STRANGE LIGHT AT SEA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4158, 8 July 1892, Page 3

STRANGE LIGHT AT SEA.

An East Coast Vision.

Was it a Ship on Fire? W Early on Wednesday morning, shortly before daybreak, there was observed from Mr Tatham's station on the East Coast, between Flat Point and Uriti Point, a lurid glare far out at sea, some ten miles away or more, It was not by any means a clear morning, and distances would be hard to estimate; this, therefore, is an approximation entirely. The luminous gleam was quite of an unusual character, and differed altogether from the appearance which I he lights of a passing steamer would present ; if, indeed, the latter would be visible at all at such a distance, Those who saw it, therefore, apprehend that a vessel of son:e kind may have been on fire, (That was quite the general impression created. Ab soon as day broke, not long afterwards, field glasses were brought tinder requisition, but there was no trace of the cause or effect of the illumination on the wide expanse of ocean carefully scanned. ,W The only vessel observed at sea in the direotion the flare appeared in, hid been on the previous evening, when a two-masted schooner was seen in the offing. At present the occurrence savours of the mysterious, and revelation which will clear up or confirm tho fears of those who were eye-witnesses of the incident must come from other sources —from the shipping reports probably —for their scope for investigation was necessarily limited to the subsequent Bcrutiny of tho sea to which we have alluded.