Storms Author:John Fisher Storms make fascinating reading even for those safely at home by the fireside. Not even drawn curtains and lights ablaze can shut out the image of roaring winds, pelting spray and the breaking seas on the oceans of the world. Here is a selection of storms: a storm in Samoa that stopped a war... and one in the English channel that blew down the E... more »ddystone lighthouse; the storm in the Bristol Channel that sent a lifeboat over the top of Exmoor on its way to the rescue, and the typhoon that swamped and sank three U.S. destroyers in a single day; the storm that made Grace Darling famous and the tale of the modern young married couple who had to put to sea in a borrowed yacht during a hurricane to save her from being dashed to pieces. And there is the real story behind the loss of the Pamir.
Yet the interest of this book is not founded only on disasters. For nearly every great storm has led to some progress in man's efforts to outguess, if not to conquer, the weather. From century to century we see his attitude to Tempests change, until like the airborne hurricane-hunters of today, he seeks out the very eye of the storm in order to study it. And so this book records not only the storms themselves but the lessons learnt from them, as well as the bravery and heroism which they inspired.« less