THE WEST INDIA HURRICANE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 5, 25 February 1871, Page 4

THE WEST INDIA HURRICANE.

Captain Stuart, of the Richmond Board of Trade lighthouse yacht, has published a long and interesting account of the late hurricane in the West Indies. Captain Stuart left Nassau for Cay-Sal Bank Light Station on trie 17th Oct.; and on the 18th, on entering the Gulf Stream with E.N.E wind and barometer 30-130, in running past Water Cay, saw a light on shore, supposed from a wreck. There was then a heavy swell, with wind from the E. and E.S.E. At 8. p.m. brought the vessel to., landed and went to the lighthouse. The narrative furnished by the keeper gives the daily state of the weather, with minute particulars, from which we extract that on the 6th of October the boisterous weather commenced with a long swell and S.E, wind : on the 7th it hauled to the south, and on the Bth to S.E., when it blew so furiously as to drive the sea over the Cay 40 feet in height, and nothing could be seen half a mile off from the salt sprays. On the 12th, the wind.. N.W., moderated, when a flag was discerned seven miles E.N.E. of the station. A man was seen, but no assistance could be rendered. A cupboard was launched, hut this swamped, and the lighthouse men had to swim for their lives. On the 13th, the man seen had made his way to the Lighthouse Cay, having floated across on a board. His name was Louis Lourie, of Corsica, one of the crew of the Spanish brig Victoria, from Havana for Liverpool, sugar laden. Four other men were saved on the 16th by a pilot boat, which had been signalled by the lighthouse keepers, who were without food. It was then discovered that six vessels were wrecked, and eighty-thiee lives lost within two miles of the lighthouse. The yacht lost her masts, and, from the account of Captain Stuart, had a very narrow escape. In describing the direction of the hurricane, he says that in the calm the sky overhead from N N.E. to S.S.W. was clear, proving that the vortex was travelling to the N.N.E., parallel with the stream; the righthand portion of it travelling to the N.E. like a black wall, while the left-hand portion was advancing from the S.W. in the same proportion.