are now and then seen
on the ocean, having an appearance like that represented in the cut on
the next page. And as the wind blows first this way, and then that, they
often writhe and bend, from one point to another, while the sea below,
and all around, is agitated and covered with foam. Woe to that vessel
that comes within the reach of one of these mighty phenomena. It would
be crushed and sunk like a leaf on the waters. The usual defense at sea
is to fire a cannon-shot into the whirling waterspout, which commonly
breaks and dispels it, and causes the water to fall in a tremendous
cataract or shower.
[Illustration: WATERSPOUT ON THE OCEAN.]
Waterspouts, however, are not confined to the ocean. They are
occasionally witnessed on the great fresh-water lakes of our own
country, as they have been on the inland seas of other parts of the
globe. Several of these remarkable phenomena were seen in 1854, on Lake
Ontario, two of which were visible at Sodus point. They were dense,
cone-shaped columns, and formed a continuous line from the earth to the
clouds. One of them, the largest, which was nearly thirty feet in
diameter, was precipitated against the bluffs, and broke with a
deafening noise upon the rocks below, causing so great a commotion of
the waters that a large quantity of logs and lumber were torn from their
moorings and washed far out into the lake. The smaller of the two
pursued its terrific and onward course as far as the eye could reach,
filling the beholders with wonder and astonishment, and awakening such a
feeling of grandeur and sublimity that they stood almost mute and
statue-like, until the sound of this gigantic column of water died far
away in the distance. A portion of the pier of the light-house was swept
away by the elements, and considerable damage was done to the
light-house. There was a severe storm out on the lake, and several
schooners, brigs, &c., came scudding in, under bare poles, seeking
security from the tempestuous billows without, upon the placid bosom of
the harbor. The velocity and power of the whirlwind which caused these
waterspouts, were very great. As it passed on westward in its furious
course, it is said that in a town in Ohio, a grove of oak-trees was
almost entirely blown down by it. The trunk of one of these trees, on
being measured, was found to be about three feet in diameter. Assuming,
however, that its diameter was but two and a half feet, it would require
to break it, a force of one hundred and forty-nine thousand pounds. The
surface of the tree exposed to the action of the wind, was about one
thousand square feet, which would give a pressure by the wind of one
hundred and forty-seven pounds to the square foot, or a velocity of not
less than one hundred and seventy-one miles per hour, which is nearly
one-fourth the velocity of a cannon-ball just leaving the cannon.
Allowing the hight of the hurricane or whirlwind to have been sixty
feet, the whole force exerted, at one time, along its track, was equal
to more than half the steam power of the globe!
These corresponding phenomena of whirlwinds have been occasionally
productive of much mischief, as the following brief narratives will
show. On the thirtieth of October, 1669, about six in the evening, the
wind being then westwardly, a formidable whirlwind, scarcely of the
breadth of sixty yards, and which spent itself in about seven minutes,
arose at Ashly, in Northamptonshire, England. Its first assault was on a
milkmaid, whose pail and hat were taken from off her head, and the
former carried many scores of yards from her, where it lay undiscovered
for some days. It next stormed a farmyard, where it blew a wagon body
off the axletrees, breaking in pieces the latter, and the wheels, three
of which, thus shattered, were blown over a wall. Another wagon, which
did not, like the former, lie across the passage of the wind, was driven
with great speed against the side of the farm-house. A branch of an
ash-tree, so large that two stout men could scarcely lift it, was blown
over a house without damaging it, although torn from a tree one hundred
yards distant. A slate was carried nearly two hundred yards, and forced
against a window, the iron bar of which it bent. Several houses were
stripped; and in one instance, this powerful gust, or stream of air,
forced open a door, breaking the latch; whence it passed through the
entry, and, forcing open the dairy door, overturned the milk-pans, and
blew out three panes of glass. It next ascended to the chambers, and
blew out nine other panes. Lastly, it blew a gate-post, fixed two feet
and a half in the ground, out of the earth, and carried it many yards
into the fields.
On the thirtieth of October, 1731, at one in the morning, a very sudden
and terrific whirlwind, having a breadth of two hundred yards, was
experienced at Cerne-Abbas, in Dorsetshire. From the south-west side of
the town, it passed to the north-east, crossing the center, and
unroofing the houses in its progress. It rooted up trees, broke others
in the middle, of at least a foot square, and carried the tops a
considerable distance. A sign-post, five feet by four, was broken off
six feet in the pole, and carried across a street forty feet in breadth,
over a house opposite. The pinnacles and battlements of one side of the
church-tower were thrown down, and the leads and timber of the north
aisle broken in by their fall. A short time before, the air was
remarkably calm. It was estimated that this sudden and terrible gust did
not last more than two minutes.
About the middle of August, 1741, at ten in the morning, several
peasants being on a heath near Holkham, in Norfolk, perceived, about a
quarter of a mile from them, a wind like a whirlwind approach them
gradually, in a straight line from east to west. It passed through the
field where they were plowing, and tore up the stubble and grass in the
plowed ground, for two miles in length, to the breadth of thirty yards.
In reaching an inclosure at the top of a rising ground, it appeared like
a great flash or ball of fire, emitting smoke, and accompanied by a
noise similar to that of carts passing over a stony ground. Both before
and after the wind passed, there was a strong smell of sulphur; and the
noise was heard long after the smoke had been perceived. This fiery
whirlwind moved so slowly forward, that it was nearly ten minutes in
proceeding from the inclosure to a farm-house in the vicinity, where it
did much mischief.