#(ugh finally back again!! 🤦🏾🤦🏾💀)

[araiz-zaria]

Did Farragut Ever Experience Tsunami? 🌊

To be precise, in Brazil (November 1842)? Or on his sail back to Chesapeake Bay in winter 1842-43, somewhere in the Carribean?

At least that was what initially crossed my mind when I first read relevant passages in his biography (by Loyall still!).

.

So, on to the first instance. To set the stage — after being in Buenos Aires since June 1842, Commander Farragut (on USS Decatur) was ordered to sail home (to Chesapeake Bay — Norfolk Navy yard). The ship made several stops along the South American Atlantic coast — and they made one such stop near the mouth of Paraíba river. They made it inland as they sailed upstream the river, to a place named Boa Vista.

"We set out on our return in the boat about 5 P. M. Toward dusk I heard a roaring like steam, which none of us could account for; I soon perceived, however, that it came from the ocean, but did not think it was anything more than a 'tide rip'. Our old host, however, became very much alarmed, and advised us to keep close in-shore to avoid the tide-flow which he feared would swamp us. I entertained no such apprehension of the danger, but followed his advice to gratify him. I soon found that he had reason for his caution; for the seas came upon us so fast that one large fellow boarded us before I could get the boat clear, and gave us considerable trouble to escape. The waves came rolling in about four feet high; but we passed out in gallant style, receiving only a good wetting."

.

On a second read, this might seem more like pororoca (tidal bore happening on the Amazon and adjacent rivers flowing into the Atlantic ocean) rather than a fully fledged tsunami (though I must admit I could neither ascertain for one or the other, only surmise). What made me surmise it more as pororoca was the lack of registered earthquake in the record. While the peaks of pororoca happens during equinox (in March and September — the ship only reached Paraíba around November), it usually happens during new and full moons. Farragut and his crews might not have experienced the bore at its peak (4 feet wave compared to 13 feet wave at its peak), but it seems like in the end that's what they might have experienced.

.

Now the second instance.

"This morning there was a general alarm in the ship, caused by a rumbling noise, which was variously attributed; by some to the running out of chain cables, by others to the rolling of barrels under the decks, and then a painful impression prevailed that the ship was scraping over a bank. It soon became apparent that it was the shock of an earthquake. I had the time marked; it increased gradually in intensity for two minutes, and ceased at the end of three minutes. When it was at its height, the ship shook very much, and the noise resembled the veering out of chain cables. The nearest land, Anguila, was one hundred and thirty miles off. I suppose it must have been very severe on shore. An hour after the shock the northeast trades sprang up quite fresh, and all the clouds were dispersed.

There appeared to be a sympathy between the earthquake and the weather."

.

This one struck me more plausibly as tsunami, not only because of the recorded earthquake, but also because of the loud noise (which is also the signs of impending tsunami). Being at sea, one couldn't record for another sign that usually noticed on the coast — the sudden, far receding of the tide (so again, this phenomenon being tsunami is more surmised than ascertained).

.

What do you think? What happened to Farragut and his crew during this two instances?