An interval of more than two years has now elapsed since the news of the great hurricane at Samoa startled the whole civilized world with its sad tidings of disaster to the American and German fleets in the harbor of Apia. The story of that terrific struggle against the fury of the northerly gale and heavy seas that swept into the unprotected anchorage; the desperate efforts of officers and men to save their vessels from collision with each other and from destruction on the sharp coral reefs; the instant annihilation of the little Eber; the grounding of the Adler and Nipsic; the breathless pause of expectation when the gallant Calliope slipped her chains, and, urging on her powerful engines with every ounce of steam that her boilers could supply, crept inch by inch "out of the jaws of death," leaving the Trenton (whose men gave her a ringing volley of cheers as she passed), Olga and Vandalia to continue their life-or-death fight against fearful odds; the wreck of these vessels and the terrible loss of life on their wave-swept decks and in the whirlpool between them and the shore; the gallantry and self-sacrifice of natives and sailors in the tremendous surf on the beach and reef—all of these have been told and retold in the vivid words of eye-witnesses, and have already become part of the history of mankind.
It is a very different task to attempt, quietly and as time and data permit, to consider the general meteorologic conditions that preceded and accompanied the storm, and, by collecting and comparing reports from vessels and land-stations in various parts of the South Pacific, to reach at least a few definite conclusions regarding the origin and track of the hurricane, as well to derive some useful information from it regarding the weather and storms of this great ocean. It is the object of this paper to present briefly, but as clearly as the information at hand will allow, this general phase of the subject, and to publish, in advance of an official publication by the Hydrographic Office, such an outline of the facts as may serve to elicit discussion and possibly result in the collection of still more complete data, for use in the preparation of a final report. It may well be stated here, for the information of those who are not familiar with the difficulties incident to the collection of data on such a subject, that in spite of our efforts to obtain information from every possible source there are doubtless some vessels whose reports have not yet been received—reports, too, that may contain important positive or negative evidence regarding the history of the storm. Not only data from vessels, but from land-stations, also, are still wanting: for instance, the Queensland Weather Maps of Australasia and the Sydney Observatory Weather Charts of Australia and New Zealand for March, 1889, should of course be consulted, but although copies are nominally in the possession of the Signal Office, yet as a matter of fact they have been at the government bindery for six months, and at date of writing (May 9, 1891) they are still inaccessible. This should therefore be taken into consideration by any one who honors this paper by more than a mere superficial examination, and it will be interesting to note whether conclusions drawn at the present time will be appreciably modified by the missing data.
In the following discussion all dates used are east longitude dates, following the custom of the Samoan islands. Although these islands are between Ion. 168° and 173° W, and might therefore be expected to use the same dates as ourselves, yet business and other relations are so much more intimate with Australia and New Zealand that the same dates are used, as a matter of convenience. Thus, for example, at noon of Saturday, March 16, at Samoa, when the hurricane was at its height and the Calliope had just steamed out of Apia harbor, it was about 9 A. M. at Melbourne and 11 A. M. at Auckland, of the same day of the week and month, but farther east (in what we know as the Western Hemisphere) it was Friday, March 15: at San Francisco, about 3.30 P. M.; Washington, 6.30 P. M.; London, 11.30 P. M. Similarly, the first news of the hurricane, cabled from Auckland under date of Saturday, March 30, was published in Washington the morning of the same day, apparently, though really the morning of the day following.
