'The traveller regards typhoons with apprehension and, when he meets them, he usually hopes that the ex: perience will not be repeated. He {is not particularly enthralled by the memory, except In so far as it enables to' hold his own ina company of tale-tellers bent on. expounding the variety of their sea-adventures Father Ernest Gherzi of Siccawei [Jocks upon typhoons from another int of view. For the "Father, typhoons "are objects of sclentife study. "He makes a careful record of their various habits and, to the Great advantage of ships and mosters Stans. ho steven from deta A important conclusions ina ard, besides being able from his famous Observatory to send out those regular warnings which save lives and property. To the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce Father Gherzi has dedicated a bro-chute on "Typhoons in 1034" in which "are "explained important selentife findings as the result of observations made by the Father at Siccawei and his reference to var fous ships' Jogs and other data. some 1034 is ancient history, but it is interesting to see how the typhoons Jot that year have been catalogued and assessed. "Father Ghorzi considers that further light. might be thrown on the important question of the set to be expected when navigating near a violent typhoon if Captains would cheeks certain theories which he lunclates, by their own' experiences, Thereby information which would be exceedingly helpful in devising further precautions against the angers of the typhoon, would become rllable. The danger of a got which 4s an action of the current produced by a typhoon or cyclone lies in the disturbance of navigational, reckon= ings with the result that a' ship exposed to serious risks of grounding or worse. Father Ghoral recalls on experience of the Conte Verde who, fast August, when crossing "the Formosa Strait westward. had "an unprecedented set to, the SSW of 60 miles in 18 hours." The Captain, Signor Maury, had never had ¢o un: pleasant an €xperience in his forty years at son, The British Navy is proud to correspond with Father Ghersi the subject of typhoons; the brochure contains a copy of a letter from Sir Frederick Dreyer who gives to "My dear Father Gher2i" q tochnleal yet graphic account of a typhoon met with bya division of destroyers in September 1934: the hills round the anchorage. wore completely Tost to view with a terne Squall from the WNW. "The sea be:
fame completely white, and, nothing but the tops of adjacent ships funnel were vide, due to the driving spray.
'The quotation 1s comforting to the Hayman who, from bitter experience of the "usual reticence of chips' captains, is apt to think that the [professional sailor has no real. grasp'
the power of description, How many unhappy travellers Scean liner, after enduring horrors of closed portholes, foodless mani times, tossing and' rolling cabins, have' emerged into comparative calmness only to find that' the une feeling og has merely recorded "a stir N. E, breeze"" or "a fresh wind" or something equally disconcerting?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.