BESET BY METEORS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 193, 9 May 1908, Page 10

BESET BY METEORS.

SHIP'S NARROW ESCAPE.IN'THE ■ ATLANTIC. Details have' reached Plymouth, of a steamer's marvellous escape. According to Captain Benkert, the Dutch steamship Ocean, which arrived at Philadelphia, barely escaped destruction by a motoor weighing many,tons. . The vessel was almost enveloped byhugo waves following the impact of the aerolite with tho sea, and liiany of tho crew bccame ill from tho. effects of the gas, which, Captain Benkert 'declares, would have asphyxiated thom had they not sought shelter talov decks. The gas remained in tlunatmosphero for more than fifteen minutes, and'when the captain and his men ventured on deck they found' it covered with peculiar brownish powder which fell from tho sky. Then followed, according ,to Captain Beiikert, a shower of blazing meteors, which began to fall about tho vessel in an alarming fashion, the phenomenon lasting several minutes. Tho sea about the vessel became phosphorescent, and), as far as tho eye could See,' 'dazzling objects nf every'colour danced about on the sea. • Tho remarkable sight, according to tho log of the Ocean,- was witnessed at three o'clock in tho morning of March 4, while the stenffl'er whs in latitude 89.59 north ed longitude 71.27 west. "■