The excitement attending the receipt of news of the disaster will long be remembered, and it is unnecessary to refer to it here further than to quote a few lines from a long statement furnished to the press, in reply to the demands of numerous reporters, by Lieut. G. L. Dyer, U. S. N., Hydrographer. The lines referred to are as follows, and they are of especial interest in this connection because, although based upon general considerations only and without any detailed information regarding this particular storm, they appear to agree very well with what actually took place:
"The hurricane that struck Samoa with such furious intensity on the 15th instant probably originated some 300 miles to the northeastward of the islands, about lat. 10° S, Ion. 165° W, and moved rapidly southwestward, directly toward them. If the signs characteristic of the approach of a hurricane were observed (long feathery cirrus clouds, thickening cirrus veil, halos, and fiery tints at dawn and sunset), no doubt all possible precautions were taken to ride out the storm at anchor. The center of the hurricane, however, must have passed directly over or very near the harbor, and in the case of a very severe tropical cyclone, as this must have been, absolutely nothing can resist its fury. In the great hurricane that crossed the island of Cuba in 1844, for example, seventy-two vessels foundered at their anchors in a few hours in the landlocked harbor of Havana, a port almost unrivaled for the security of its anchorage."
The following letter from Rear-Admiral Kimberly, written only a month and a half after the storm, may well be quoted here, giving as it does a brief and concise statement of the facts as indicated by observations during the hurricane, together with such slight additional information as had been received subsequently:
Apia, Samoa, April 29, 1889.
Commodore J. G. Walker, U. S. Navy, Chief of Bureau of Navigation.
Sir:—The hurricane of the 15th and 16th of March at Apia was peculiar, in the fact of there being two low barometers of about equal depression, with an interval of 24 hours between. The indications preceding and accompanying the first depression gave no cause for apprehending a gale of unusual violence, and the local seamen of Apia gave it as their opinion that the weather indicated rain rather than wind, and they anticipated no destructive storm.
Friday forenoon (15th), the barometer falling, we had squalls of moderate force, and recognized the approach of the gale. The force of wind was logged 2 to 6. Steam had already been raised, and at 1 P.M., as a further precaution, lower yards were sent down and topmasts housed. At 3 P. M. the barometer commenced to rise, and it was thought the center of the storm had passed and was receding. The wind had changed from the southward to the northward and eastward in the meantime, and this fact confirmed the belief that the gale was half over. No apprehension was felt for the ships, as it was thought the latter part of the storm would be of no longer duration, and of but little, if any, greater force than the first part had developed. The barometer continued rising until nearly midnight, and it was believed that by morning the gale would be broken. There had been no very heavy sea preceding or during the gale up to this point.
At midnight, however, the barometer commenced falling again, the wind had increased, and the sea was rising high. This was the beginning of that part of the gale which accompanied the second barometric depression, and which proved so violent and destructive. The barometer continued to fall, and the gale developed its full strength rapidly. The seas also rose rapidly, and the ships felt their violence. From early morning of the 16th, for nearly 24 hours, the gale was a hurricane; and the catastrophes commenced at that time by the loss of the Eber. The story of the fate of the several ships and their crews during that day and night has been fully told, and is unnecessary to repeat here.
It will be seen that the destructive effects were due to the second depression, which followed and overlapped the first and which developed its strength so rapidly in the night. It is difficult to ascertain the exact character and movements of this remarkable storm, with the unsatisfactory data afforded by the ships in the harbor, and by the meager reports of the few vessels that were outside, which I have been able to gather.
In the future, when more data can be collected, the storm maybe accurately plotted, and its peculiar features explained.
In the meantime, several theories have been advanced. It has been thought that two distinct storms passed by, following each other very closely, the second storm being the violent hurricane. Another theory is that there was but one storm, and that after passing Apia it recurved sharply to the southward and eastward, and again brought Apia within its influence.
A third hypothesis is that the hurricane was generated directly over this place, and acquired but little or no progressive movement for a long while, the rotary force as the meteor developed increasing rapidly, and causing the tremendous sea during the last half of the blow.
The unstable conditions of the storm during its formation may account for the peculiar movements of the barometer, and for its marked irregularity during the forenoon of the 16th.
I am disposed to accept this third theory; and the report that at the island of Suwaroff, 500 miles to the eastward, no gale was felt, gives it further support.
I forward a copy of the Trenton's log-book covering the period of the storm.
Very respectfully,
L. A. Kimberly, Rear- Admiral, U.S.N.,
Commanding U. S. Naval Forces on the Pacific Station.
