The Great Tidal Wave in the Atlantic.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6038, 21 September 1887, Page 3

The Great Tidal Wave in the Atlantic.

Some particulars are to hand respecting the Umbria's encounter with a great wave in the Atlantic. When the wave was seen approaching, the officer on the bridge, 40ft above the water line, was unable to see over it.

A description of the occurrence by an eye-witness is sent by the New York correspondent of the Daily News. " The lookout," he says, " saw the wave coming, and the course of the vessel was altered so that she met it obliquely, while the speed of the engines was slackened. As I saw the huge wave, ifc looked like a black mass of water with white waves on the top, and it rolled higher and higher as ifc neared the vessel. When it struck her she shivered ! from stem to stern, and the combing of the wave fell with the weight of tons oh the deck. The wood cover of the forward hatch was splintered in pieces, while the water poured in torrents into the hold, but the bulkheads were closed. The bridge was broken, and the iron stanchions were twisted with enormous force, while the turtle back was flattened by the tremendous weight of the water. There was almost a panic among the passengers, most of whom were sleeping in their berths. When the force of the wave was felb, they thought the ship was going to the bottom, and many in their nightclothes rushed into the main dining-room. Of course the danger was past, as the wave rolled by, and th.c excitementj.Bubaided.^;' ,