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Q.-Did you have any outside information on the 17th indicating the approach of bad weather?
A. No, not from Manila or anywhere.
Q. Pid you receive any telegrams from the Philippines on the 17th ?
A.—Yes; the usual telegrams from Manila and six other stations.
Examined by Captain Sommerville :-
Q.-You keep no night watch?
A. Yes. They go away 10.35 p.m. and come back at 7.20 a.m.
Q.-Should not the diurnal variation being abnormal give you any warning?
A. Yes, but the barometer rises and falls if thunderstorms are about as in this case.
Q.-Is it the duty of anyone to take readings between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. ?
A. Not unless the weather is threatening. That night there were no threatening indications and the wind was in the E at 10 p.m.
Q. Do you think the barometer at this time of the year is absolutely reliable in pre- dicting typhoons ?
A. Yes, but in this case the storm was more like a tornado and did not cause barome- tric indications. The barometer is just as reliable at this time of year as at any other. Our chief reliance is on the telegrams received.
sky?
Q.--Do you when watching for typhoons take into consideration the appearance of the
A. Yes. Mr. Figg saw bright starlight to the SE at 10 p.m. contradicting the possibi- lity of a typhoon's approach. There was nothing abnormal in the sunset.
Q.-Was there anything abnormal in the sunrise of the 18th ?
A. No. It was raining.
Q-Had you watched at 6 a.m. and considering that typhoons travel faster at the Antumnal equinox would you have expected a typhoon ?
A.-No.
Q.--Do you mean that at Pedro Blanco at midnight on the 17th there was a typhoon and yet you had no indication here?
A. Yes.
Q. When there is a typhoon there is invariably a heavy swell?
A. Not in this case because the typhoon was so small and was travelling so quickly.
Q.-There would be no swell preceding it?
A.-Generally and if it came from a distance there should be, but the English mail steamer Delhi had no swell till she was inside of Gap Rock at 8 a.m. on the 18th; and the steamer Prinz Waldemar on the 17th between Lamocks and Hongkong where she arrived about
6
p.m. had only very slight E swell. The fact is the swell was in the rear of this typhoon.
Q.-Is there communication with Waglan ?
A.-No, we trust to Gap Rock.
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