METEOR GRAZES A SHIP.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1971, 5 January 1907, Page 4

METEOR GRAZES A SHIP.

FLAMING TAIL ,; A MILK LONG.”

When tile Phoenix liner St. Andrew, from Antwerp, tied up alongside her pier, in .Hoboken (nays the Now York Jlerald of November 21>», the sole topic Of conversation that came to the ears of the stevedores oil shore was the narrow escape ot the freighter from being melted and sum.by a red-hot fragment ot a star that fell alongside, when the vessel was 00 miles to the eastward of-Cape Race. hirst-0 dicer V. Spencer, who was on the bridge at the time, told how the meteor, with a darning tail “ a mile long,” came zig-zagging out of the southern sky a half hour botoro sunset, and disappeared in the sea with a roar and a. sizzle that terrorised the crew, who saw the awesome spectacle. That tho ship passed through a large shower of meteors there is no doubt, for just before the hig one dropped less than a mile away there wore three smaller ones ahead that could he plainly seen in the gathering twilight. Then, too, the Gorman steamship Brasilia, of tho HamburgAmerica line, in from liamburg, had on her leg an account oi meeting .a hig one at nearly the same time, although 150 miles further to the eastward.

“I. was standing on tins bridge at ])!ilf-])ust live,” said First-Officer Spencer yesterday, “when I saw three meteors ahead, about three miles away, Hash as they fell, although it aas before sundown. I’ho sky was clouded, and I had hardly noticed the fall of the meteors when the chief engineer cried out from below deck, ‘Look at that!’ “There, olf to-the south on our port beam, was a big meteor falling plainly less than a mile away. It appeared to bo saucer-shaped, and showed liko a white-hot coal, fully 15ft. in diameter. Behind it steamed a shower of reddish fire, fully a mile long. "While we were looking the meteor zig-zagged, 1 suppose on account of its shape, and plunged into the sea. Up rose clouds of steam, and the sea boiled for a space fully 500 ft. or uuoft. in diameter for several minutes. “While the flight lasted only a few seconds, it seemed an hour, we saw it so plainly, and had it struck our ship it would have melted its way down through the steel hull and sent us without a moment’s warning to the bottom . Since I have thought of it, I believe that the phenomenon may explain the loss of ships never accounted for. It is not impossible for a ship to be caught in such a meteoric shower, which would mean instant destruction. “1 have soon many meteoric showers at night in many seas, hut never . saw a meteor so close at hand. 1 ! liavo no doubt that had it been dark [ at tho time we should have seen a i grand display, as wo probably passed through a big fall of the star dust, or > wliatover the flaming particles may - bo.” Captain Russ, of the Brazilia, at ' half-past seven o’clock the same night, saw a monster meteor, which appeared to drop into tho sea.