It is not often that a tidal wave visits the St. Lawrence, but in October, 1896, the SS. Durham City, of the Furness Line, when off Anticosti, was struck by a big wave which carried away her deck-load, including sixty eight head of cattle and everything movable. It was only one sea that did the damage, but it made a clean sweep.
By a figure of speech, ocean waves are frequently spoken of as running “mountains high,” and the popular tendency is doubtless towards exaggeration. The estimate of experts is that storm waves frequently rise to forty feet, and sometimes even to sixty or seventy feet in height from the wave’s base to crest.
H. M. SS. “CRESCENT.”
Presented by publishers of the “Star Almanac,” Montreal, 1896.
This outline represents one of the smaller types of British warships, known as first-class cruisers. The Crescent was launched at Portsmouth in 1892, and cost £383,068. She is 360 feet long and 60 feet beam. Her tonnage is 7,700 tons; her indicated horse-power 12,000, and her speed 19.7 knots an hour. Her armament consists of one 22-ton gun, twelve 6-inch quick-firing, twelve 6-pounder do., five 3-pounder do., seven machine guns and two light guns. The Crescent was for several years the flagship of Vice-Admiral James Elphinstone Erskine, on the North American and West Indies Station, and is consequently well known in Canadian waters. She visited Quebec several times.