XXIV. On the effect of westerly winds in raising the level of the British Channel

Abstract

Dear Sir, In the “ Observations on a Current that often prevails to the “Westward of Scilly ,” which I had the honour to lay before the Royal Society many years ago, I slightly mentioned, as connected with the same subject, the effect of strong westerly winds, in raising the level of the British Channel; and the escape of the super-incumbent waters, through the Strait of Dover, into the then lower level of the North Sea. The recent loss of the Britannia East India ship, Captain Birch, on the Goodwin Sands, has impressed this fact more strongly on my mind; as I have no doubt that her loss was occasioned by a current, produced by the running off of the accumulated waters; a violent gale from the westward then prevailing. The circumstances under which she was lost, were generally these: In January last she sailed from her anchorage between Dover and the South Foreland (on her way to Portsmouth), and was soon after assailed by a violent gale between the west and south-west. The thick weather preventing a view of the lights , the pilot was left entirely to the reckoning and the lead; and when it was concluded that the ship was quite clear of the Goodwin, she struck on the north-eastern extremity of the southernmost of those sands. And this difference between the reckoning (after due allowance being made for the tides) and the actual position, I conclude was owing to the northerly stream of current, which caught the ship when she drifted to the back , or eastern side of the Goodwin.