SHOOTING AT A WATERSPOUT.

Matamata Record, Volume XIII, Issue 1104, 10 March 1930, Page 3

SHOOTING AT A WATERSPOUT.

AN ANCIENT BELIEF. ~~ • l ~ The hoary belief that a waterspout can be dispelled by shooting at it bobs up serenely in Miss Joan Lowell’s “ Child of the Deep,” where the heroine’s father dramatically saves the ship by this time-honoured and perfectly-ineffective process. | The origin of the practice, says Charles Fitzhugh Talman, in his Science Service feature, “ Why • the Weather ? ” (Washington), has often been explained. He goes on: t " It is a survival of the ancient belief that waterspouts are living monsters of the deep, which can be scared away by loud noises. Before the days of firearms sailors were wont to shout, beat drums, and clash their shields together when a waterspout was sighted from their ship. Centuries ago Captain William Dampier, the English freebooter and explorer, wrote of the eustom: * Men at sea, when they see a spout coming and know not how to avoid it, do sometimes fire shot out of their great guns into it, to give it air or vent, that so it may break. But I did never hear that it proved to be of any benefit. Undoubtedly many intelligent mariners down to recent time put faith in this process, and pro!*ably some still do. Doubtless, too, it has seemed to * work ’ in many cases, for the reason that the normal life of a waterspout j is only a few minutes, so that the i chances are in favour of its breaking up soon after it is fired at.”‘