The Ocean and its Wonders | Page 7

within a few miles of the spot indicated by
Maury!
Thus, upon very slight data, a man of science and observation was
enabled, while seated in his study, to follow the drift of a wrecked
vessel over the pathless deep, and to indicate to a rescue party, not only
the exact course they ought to steer, but the precise spot where the
wreck should be found.
The waves of the ocean are by no means so high as people imagine.
Their appearance in the Atlantic or Pacific, when raised by a violent
storm, is indeed very awful, and men have come to speak of them as
being "mountains of water." But their sublime aspect and their
tumultuous state of agitation have contributed much to deceive
superficial observers as to their real height. Scientific men have
measured the height of the waves.
Not many years ago a vessel, while crossing the Atlantic, was
overtaken by a violent storm. The sea rose in its might; the good ship
reeled under the combined influence of wind and waves. While the
majority of the passengers sought refuge from the driving spray in the
cabin, one eccentric old gentleman was seen skipping about the deck
with unwonted activity--now on the bulwarks, now on the quarter-deck,
and anon in the rigging; utterly regardless of the drenching sea and the
howling wind, and seeming as though he were a species of human
stormy petrel. This was the celebrated Dr Scoresby; a man who had
spent his youth and manhood in the whale-fishing; who, late in life,
entered the Church, and, until the day of his death, took a special
delight in directing the attention of sailors to Him whose word stilled

the tempest and bade the angry waves be calm. Being an enthusiast in
scientific research, Dr Scoresby was availing himself of the opportunity
afforded by this storm to measure the waves! Others have made similar
measurements, and the result goes to prove that waves seldom or never
rise much more than ten feet above the sea-level. The corresponding
depression sinks to the same depth, thus giving the entire height of the
largest waves an elevation of somewhere between twenty and thirty
feet. When it is considered that sometimes the waves of the sea
(especially those off the Cape of Good Hope) are so broad that only a
few of them occupy the space of a mile, and that they travel at the rate
of about forty miles an hour, we may have some slight idea of the
grandeur as well as the power of the ocean billows. The forms
represented in our illustration are only wavelets on the backs of these
monster waves.
Waves travel at a rate which increases in proportion to their size and
the depth of water in which they are formed. Every one knows that on
most lakes they are comparatively small and harmless. In some lakes,
however, such as Lake Superior in North America, which is upwards of
three hundred miles long, the waves are so formidable as to resemble
those of the ocean, and they are capable of producing tremendous
effects. But the waves of the sea, when roused to their greatest height,
and travelling at their greatest speed, are terrible to behold. Their force
is absolutely irresistible. Sometimes waves of more than usually
gigantic proportions arise, and, after careering over the broad sea in
unimpeded majesty, fall with crushing violence on some doomed shore.
They rush onward, pass the usual barriers of the sea-beach, and do not
retire until horrible devastation has been carried far into the land.
Maury gives the following anecdote from the notes of a Russian officer,
which shows the awful power of such waves.
"On the 23rd of December 1854, at 9:45 a.m., the shocks of an
earthquake were felt on board the Russian frigate Diana, as she lay at
anchor in the harbour of Simoda, not far from Jeddo in Japan. In fifteen
minutes afterwards (10 o'clock) a large wave was observed rolling into
the harbour, and the water on the beach to be rapidly rising. The town,

as seen from the frigate, appeared to be sinking. This wave was
followed by another; and when the two receded, which was at fifteen
minutes past ten, there was not a house, save an unfinished temple, left
standing. These waves continued to come and go until half-past two
p.m., during which time the frigate was thrown on her beam-ends five
times; a piece of her keel, eighty-one feet long, was torn off; holes were
knocked in her by striking on the bottom, and she was reduced to a
wreck. In the course of five minutes the water in the harbour fell, it is
said, from twenty-three to three feet, and the anchors of the ship were
laid bare.