METEORITE AT SEA.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1652, 20 January 1913, Page 4

METEORITE AT SEA.

STRIKES A BARQUE.

. - Tho Chilean barque Belfast, which left Newcastle on December 5 with 282G tons of coal for Callao, on the-west coast of South America, was towed into Sydney Harbour on January 7 with her foretopmast and main royal nlast ; carried away. v Tho vessel,' on arrival, .moored offDouble Bay, and Captain Paragon afterwards' related tho Temarkablo circumstances which caused him to -put'back to the Australian coast. ~ • The captain experienced. in adequately expressing himself in Eniflishi but ho pointed out that his vessel; experienced fine weather until within three or; four hundred miles of the New Zenland coast. Tho vessel had been averaging about seven knots, and everything appeared to bo going satisfactorily; On December 15, when slio was in tho position indicated above, ; there was a fair wind blowing, and all sail -was 6et.-, .".At about 11.30 p.m. tho .same night,iwhen the captain wa3 on deck, tho vessel apparently encountered an electrical storm. The first indication of.'anything nnfowaTd was given by a member of tho crow, who pointed excitedly to the sky in tho rear of the vessel, tind'oried out: "Look!" '■ "* » Almost immediately a peculiar bluish light swejit down from the sky, and, passing over tho vessel's mizzen' mast-, struck her main royal mast and. foretopmast, and carried, them away. The wreckage fell with a.; crash on to the deck, while the peculiar light disappeared, in the water, ahead. , . , , .. ' Fortunately no one was injured by the falling debris, but those on board .lina an experience which they are not likely to forget. After the. accident the wind increased-'in force, and the sea became fairly rough.' This lasted for close on 12 hours, and it was not until the next morning that the wreckage was all colIcctcd The accident had a peculiar effeot upon the three'compasses on board, all ot which showed big differences next day, although they had All been working well prior to the mishap. Captain Paragon felt that it-would not be right- to proceed on his vovage to tho west ccast of.wHith America with his -compasses m such an uncertain condition, so h€ niruca VP c«el round, and steered-the best courso he" could for Sydney. - Captain Paragon .was unable to tsa exactly what the peculiar light-which struck his 'vessel was, but from his descriptjon of the incident, it wotild appear that the Belfast was struck by .a meteorite. The atmo.'phero at the time was appalently charged mth electricity, ,and this accounted for the compasses being rendered practically useless. ■ '