PHENOMENON AT SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIV, Issue 5020, 18 December 1877, Page 3

PHENOMENON AT SEA.

Tjik recent voyage of the s.s. Go Ahead, Captain Helander, from Gisborne, is one which is not likely to be forgotten by the passengers on board, who received such a scare by a sight they witnessed, and for which it is dilficult to account. We give the captain's version of the circumstances : — It appeared that on Ist December, between the hours of S and 9 p.m., when the steamer was off Open Bay, and about five miles from the land, the watch on deck was in charge of the first officer, the captain being below, when the latter, aud also the passengers, were suddenly alarmed by the chief oilicer exclaiming, "My God! what's that ?— Hard a-port—Stop her !" Such a strange order naturally brought all on deck, and looking a short distance ahead of the vessel, the sea was observed to be one mass of seething foam, the disturbance travelling towards the vessel, with much greater rapidity than the speed the steamer was making. The vessel's stem was immediately directed to clear the outer edge of the agitated water, and although the captain was successful iu so doing, yet the influence was felt, and the steamer pitched violently until the agitation was out-distanced. The alarm of the passengers was great, aud one of them took to his bunk, and was not seen again on deck until the arrival of the vessel in Auckland. The agitation wa3 no doubt due to some volcanic disturbance of the sea bottom, as a slight shock of earthquake was felt at Gisborne on preceding evening.