In accordance with the plan of co-operation agreed upon between the Hydrographic Office and the Signal Office, all marine data are collected by the former office and referred to the latter, for temporary use. With the original data relating to the Samoan hurricane, referred to the Chief Signal Officer of the army, March 10, 1891 for use in preparing the Summary of International Meteorological Observations for March, 1889, a copy of a statement that I had prepared was enclosed, and the conclusions drawn therein may be quoted at some length here:
Division of Marine Meteorology,
Hydrographic Office, Navy Department,
Washington, D. C, March 10, 1891.
Lieutenant Richardson Clover, U. S. Navy, Hydrographer.
Sir:—I have the honor to report as follows upon a preliminary although somewhat complete study of all the data at hand upon the Samoan hurricane of March, 1889.
Unfortunately, certain data that ought to be available and that prove to be very essential to any correct understanding of the situation have not yet reached this office; I refer especially to detailed observations from New Caledonia and New Zealand for the month of March, as well as reports from vessels other than those from which we now have data.
To refer briefly to the leading features of the situation, I may say that the hurricane that created the destruction at Apia seems to have originated east northeastward from the Samoan Islands, some 300 miles, on the 13th of March, probably without very great severity until the 15th, when its center passed directly over or a little to the north of Apia harbor, with a reduced barometric pressure of 29.07, wind light and variable, from 2 to 3 P. M.; at 3 P. M. the wind came out fresh from NE, shifting to north. On this date the storm commenced to recurve to the southward and southeastward, and it doubtless increased considerably in intensity during this period; to the fact that it recurved at just this position, and that during its recurve it increased in energy, must, I think, be attributed the destruction it caused in the harbor of Apia.
The only data we have regarding the earlier history of the storm are, first, the negative evidence from the statement that it was not felt at all at the little island of Suwaroff, about 550 miles E by N from Apia, and, secondly, the very brief report from the American schooner Equator, which vessel at noon of the 14th was in lat. 12° S, Ion. 170° 50'' W, and experienced thick, squally weather, with winds shifting from S to SW, W and NW. The approach of the hurricane to the harbor, and in fact its general character and severity, were doubtless less clearly evident than they might have been, on account of the force of the southerly winds in its SW quadrant being lessened by the mountains on the island of Upolu. In fact, there are even now no data at hand by which to judge the actual strength of the winds in the advancing quadrants of the storm until after the 15th, nor are there any details showing the velocity of cloud movement, state of the sea off-shore, or other indications that are recognized in every ocean as characteristic of the approach of a hurricane of great severity.
After the center of the storm passed the island on the 15th and the northerly winds of its rear quadrants began to be felt, it naturally followed both that the wind itself was felt with much greater violence than the previous southerly winds (masked as they were by the hills on the island), and that very heavy northerly seas commenced to roll into the harbor. There can be no doubt but that heavier winds and seas were normally to be expected in the rear quadrant of the storm, under the particular conditions of the exposure of the harbor, but it might with equal probability have been expected that they would not be so much more severe than was indicated by the weather previously, nor of such long duration as actually turned out to be the case, owing to the storm's recurve.
The track of the storm to the southward of the island is readily traced by means of a very good report from the American ship Hagarstown, and it seems evident that the storm was central about lat. 17° S, Ion. 171° 30’ W, at local noon of the 17th, the Hagarstown being not far from the center of the storm, to the eastward. The barometric curve and the lowest reading indicated by the Hagarstown's mercurial barometer are not very unlike the curve indicated by observations at Apia during the passage of the center, although the lowest reading is not quite so low by about two-tenths of an inch; but she was doubtless at some distance from the center of the storm, which, as stated above, seems to have increased in severity during the 15th and 16th. The following day, the i8th, the hurricane passed over Nuie, or Savage Island, where great damage is reported, caused by the high winds and storm-wave, which inundated the island.
