The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-07 00:00:00

KILLED BY A METEOR.

The Brisbane Courier of the nth of August states
that several of the vessels just arrived from the south-
ward reported that there was a great deal of electrical
atmospheric disturbance on Monday :it'd Tuesday
nights, but whether it was the effect or was simply co-
incident with the eclipse our informants could not say.
In one case it was attended with fatal results, and a
man was killed on board the schooner Ureinia by the
explosion of an electric meteor. The vessel was off
('rowdy Head on Monday, August 17, about midnight.
when a heavy south-westerly squall came on, and all
hands were called to shorten RaiL A seaman, named
H. G. Sales was steering, and at 12.30 a.m. on Tues-
day, the 18th, a meteor, like a ball of fire, fell im-
mediately over the vessel's stern, and exploded with
a loud report resembling that of a heavy piece of
ordnance. Sparks of fire were scattered all about
the deck, and the steersman was killed by the shock.
Every one on board felt a violent shock like that of a
galvanic battery ; but none of the crew ware in-
jured except Sales, who was at his last gasp picked
up. His body showed no marks, but appeared to be
blackened, and some six or seven hours after decom-
position set in, and the poor fellow was buried over
the side. He was a young man, about twenty-three
and a smart seaman. The fire-ball apparently tra-
velled with the wind, which was from the south-west,
and when it burst the flash was so intensely brilliant
that the steward, who was lying in his birth below, de-
clued that he saw the fire through the seams of the
deck. The cabin at the same moment was filled with
smoke which blackened papers lying about. Captain
Johnson informs us that the diacolouration of the paint
was like that produced by "smoking the ship" with
charcoal. A peculiar and indescribable smell was per-
ceived for some time after the explosion, and a
quantity of flakes like the soot from a steamer's funnel
were scattered about. Captain Mihnan of the Lady
Young (steamer), informs us that on his last trip to
Sydney, a fire-ball was observed passing ahead of his
ship, about 1. a.m. on Monday, the 17th. It travelled
in a horizontal direction from north-west to south-east.
Apparently it was so near the ship that the officer of
the watch altered her course to avoid it, when it burst
and for the moment the whole heavens seemed to be
in a blaze of light. an I at the same time there was
terrific thunder. Lightning and thunder continued at
intervals throughout the night awl next day(Tuesday),
until about half-past 8 o'clock, when fhe weather
cleared up.

DEAN BOYD AND RITUALISM.—The Very Rev.
Dean Boyd is now in residence at Exeter. On Sunday
he occupied the pulpit of the cathedral at the morning
service, and preached from Rev. vii., 16 17, on the
epistle for the day—All Saints Day. In the course of
the sermon he said
We read nothing in this account of the saints respecting
priestly absolution by which man's breath can destroy the
existence of sin ; we read nothing there of rites and cere-
monies whereby, as it were, men were ceremonized into
heaven. There was nothing there of sacerdotal efficacy,
nothing of purchasing right of heaven by frequent com-
munion, nothing of the mummeries of Popery or the
imitations of Popery. But we read there the old evangelical
creed, "Cod forbid that I should glory save in the Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world was crucified to me and I
was crucified to the world."

The rest of the sermon was in keeping with this
specimen.