STEAMER STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13583, 26 November 1912, Page 3

STEAMER STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

During a heavy, thunderstorm which passed over Newcastle on the afternoon of November 11, there were exceptionally vivid flashes of lightning, and one of them struck the fortopmast of the Newcastle and Hunter River Company's steamer Hunter, damaging it. There had been a good deal of lightning playing in the. sky, and about six o'clock a peal of thunder like tho roar of army cannons was followed by & lightning flash that almost blinded people in tho streets. It was this flash, travelling from the east, which did the damage on the Hunter, berthed at the company's wharf. It struck the foretopmast, which was of wood, about 3ft 6in in length, and splintered it right down, and carried it in many pieces to the deck and wharf, bringing down the signal halyards with it. The lightning travelled right through the ship, and caused consternation in tlie diningroom, whero itho officers wcro having tea. Tongues of blue flame shot about the cutlery on the tables, and the flashing was so vivid that all hands were temporarily blinded. It travelled to the crow's quarters, and caused considerable alarm there also. An examination of the vessel was at once made, and it was found that slio had escaped with the damage mentioned. When the mast was struck, those in tho company's offices and tho people on the Hunter got a smell of something burning, but nothing was burnt on the steamer or the wharf.