Heavy Weather Guide Part I: Hurricanes, Part II: Typhoons

B&W Illustrations; This is an oversized paperback book with a flexible vinyl cover. The text pages are clean and bright. There is a previous owner's bookplate on the front inside cover of the book. "Sailors have always respected the power of the ocean—especially in heavy seas. Although Navy ships are made to withstand a certain degree of bad weather, they are not indestructible. Weather-related incidents have caused massive destruction and loss of life all throughout recorded history. The Navy’s experience with weather-related incidents is as old as the service itself. Probably the first ship lost to weather was Continental sloop Saratoga off the Bahamas with all her crew on 18 March 1781. Although most associate bad weather with open seas, it can strike anywhere. From 1810–1813, the Navy lost three gunboats in the Chesapeake Bay and a schooner in Lake Ontario. Once ships began to sail on the open seas more frequently, storms became especially dangerous. Sailors would not know a storm was upon them until it appeared on the horizon, and by then it was often too late. In September 1854, brig Porpoise was lost with at least 62 Sailors somewhere between Formosa and China due to a typhoon. During a powerful storm on 15–16 March 1889 in Apia, Samoa, the Navy lost three ships—Trenton, Vandalia, and Nipsic—by huge destructive waves called tsunamis. On 29 August 1916, armored cruiser Memphis was hit by a series of reportedly 75 feet high tidal waves in the harbor of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, which wrecked the ship and killed 43 Sailors. " (Naval History and Heritage Command).