After the 19th we have as yet no very complete data by which to trace the track of the storm. The American bark Fred. P. Litchfield encountered a hurricane on the 23d, in lat. 34° 30'' S, Ion. 156° W, the wind shifting from ENE to S and NW, and this may have been the same storm or it may not. Data from New Zealand, and possibly from some vessel between the Eurasia and Litchfield, might settle this question.
Farther to the SE we have no data of interest in this connection, and it is therefore impossible to prolong the track of the storm.
It is of interest to note that at the time the hurricane was raging at Apia there was another hurricane of equal or greater severity in about the same latitude but 25° of longitude to the westward. The data relating to this storm are contained in the report of the British bark Altcar, which vessel on the 16th was in lat. 16° S, Ion. 161° 20' E ; at noon, G. M. T., of that day the wind was E, force 12, bar. 28.98 (mercurial, corrected), and 24 hours later wind S, force 10, bar. 29.58. The Signal Office reports from Rockhampton and Moreton, Australia, seem to show that this hurricane did not go that way, and the only data we have from New Caledonia (French transport Yarra) are too vague to draw any inference from other than that it evidently was not experienced there with any great severity. A letter from Staff-Commander R. A. Edwin, R, N. (dated Lyttelton, N. Z., July 11, 1890) states that "the weather experienced by the Altcar can be readily traced toward the East Cape"; in the absence of any complete data from New Zealand, however, I am not so sure but that the storm off the East Cape may have been the Samoan hurricane itself, which would have been felt there had it moved SSW, or even S by W, from its position on the 19th. In this case the hurricane experienced by the Litchfield on the 23d must have been a different storm. This is a question that it seems impossible to settle without data not now available.
It will be noted from the report of H. M. S. Calliope that that vessel, when she steamed out of Apia harbor on the 16th into the northerly gale, experienced a gradual but steady rise of the barometer, as was naturally to be expected, but that on the forenoon of the 17th there was a decided fall (about .30), followed by a still more rapid rise (about .50). No such fall of the barometer is recorded in the reports from the vessels at Apia, nor do the shifts of wind help us much in accounting for it. The only hypothesis by which it can be even partially explained is that a secondary, or storm of small size but considerable severity, passed close to the Calliope and between her and the islands to the southward, affecting her barometer but not the others. There is, of course, nothing very improbable about this (although one would expect the shifts of wind to have been more marked), and the formation of this secondary, moving along a track about SE by E, may be assumed to explain the recurve to the southward and southwestward on the i8th and 19th of the Samoan hurricane itself, and its movement towards the East Cape of New Zealand (if it did move that way). Moreover, the weather experienced by the British steamship Richmond on the 20th, in lat. 18° 34’ S, lon. 1 53° 05'' W (wind backed to NW during the evening, blowing fresh; heavy SW sea, NW and W gale, with high sea the following day), may possibly be explained by the approach and passage of this secondary, now a storm of considerable size and severity. It can hardly be assumed to have been the hurricane encountered by the Litchfield on the 23d, however, without assigning to it a larger diameter than one would expect, or an unexpected southerly curve to its track from its position on the 20th to its position on the 23d.
An earlier hurricane that occurred during March, and whose eastern quadrants passed over the Samoan Islands, can be traced with considerable accuracy from a position at noon of the 6th, about 200 miles north of the island of Upolu, recurving W of the islands, to a position on the 8th about 150 miles E of Tonga, near which position it was encountered by the Hagarstown, which vessel experienced winds of hurricane force, and very low barometer, as indicated by her report. It is interesting to note that the heavy swell sent out on every side from this hurricane was noted on the 12th, to the southward of New Caledonia, by both the Yarra and Altcar. The log of the Trenton can be consulted for data regarding this storm, but it is of only incidental interest in connection with the Samoan hurricane.
