SHOWERS OF BLAZING METEORS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9085, 9 May 1908, Page 7

SHOWERS OF BLAZING METEORS.

Ik SEA OF DAZZLING LIGHT,

The "Daily Express" of March :27th says:—The extraordinary story .of a ship wrecked by a meteor, : reported in the "Express" a fortnight' ago, has been followed by another equally remarkable, though fortunately unattended by loss of life. Details of the phenomenon reached Plymouth by mail yesterday. » The Dutch steamer Ocean, crossing the? Atlantic between Rotterdam and Philadelphia, reports that she was , about two hundred miles from the . American port—latitude 39.59 north, longitude (71.27 west, according to the log—when a meteor which must . have weighed many tons dropped ■' from the sky. It fell into the sea so near the ship that t.hb tremendous waves which im-j-mediately spread around, almost swept over the steamer. Clouds of gas shot up from the spot where the meteor fell—fumes so • dense and poisonous that Captain ~Benkert, the master, declares they nearly asphyxiated many of the crew. Had not the men sought shelter below decus, he says they would undoubtedly have been poisoned. The gas remained in the atmosphere, while the ship steamed on, for f no less than fifteen minutes. When Captain Benkert and hia men ventured again on deck they found everything covered with a peculiar brownish dußt. Then followed a shower of blazing meteors, which fell hissing into the ■■■ sea all aroundjthe ship. The shower lasted for several minutes, and the &ea on every side became phosphor«esnent as far as the eye could see. The crew declare that: they saw dazzling objects of every colour dan- ■ cing about on the sea.