SHIP WRECKED BY A METEOR.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9138, 6 May 1908, Page 7

SHIP WRECKED BY A METEOR.

STARVING GREY/ SAIL 900 MILES IN OPEN BOATS. London, March 12. A tale of shipwreck, more vivid by far than the ‘strangest imaginations of the writers of romance and adventure, reached Queenstown last night. The sailing ship Eclipse, 1469 tons, was on a voyage from Newcastle 'to San Francisco. She bad been at sea for eighty-five days when she was overtaken by a terrible hurricane. Lightning, followed |.by deafening peals of thunder, lit up the sky. Suddenly a meteor struck her fore topmast, which fell in splinters to the deck. The meteor crashed right through the deck, and, tearing a large hole in the hull, fell into the sea. Water immediately poured into the ship. The pumps were 'set going, and for four days’And nights “the crew worked to save their ship, snatching sleep in short spells as they could. No effort could keep the_ ship afloat, however. Captain .Lessen and his crew' of fifteen were compelled to take to the boats, and a few hours later they saw the ship founder.

The men spent fifteen days in the open boats, under a scorching sun. Two biscuits and two gills of water formed each matf’s allowance for the day.

They shaped a course as best they could for the Sandwich Islands, nine hundred miles from the spot where they were wrecked. Their sufferings reached a climax on the thirteenth day, when three men died. Their bodies when thrown overboard were instantly devoured by sharks which followed the boats.

Some days later they sighted a small island, and on the following day the boats reached its shore. The helpless sailors were carried on the backs of the natives to places of shelter. Their sufferings were then at an end, and they were conveyed later to Honolulu.