PHANTOM SHIP IN MIST

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 6

PHANTOM SHIP IN MIST

AMAZING PHENOMENON

MIRAGE MYSTIFIES YOUNG MEN. REFLECTION FROM THE OCEAN. REPRODUCTION ON THE CLOUDS. A mirage, that most unusual phenomenon in New Zealand, held mystified two young xnon driving along a> North Taranaki country road down toward the sea one morning recently. Stopping the vehicle, they gazed a full 10 minutes, scarcely knowing whether to believe their senses, until gradually the picture a sailing ship, faithfully reproduced on the morning mists above the horizon, dissolved with the medium whereon it was cast under the influence of the rising sun. The sky was blue and the sun was shining low in a cloudless east, but at sea the mists of the previous night had not entirely gone. The horizon was a faint grey line and the colour of sea and sky around it hesitated between grey and blue. , . . The seers of the mirage were driving down Egmont Road towards ths sea when the ship came into view, sailing along in stately fashion with a white bow wave curling from the prow. She could not. have been a real ship, because although so many miles away the hull was plainly visible and every detail could be clearly seen from the top of the tall masts to the bow wave. For fully 10 minutes the ship remained in view, now losing a mast and again the whole of the upper-structure as she steered her course through the mists. Always the foam at the bow remained, and a gently rising hull. Finally the mirage faded gracefully from view to be lost for ever on the imaginary sea she sailed. The two who watched the phenomenon of a bright summer morning looked at each other, exchanged kicks in all seriousness, and to make assurance doubly sure told each other what each had seen. As they drove on there was nothing to be seen at sea but a calm expanse of blue and a sky of dissolving mist. Far over the horizon, no doubt, where even the tip of the tallest mast could not be seen, the real ship was on her course, her crew oblivious to the fact that nature’s photography was projecting a moving film on the clouds for land-dwellers so many miles away.