The general and permanent interest attaching to the history of this very destructive storm renders it, in my opinion, very desirable to publish all the data that have been collected relative thereto, with as complete a discussion as possible and suitable illustration by means of maps, diagrams, and possibly pictures illustrating the character of the harbor where this memorable catastrophe occurred. Such a publication seems called for by the efforts that we have made to collect data on the subject and the cordial co-operation that we have received from various offices and individuals. Moreover, the opportunity is an admirable one for the publication of other data of interest in this connection, that is, regarding the general subject of storms in the South Pacific. The log-books at hand in this office contain many very interesting reports, and this whole subject is one of very great interest, more especially to the commerce of our Pacific Coast. I find in the Quarterly Journal of the Meteorological Society of London a very complete account by Mr. R. L. Holmes of a severe hurricane that passed over the Fiji Islands in March, 1886, and one of the unpublished reports in this office adds very materially to the interest and value of this paper; a brief description of such a storm in the South Pacific, considered in connection with the Samoan hurricane, would be of great interest to masters of vessels.
I have the honor to request, therefore, that upon the return of these documents from the Signal Office you authorize me to complete the discussion of this storm, adding thereto such data as are available regarding the storms of the South Pacific. I beg to suggest, also, that you request the Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army, to make an effort to obtain from the government bindery the copies of the Queensland Weather Maps of Australasia for March, 1889, and the Weather Charts of Australia and New Zealand published by the Sydney Observatory, both of which belong to the library of the Signal Office and are very essential in this connection.
Very respectfully,
Everett Hayden,
Marine Meteorologist.
The accompanying chart illustrates graphically the tracks of three hurricanes that occurred during the month, together with the tracks of all the vessels from which reports have been received (except the French transport Caledonien, from March 13, in lat. 44° 47' S, lon. 158° 28' W, to March 19, lat. 50° 42' S, lon. 130° 15' W) and a diagram giving the barometric curves of various vessels and land stations. Broken lines on the chart indicate absence of detailed information. The dots on the barometric curves are the data upon which they are based.
Of the three hurricanes whose tracks are charted, the first was the one that was felt with considerable severity at Apia on the 6th and 7th. It seems to have originated some 500 miles NNE from Apia on the 5th, whence it moved in a southwesterly direction, recurving in about the latitude of the Samoan islands but 150 to 200 miles to the westward, and moving thence southeastward, between Tonga and Nuie. The barometric curve of the Hagarstown, over which vessel the center passed on the 8th, indicates that it was a hurricane of great severity—probably quite as severe as the one that succeeded it nine days later. The other tracks are those of the Samoan hurricane itself, and the very severe storm encountered by the Altcar in the Coral Sea, NW from New Caledonia.
Relative to the track of the Samoan hurricane itself, only a few words need be added to what has been said above. Probably two questions will at once occur to the reader, namely, how do you explain the two barometric depressions experienced at Apia the afternoon of the 15th and i6th, respectively (shown on the curve of the Trenton's barometer), and what caused the decided fall of the Calliope's barometer the forenoon of the 17th (this vessel, it should be remembered, steamed out of the harbor at about 10 A. M. Saturday, the 16th, and at noon of the 17th was in lat. 12° 52' S, long. 171° 00' W, or 60 miles NE from Apia).
Before attempting to reply to the first of these two questions, I must confess that I think there is still room for a wide difference of opinion, but I have drawn the track as seems to me most reasonable, considering the fact that we have no data from positions near Apia to the northward, southward and westward, while the conditions indicated by the data from Apia itself can certainly be explained in this way, at least quite as well as by any other hypothesis. My idea is, briefly, that the first depression occurred as the storm passed on its westward track, followed by the usual shift of wind to the northward. Along this branch of its trajectory its severity was probably not quite so great as it was later, and the force of its southerly winds was masked by the mountains on the island of Upolu; possibly careful observations of the rapidity of motion and the character of the clouds, or of the state of the sea off the harbor, might have indicated a severe storm, but this does not appear from the evidence at hand, though well worth considering. During its recurve the hurricane probably increased in intensity, the barometric depression at the center deepening and thus causing the second depression observed at Apia, which was slightly deeper than the first although the center itself was really at a greater distance than on the previous day.
