STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 1, 2 January 1924, Page 5

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

FATE OF THE DIXMUDE.

REPORTS or FISHERMEN,

(By Cable—r*" ess Association.— Copyright.)

PARIS, January 1

It is noW rc S ar ded as certain that the French aiflWp Dix mude was struck by lightning «*■ two °' clock on the morning ofDecembr 21, when it was being driven before a ? le across the Mediterranean, whither il went iri iln effort to avoid a gale blowng at 100 miles an hour over Algiers. Verisiji , '^ ud e is lent to the theory that thcl'ixniudc exploded by the fact that thf«"atch found on the body of Commader Grcmidan stopped at 2.50, which i tho_ time the station-master at Sciacco Sicily, and other raihvaymen stated hey saw a light over the sea line, and to balloons afire falling into the sea.

I'iaJrmcn at Sciacco state that before discoiring the body of the commander of tb Dixmude they found two wires in tfir nets presumably belonging to the iructure of the airship. They also decb'ed that on tlic night of December 21 io inhabitants saw rockets fired soulward of San Marco.

Oier fishermen found wire in their net and what was apparently part of a hefPiece used in sending messages. 'hen the body of the commander was dr-vn up in their nets fishermen found a holograph of his wife and two childm in his pocket. The wife gave birth &■ son yesterday, when she also learned t) news of her husband's fate. Hamon, one of the crew of the Dixride, was also aboard an airship which ■us wrecked in the Mediterranean at the mc of the armistice, and was then the ily survivor. He clung to the wreckgo, and was picked up after four days a the water.

The story that three men from the Jiximide are on a raft Lb discredited.— A. and N.Z. Cable.)