At appropriate places in the book the narrative serves as an acknowledgment by giving the names of a large number of men who furnished information in personal interviews, by correspondence, or in their reports which were included in the voluminous files searched in the last year.
In writing this book I had unstinted cooperation from the Air Weather Service and its Commander, Brigadier General Thomas Moorman, from the Aerological Branch of the Navy Department and its Head, Captain C. J. S. McKillip, and from the Chief of the Weather Bureau, Dr. F. W. Reichelderfer, and his associates in the field and the central office. In particular, Major William C. Anderson and associates in the Office of Information Services of the Air Weather Service and Captain Robert O. Minter of the Fleet Weather Central at Miami and his associates there in Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four at Jacksonville were extremely helpful. Of the associates of these men I wish to mention especially the assistance of Lieutenant Commander R. W. Westover and Air Force Captain Ed Vrable, both of whom are seasoned hurricane hunters.
Others not mentioned in the book who contributed to the warning service and indirectly to the material used here were Isaac M. Cline and Charles L. Mitchell of the Weather Bureau. Their writings supply much of the background for any work on tropical storms.
The Air Force, Navy and Weather Bureau kindly supplied official photographs used here, except the wave breaking on the sea wall by the Miami Daily News and the drawings of sailing ships in hurricanes which are credited to Colonel William Reid who published them in 1850 in his book on the “Law of Storms.” The Author
CONTENTS
[1. Monsters of the World of Storms] 1 [2. The Saddler’s Apprentice] 19 [3. At the Bottom of the Sea] 32 [4. Storm Warnings] 45 [5. Radio Helps—Then Hinders] 59 [6. The Eye of the Hurricane] 75 [7. First Flight into the Vortex!] 90 [8. The Hammer and the Highway] 103 [9. Wings against the Whirling Blasts] 117 [10. Kappler’s Hurricane] 132 [11. Tricks of the Trade] 150 [12. Trailing the Terrible Typhoon] 167 [13. Guest on a Hairy Hop] 185 [14. The Unexpected] 202 [15. Fighting Hail and Hurricanes] 224 [16. Carol, Edna, Hazel or Saxby!] 237 [17. The Gears and Guts of the Giant] 250
ILLUSTRATIONS
(Photographic supplement follows [page 50])
[The English warship Egmont in the “Great Hurricane” of 1780.] [The Calypso in the big Atlantic hurricane of 1837.] [A tremendous wave breaks against the distant seawall on Florida coast at the height of a hurricane.] [Typhoon buckles the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Bennington and drapes it over the bow.] [Winds of hurricane drive pine board through the tough trunk of a palm tree in Puerto Rico, September 13, 1928.] [Looking down from plane at the surface of the sea with winds of 15 knots.] [Sea surface with winds of 40 knots.] [Sea surface with winds of 75 knots.] [Sea surface with winds of 120 knots.] [Superfortress B-29 used by Air Force for hurricane hunting.] [Neptune P2V-3W used by Navy for hurricane hunting.] [Navy crew of hurricane hunters.] [Air Force crew being briefed by weather officer before flight into hurricane.] [Conditions at birth of Caribbean Charlie in 1951.] [Part of a spiral squall band, an “arm of the octopus.”] [Through Plexiglas nose, weather officer sees white caps on sea 1,500 feet below.] [Navy aerologist at his station in nose of aircraft on hurricane mission.] [Radar operator and navigator.] [Maintenance crew goes to work on B-29 after return from hurricane mission.] [City docks at Miami after passage of Kappler’s Hurricane in September, 1945.] [Positions of crew members in B-29 on hurricane mission.] [Part of scope showing typhoon by radar.] [Looking down into the eye of Hurricane Edna on September 7, 1954.] [Looking down at the central region of Typhoon Marge in 1951.] [Weather officer in nose of aircraft talking to pilot and radar operator.] [The engineer in a B-29 on hurricane reconnaissance.] [The two scanners ready to signal engine trouble the instant it shows up.] [The new plane (B-50) to be used by the Air Force for hurricane reconnaissance.]