Sailor’s Horn-book for the Laws of Storms in all Parts of the World

Capt. Henry Piddington's Sailor's Horn-book for the Laws of Storms in all Parts of the World, published in 1855, investigated revolving storms in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. This work aimed to explain the behavior of these cyclones for sailors.1

The 19th century saw significant advancements in understanding storms. William Dampier recorded spectacular features of revolving storms as early as 1697. By the 1820s, Heinrich Wilhelm Dove recognized tropical revolving storms as traveling systems with specific wind rotations in different hemispheres. William C. Redfield independently established the whirlwind nature of these storms, noting how trees toppled in different directions depending on the storm's movement. Sir William Reid confirmed reversed rotations and path curvatures for storms south of the Equator. These observations laid the groundwork for understanding storm dynamics and forecasting.12