A point of interest in this connection is the fact that storms may be divided into the two following classes: First, where the barometric gradients are steepest very near the center and the wind whirls about a small central space where it is quite calm; this is the typical hurricane of the tropics, with its central "bull's eye," or calm, clear space. Second, where the central clear and comparatively calm area is very much larger, and the steepest gradients and strongest winds are found in an annular space around it, but at some distance. This distinction holds good in the case of many storms in the West Indies and the North Atlantic, and in the present instance the curve of the Hagarstown's barometer on the 8th is typical of the former class, although there is no equally good example of the latter. The second plate, however, entitled "Barometer Diagrams from Two Typical Hurricanes," illustrates the distinction very clearly by means of two examples, namely, the Fiji hurricane of March 3 and 4, 1886, and the Sable Island hurricane of December 1, 1890. The Trenton's curve is added, for comparison, and it will be seen that the indications are that the Samoan hurricane (on the 15th and 16th, at least) was of the second type, although during the 17th and 18th it doubtless became more like the first. It is interesting to note on this plate the difference between the Trenton's curve, as plotted on the two diagrams.
From amongst the various opinions that I have heard expressed by those who have studied this subject, I may be allowed to quote the following: Lieut. H. M. Witzel, U. S. N., who is thoroughly familiar with all the data, is inclined to the opinion that the second depression was caused by a storm that originated in the immediate vicinity (possibly over the island of Savaii) after the passage of the first, and remained almost stationary for some time. Mr. Arthur H. Dutton, formerly an assistant in this office, who also has studied the data relating to this storm, thinks that from its position at noon on the 15th it recurved to the W and NW, and during the following night again recurved sharply, describing a loop north of Savaii and then returning toward Upolu, whence it moved southward and southeastward. It is thus evident that from the data at hand several hypotheses can be made that will satisfy the conditions.
As regards the decided fall of the Calliope's barometer on the 17th, we have to call to our aid, as stated above, what has been aptly termed a "convenient secondary," or local storm—a whirl within a whirl. In the absence of other information, however, I have refrained from the attempt to indicate either its origin or track.
The Altcar hurricane, as it may he called, was one of great severity, although its track, as plotted on the chart, is almost entirely hypothetic, the data at hand not indicating with any certainty whence it came or whither it went. It is of especial interest because of its relation to, or reaction upon, the Samoan hurricane, as it seems probable that its effect was to repel the latter and make it recurve earlier and at a sharper angle than it might otherwise have done. I am inclined to think that its true section, as it would have been given by a barometer at a land-station over which the center passed, was very different from the curve shown by the Altcar's barometer. It seems evident from her report, although it is not expressly so stated, that she ran before the wind and was compelled to remain in the storm so long that her barometric curve is deceptive, unless her action be taken into consideration and its real meaning thus explained. This hurricane may prove to have been one of those stationary cyclones that disappear near the region where they originate.
Although I have already exceeded the limits assigned, I must say a few words about the general meteorologic conditions preceding and during these three great hurricanes, likely, as they are, to be forever memorable amongst South Pacific storms. The data, if carefully studied, allow this to be done with considerable confidence, the Signal Office reports from four Australian stations supplying, to some extent, the place of the missing Australian and New Zealand weather maps.
