An Universal Dictionary of the Marine / Or, a Copious Explanation of the Technical Terms and Phrases Employed in the Construction, Equipment, Furniture, Machinery, Movements, and Military Operations of a Ship. Illustrated With Variety of Original Designs of Shipping, in Different Situations; Together With Separate Views of Their Masts, Sails, Yards, and Rigging. to Which Is Annexed, a Translation of the French Sea-terms and Phrases, Collected from the Works of Mess. Du Hamel, Aubin, Saverien, &c.

by William Falconer

11th. In the tract between Sumatra and the African coast, and from three degrees of south latitude quite northward to the Asiatic coasts, including the Arabian sea and the Gulf of Bengal, the Monsoons blow from September to April on the N. E.; and from March to October on the S. W. In the former half-year the wind is more steddy and gentle, and the weather clearer, than in the latter six months: and the wind is more strong and steddy in the Arabian sea than in the Gulf of Bengal.

12th. Between the island of Madagascar and the coast of Africa, and thence northward as far as the equator, there is a tract, wherein from April to October there is a constant fresh S. S. W. wind; which to the northward changes into the W. S. W. wind, blowing at times in the Arabian sea.

13th. To the eastward of Sumatra and Malacca on the north of the equator, and along the coasts of Cambodia and China, quite through the Philippines as far as Japan, the Monsoons blow northerly and southerly; the northern one setting in about October or November, and the southern about May. The winds are not quite so certain as those in the Arabian seas.

14th. Between Sumatra and Java to the west, and New Guinea to the east, the same northerly and southerly winds are observed; but the first half year Monsoon inclines to the N. W. and the latter to the S. E. These winds begin a month or six weeks after those in the Chinese seas set in, and are quite as variable.

15th. These contrary winds do not shift from one point to its opposite all at once; and in some places the time of the change is attended with calms, in others by variable winds: and it often happens on the shores of Coromandel and China, towards the end of the Monsoons, that there are most violent storms, greatly resembling the hurricanes in the West Indies; wherein the wind is so excessively strong, that hardly any thing can resist its force.

All navigation in the Indian ocean must necessarily be regulated by these winds; for if mariners should delay their voyages till the contrary Monsoon begins, they must either sail back, or go into harbour, and wait for the return of the trade-wind.

The relative force of the wind upon a ship’s sails, and the epithets by which it is distinguished, as fair, large, &c. according to the angle which it makes with her course, are explained in the article Sailing.

Reigning Wind. See Reigning Wind.

To Wind a ship or boat, is to change her position, by bringing the stern to lie in the situation of the head; or directly opposite to its former situation.

To Windward, towards that part of the horizon from whence the wind bloweth.