Question concerning a typhoon in October 1900 in Nothern West Pacific

[Dr. Ottfried Thümmel]

Dear Sir or Madam,

in the IBTrACS database, I found the entry 1900292N17125 from October
1900, TD9636 dataset with unspecified source:
https://ncics.org/ibtracs/index.php?name=v04r01-1900292N17125

The entry appears to be the same storm as depicted in P. C. Chin
"Tropical cyclone climatology for the China Seas and Western Pacific
from 1884 to 1970", Fig. 59 a). According to the attached image, the
storm track prior to October 20th 12 o'clock local time is marked as
uncertain. Possibly extrapolated? At hat time, the storm' position was
21°N, 122° 36' E.

On the other hand I discovered an entry from October 1900 in the
Abstract Log of German Ship "Flottbek", describing an encounter with a
typhoon in the same region. According to the Abstract log, the ship
passed the eye of the storm at approximately 01:30 local time in the
morning of October 19th. The lowest recorded atmospheric pressure was
946 mbar, corrected to sea level and temperature of 0°C. At that time,
the "Flottbek" stood at 20° 9' N and 130° 50' E.

My question: Could both storms - the one recorded in the IBTrACS
database and the one documented in the Abstract Log - be the same? If
the IBTrACS track prior to October 20th is indeed based on assumptions,
then the typhoon encountered by the "Flottbek" must have moved in a more
east-to-west direction than indicated in the database. To be the same,
the typhoon would have required an average speed of approximately 13.6
knots.

Alternatively, the typhoon observed by "Flottbek" may have been an
otherwise unwatched storm, which followed a parabolic trajectory without
touching land.

With best regards

Ottfried Thümmel
Hermann-Balk-Str. 92a
22147 Hamburg
Germany

[James Barker]