Page 6 Advertisements Column 1

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 52, 11 February 1913, Page 6

A strange talc lias been narrated l by the captain of the barque I'elfu-t whicli left Newcastle on December 5 for Callao and returned to Sydney H;;rl>o.recently minus her foretopmast and fore-topgallant mast and the main royal mast. He declares that these were carried away by a blue ball of flaine, evidently a meteor, which descended from the heavens and struck the ship when she was about 300 miles off the New Zealand coast. This is the story Captain Paragon told to an 'Evening News' reported It was about 11.30 p.m. on December 15 when the accident happened. I was looking at the compass and the chronometer, when one of the sailors, in a rather excited way, cried out: 'Look, look, captain!' 1 did look, and saw a strange eight away aft. There was something in the sky like a big star, a blue light or flame, and it came ever the mizzen mast, striking the main royal mast, then descending to the 'foretopmast, and cutting everything away like a knife.