It was all right when I came up, but it may have fallen since then; if it has, that will make our doubt a certainty." "Aye, aye, sir," replied the first mate hurrying down the companion.

He wasn't long absent, returning the next moment with the information: "It has gone down from 29.80 to 29.60." "That means a typhoon, then," said Captain Gillespie; "so the sooner we're prepared for it the better.

All hands take in sail!" The men tumbled up with a will, the sheets all flying as the halliards we're let go and all hands on the yard like bees; and, as soon as the topgallants had been clewed up, these sails were furled and lashed, as well as having the sea-gaskets put on, so as to make them all the more secure.
The topsails followed suit, and then the courses; the ship's head being brought round to the nor'-west, from which quarter the storm was expected, as typhoons always blow eight points to the right of the regular wind, which with us, at the time these precautions were taken, was from the south-east.
The Silver Queen now lay-to, motionless in the water, with only her main trysail and a storm staysail forward set.
"What is a typhoon ?" I asked Mr Mackay, when I got down on deck again after helping to hand the mizzen-topsail, the last job we had to do on our mast.

"What does it mean ?" "It's the Chinese word for a `big wind,' my boy," said he kindly; but looking very grave.

"You'll soon be able to see what it's like for yourself." The opportunity he spoke of was not long delayed.
By the time the sails had been taken in and all our preparations made for the reception of our expected but unwelcome visitor, everything being lashed down that was likely to get blown away, and life-lines rove along the deck fore and aft, the same as when we were making ready to weather the Cape of Good Hope, it was late in the afternoon.
At four o'clock, the commencement of the first dog-watch, the barometer had fallen further down the scale to 29.46; while, an hour later, it was down to 28.96, the wind increasing in force almost every minute and the sea growing in proportion, until the very height of the cyclone was attained.
The dinghy, which was lashed inboard behind the wheel-house, was blown bodily away to leeward, the ropes holding it parting as if they had been pack-thread, heavy squalls, accompanied with heavy rain all the time beating on us like hail, and bursting over the ship in rapid succession; but the old barquey bravely stood it, bending to the blast when it came, and then buoyantly rising the next moment and breasting it like the good sea-boat she was.
At "six bells" the barometer fell to its lowest point, 28.60, when the violence of the wind was something fearful, although after this there was a slight rise in the glass.