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Updated: May 28, 2025
The northern trade-wind prevails in the Pacific between 2° and 25° of N. Latitude; the southern trade, between 10° and 21° of S. Latitude. In the Atlantic the trades are generally limited by the 8th and 28th degrees of N. Latitude. The region of calms lies between these trades, and beyond them are what are styled the Variables. In the former the seaman finds baffling winds, rain, and storms.
It is now, I believe, generally held to be the best practice to place the ship between 18° and 23° of west longitude on losing the north-east Trade; and likewise to endeavour, if possible, to cross the equator somewhere between these two longitudes. Before reaching the line, however, the navigator will almost always be met by the south-east Trade-wind.
The fading trade-wind wisps sighed and rustled between longer intervals of quiescence. The perfume grew heavier. The woman brought back the babe, quiet again, to the rear of the house. The monkey-pods folded their leaves and swooned to a siesta of their own in the soft air above the sleeper.
The sloop was now drawing near the limits of the trade-wind, and the strong breeze that had carried her with free sheets the many thousands of miles from Sandy Cape, Australia, fell lighter each day until October 30, when it was altogether calm, and a motionless sea held her in a hushed world. I furled the sails at evening, sat down on deck, and enjoyed the vast stillness of the night.
Gradually the dust-cloud drifted away; the island saw the sun once more; and saw itself inches deep in black, and in this case fertilising, dust. The trade-wind blew suddenly once more out of the clear east, and the surf roared again along the shore. Meanwhile, a heavy earthquake-wave had struck part at least of the shores of Barbadoes.
And so they existed and suffered through a three days' damp gale and a fourth day's dead calm, when the brig rolled scuppers under with all sail set, ready for the next breeze. It came, cool, dry, and faint at first, then brisker the unmistakable trade-wind.
Nothing material occurred on this or the following day, for we glided along pleasantly with a fresh trade-wind, varying only a couple of points from S.E. to E.S.E. until the morning of Monday, 30.
And make haste we did, with whoops and yells and driving paddles, from one signalling bamboo to another, hauling up from the depths great glistening beauties from two to three feet in length. Steadily, to the eastward, an ominous squall had been rising and blotting out the bright trade-wind sky. And we were three miles to leeward of home. We started as the first wind-gusts whitened the water.
"I say, father, can you tell Harry and me all about this trade-wind, which we have got hold of it seems?" said he with a grave look, as if he wished to become very learned. "Which has got hold of us rather, I should say, by the way it is carrying us along," answered the captain, smiling. No one knew Jerry so well as he did, though he often pretended not to understand at what he was driving.
There is therefore no reason to suppose that south-westerly winds, within these limits, are caused by the vicinity of large tracts of land, especially as they are always accompanied with a large swell, in the same direction in which they blow; and we find a much greater surf beating upon the shores of the south-west side of the islands that are situated just within the limits of the trade-wind, than upon any other part of them.
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