The normal conditions during the month of March in the South Pacific, as indicated by one of the charts accompanying Buchan's exhaustive Report on Atmospheric Circulation (published with the Results of the Challenger Expedition), are as follows. The two isobars (29.90) that enclose the equatorial belt of low pressure run nearly due east from Manila to Colon and from Central Australia to Peru, respectively. The western and wider part of the region thus enclosed has its central low area (29.75) close to the northern coast of Australia, and the isobar of 29.85 extends eastward from northern Borneo to mid-ocean (about lat. 5° S, lon. 137° W), and thence about W by S to and across Australia, passing a little to the southward of Samoa, where the normal reduced (corrected) pressure is about 29.83 during the month. Farther south, between Australia and Chile, stretches the high-pressure belt of the temperate zone, with one very decided anticyclonic system to the eastward, the isobar of 30.00 including a large oval area from the west coast of South America to lon. 140° W (pressure at center 30.25), and another similar but less decided system to the westward, where the isobar of 30 00 extends from Newcastle eastward to beyond New Zealand, and thence back over Middle Island to northern Tasmania. The southeast trades blow from this high-pressure belt toward the equatorial or low-pressure region, where, during the summer months of the Southern Hemisphere, tropical hurricanes originate, enormous whirlwinds rotating clockwise (or "with the sun," as the expression is ordinarily used) and moving gradually away from the equator along a great parabolic orbit, concave to the east, that half encircles the permanent anticyclone already referred to, west of South America. We thus see that here, as in the North Pacific and North Atlantic—in fact, as in every ocean—it is the western portion that is most subject to hurricanes, and they rarely occur farther east. To the southward of this high-pressure belt of the temperate zone, toward and perhaps to the South Pole itself, pressures decrease very rapidly and uniformly, the isobar of 29,30 coinciding almost exactly with the 60th parallel. This is the region of almost continuous westerly gales, varied by an occasional storm or hurricane. The normal or average conditions are, of course, greatly modified occasionally by disturbances which, although not of frequent occurrence in the tropics even in summer, are sometimes very severe.
The conditions during the early part of March, 1889, seem to have been about normal up to the 4th, when British Meteorological Office reports from Suva, Fiji, and Nukalofa, Tonga, indicate that an anticyclone extended southward toward New Zealand. As this system moved slowly eastward and a cyclonic storm passed southeastward along the south coast of Australia and Tasmania, the first of the three hurricanes described above formed north of the Samoan islands and an apparently feeble depression developed over the Coral Sea. This last depression disappeared as the hurricane moved south of Samoa on the 7th and 8th, and a strong anticyclone appeared over South Australia and moved slowly to the southward and eastward with apparently increasing intensity, becoming central on the 13th in the vicinity of Tasmania, with corrected barometric pressure as high as 30.47 at Melbourne.
It was on the 12th that the very earliest signs of the hurricane's approach were observed at Samoa. To quote from notes made by Lieutenant R. G. Davenport, U. S. Navy, the navigator of the Nipsic, "there was a peculiar, coppery-red sunset the evening of the 12th and the weather was clear the first part of the 13th, but overcast toward evening, when the barometer stood .21 below its reading the preceding day. Calm and light southerly breezes prevailed, force 0 to 2."
On the 14th the weather grew still more threatening and the barometer continued its steady fall, now slowly, as the time of the daily maximum approached, and now more rapidly, as the fall due to the influence of the approaching storm combined with the daily ebb of the barometric tide (always such a marked phenomenon in the tropics). Toward evening the ships got up steam in their boilers, that their engines might aid their anchors in keeping them off the reefs and preventing collisions with other vessels in the crowded harbor. It was doubtless an anxious moment for the commanders of the naval forces of the three great nations, responsible, as they were, not only for lives and ships but for the prompt execution of their instructions and the faithful guardianship of public interests committed to their care. To most of the others on board, both officers and men, free from at least some of the cares and responsibilities of their superiors, the actual danger of the situation was probably not fully evident till after the shift of wind to the northward Friday evening, when the long battle with the elements commenced in earnest.
But to resume and to conclude: Whilst the hurricane was approaching Samoa on the 15th the Tasmanian anticyclone had moved toward New Zealand and the Altcar hurricane had probably already formed in the Coral Sea. On the 16th both hurricanes were raging with terrific intensity, and the Samoan, recurving and almost doubling on its tracks, was playing havoc in the harbor of Apia. It was on this day, Saturday, that the greatest destruction occurred, and it was this and the following day that saw those scenes of heroism, self-sacrifice and devotion that for months made the wreck-strewn ledges and beaches of Apia harbor the focus of public attention and that must for centuries elicit the praise and admiration of mankind.