The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-17 00:00:00

STRUCK BY A WATERSPOUT.

The following interesting narrative is contained in a
letter from Mr. Heatop, an officer, of her Majesty's ship
Electra, son of the Hon. Mrs. Heaton, of Pias Heaton,
Denbighshire, and nephew of Lord Henniker, and dated
"At Sea, Nov. 22, 1855 :—". We left Melbourne on.the
12th of last month, and,- with our usual fortune, encoun-
tered very heavy weather during the whole of our pas-
sage ti New Zealand,: the sea running very high and
wa-hing over us continually.' One day an enormous sea
broke over ue, and the first thing' it carried away wag
the second gig, completely crumpling her up and smash-
ing her all to bits. It then stove in the gunroom and
captain's skylights, and washed everything off the tables
in both placee, including a bookshelf an 1 a swinging
tamp. They were at breakfast in the gun-room at the
time, and in a moment officers, teacups, lumps of but-
ter, servants, and red herrings were'all floundering toge-
ther on the deck in three feet of water, and it was some
minutes before the ship recovered herself from the shock.
Eating our meals was a violent gymnastic exercise ; and,
its to -writing, it Was out of the question. Ten days of
this work brought us up to the north point of New Z
land, and it took three more tO beat down the east coast.
to Autkland, where we arrived on. the 25th ult., after
the longest sea voyage we have made since our first
arrival from England., We remained at Auckland for 18-
days. We sailed frOne Auckland on the 12th of the pre-
sent month, and have. been fighting with head winds
ever since, with the exception of two days, when the
wind favoured, us for afew hours, and, therefore, though
we aro nine days out, we have only advanced 400,
'piles, and are still- 700 from Sydney. The day be-
fore yesterday we encountered -a most extraordinary
danger—one that few ships have ever witnessed ; that
we . were caughtias waterspout, The day had been
squally, and we had been. compelled taw in*
several time-, and therefoie we who were below were not
surprised to find the ship heel gradually over; but when
she went further, and the deok became almost perpen-
dicular, we could see that something happened beyond
he common order of squalls, and I felt a sort of faint,
sick feeling of anticipation and vague dread that almost
tfled the prayer that rose to my lips. The suspense
was horrid, and the dread of being strangled below by
the rush of water gave me strength, and I climbed over
the others and managed to reach the deck. There every
thing was in confusion, and ao one was giving any intel-
ligible orders, and the ship was lying over on her broad-
side, with all of one side buried in the water, ropes and
sails flapping about, and men standing aghast, with de-
spair in their faces. I noticed one man in particular,
who was sitting on the deck, seemingly in a state ef
utter idiotcy, with his hands clenched and his face livid,
deaf to all that was passing around him. The sight of
,o much anarchy restored my self-possession, and I
began to drive the men to the ropes to haul down the
after sails, and after a couple of minutes' work the ship
slowly righted. The captain's gig was stove in by the
water, and the davits (strong carved pillars of iron, as
thick as my leg) bad been bent double by the pressure.
It seems that a whirling mass of water had been sud-
denly seen near the ship, and before anything could be
done it was upon her, bearing her down and whisking
her round and under water, while the whirlwind by
which it was, of course, accompanied and caused, pressed
her over by the sails and increased the danger. It was
indeed a fearful minute, and nothing but God's band could
have saved us, for man was utterly powerless against
the tremendous manifestations of our Creator's might.
As soon as I could get by myself, I returned Him thanks
for mercifully sparing myself and my shipmates, and
saving us in our hour of extreme peril. This was really
a very uncommon adventure, for, though ships frequently
see waterspouts, it does not happen once in 500 times
that it strikes a vessel."—Bury Post.