THE WRECK OF THE LIGHTNING.

Southland Times, Issue 1247, 6 May 1870, Page 2

THE WRECK OF THE LIGHTNING.

That it would hare been foolish to have ex pressed »ny opinion about the amount of damage done to the wreck of the lightning, by the explosion on Thursday, was fully illustrated on the following morning. What the majority were inclined to believe was a failure, because there was no ■how aboTP water, was in reality a success. Even Colonel Anderson and theotheroffioersappeared to be astonished at what had been achievedby the nine torpedoes that had exploded, it being found that ■ix of them had missed fire, and a lucky job too ! The shaking that some of the houses received was quite enough, without wishing for any nearer -approach to an earthquake. The tall bufldme at the rear of Messrs Volutn and Co.'s brewery appeared to the ladies and gentlemen occupying the verandah to literally sway to and . fro. and made them wish themselves again on terra firma. The harbor-master bad one of his windows broken by the shaking, and the undulation of the earth, was,itis said, perceptiblyfelt more than a mile away from the scene of the explosion. This show? that the torpedoes wasted some of their power on the mud underneath them. The divers reported that the stern of the vessel had been most severely shaken ; for sixty feet fr° m the stern-post it was shattered to pieces. This was where the torpedo was laid under fr-e transoms of the vessels. The keelson, so far as they could see, had been split by the shock ; a large lump had jumped out of the port bow, sn^st of the inside timbers were loose, and some of the sheet copper was crumbled up. In fact, the vessel had been shaken from stem to stern. One of them, it was said, boldly asserted that he believed that the vessel had been lifted bodily out of the hollow she had formed, and returned to it again ; thin, however, must be taken cum grano tali*. The six torpedoes, or, at any rate, the majority of them, formed portion of the eight that were laid on Wednesday. One of them was inside the bows, under a perfect network of iron bolts, so that perhaps it is quite as well it did not go off. "The weakness of the vessel constituted its strength." The torpedoes in several instances went through it without splintering the wood to any degree. Had Bhe been built of tough hard wood, instead of soft saturated white wood, a torpedo going through it — the wood being more tenacions — would probably have caused it to split in all directions. All idea of using gun cotton was abandoned by the Colonel when he heard how effective gunpowder had been, and he accordingly gave instructions to Mr Johnson, of the Ordnance Department, to have some more torpedoes made. Two of these were placed by the divers just in front of the mizenTnast, and, profiting by the previous day's experience that no* danger was to be feared, the galvanic battery was placed on board the lighter near the end of the Yarra-street wharf, or only some seventy'or eighty yards from the sunken torpedoes. On Thursday it will be remembered that when the nine torpedoes burst, they, so far as could be seen, did not throw up any timber. The first couple fired on Friday, however," had a very different effect : they threw the water higher, and i's whiteness was, to the great satisfaction of those engaged, nicely chequered with charred beams. No sooner had the shot been fired than all haste was made to see the effect, and Captain Lawrence's boat, with its military occupants, was soon swimming about in a black, greasy sea, with splintered planks all round it, like, in everything but color, broken ice in the polar seas when the rammer is Betting in. In addition to these, three perquisites in the shape of two bales of wool and a cask of tallow showed their heads above water. It need hardly be added that they were quickly towed away, and placed on board the contractor's lighter. No fish were to be seen floating about, and this rather astonished a good many. On Thursday it was thought the reason that no fish were killed was that none happened to be in the neighborhood of the wreck. On Friday, however, it was different — trevalla were being hauled out by the fishermen at the wharf all the morning. Can anybody account for it ? When the volunteers were practising at a target, the fish were frightened away for weeks. Yet here, when one or two tons of powder is exploded almost in their midst, the cry is still they come. At the time of the explosion the bay was rather rough, but a few minutes afterwards, for a hundred yards around, the sea was as smooth as a mill-pond and covered with grease — a forcible illustration of the benefit to be derived when in fear of being swamped of '? pouring oil on troubled waters." Seeing the effect of the minor explosion, the Colonel ordered three more torpedoes to be prepared and placed abaft the foremast, one on each side, the other in the chain-locker. His Worship the Mayor fired the shot, which was even more successful than the preceding one. The water leaped nearly 20ft. high across the ship, splintered beams, turned summersaults, a large piece of the original upper deck was forced again to the surface ; the centre of the vessel rose, and the stem tank, clearly showing that at last its unfortunate back must be broken. Four casts of tallow bobbed about amidst the general devastation, and scores of wreckers rushed in for plunder. Lest this last remark might be misunderstood, it would, perhaps, be as well to state that Captain Lawranee announced in the morning that anybody could have the broken timber who chose to go and fetch it. His offer was accepted by almost every fisherman in port, and by lots of others who could manage to secure a boat. The result was that directly the explosion took place, there was a general rush ; and some of them, to be in time, kept quite close to the wreck, even when the shot was being fired. A second after, and every sort of boat — from a flat-bottom to the keen-looking whaleboat — was being rapidly loaded. Many a poor man will this winter have a cheap and ample supply of firewood ; so that the burning, or at any rate, the general '* blow-up" of the Lightning will do some good to Geelong. All that Captain Lawrance stipulated was that all copper, if taken away on snj of the planks, should be returned, and it is pleasing to be able to state that he has not heard of a single instance in which his kindness has been abused, although a great many sheets have already been sent up. The cormorants, too, were also on the look-out. No sooner did they hear the noise than they flocked to the spot and hovered about, perhaps as astounded as any biped that no fish were silly enough to show themselves. Colonel Anderson anticipates that two or three more explosions similar to those of yesterday will so dismember the hulk as to render the removal of any broken pieces that may remain, an easy task to the contractor. — Qeelong Advertiser.