STRANGE ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCE.

Western Star, Issue 962, 4 July 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

STRANGE ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCE.

Victoria B. 0, March 2.—The bark Innerwick, Capt. Waters, fchirty-one days from Yokohama, has just arrived and the master reports a very stormy passsage. At midnight on February 24th in latitude 37Jeg. north, longitude 170 deg. 15min east, the wind was blowing heavy from the south-south-east, with the ship running before it under short sail. At lin the morning it increased to a living gale with the sky of a pitchy darkness. At 5 o'clock the Captain who was aroused by the mate, went on deck and found the sky changing to a fiery red, as if the entire heavens were in conflagration. All at once a large mass of fire appeared ail over the vessel, completely blinding the spectators, at the time and as it fell into the sea some fifty yards to the Jeeward it created a hissing sound, heard even above the blast, causing the vessel to quiver from stem to stern. Hardly had this disappeared when the mate, clutching the Captain's arm, cried: "My G-od what's that ?" pointing to a towering mass of white foam rapidly approaching the apparently doomed vessel. The noise from the advance of the volume of water is described as deafening. As the bark was struck flat aback, and before there was time to touch a brace, the sails filled again and the roaring white sea could be seen passing away ahead* To increase the horror of the situation another vast sheet of flame ran down the mizzenmast, from whose rigging poured myriads of sparks, and for twenty minutes the strange red of the sky remained. The master, who is an old and experienced mariner, declares that the awfulness of the sight was beyond description* He considers that the ship had a narrow escape from destruction.