The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-01-02
ON A SAILING SHIP.
PIC TURESQUE EFFECTS OF MOON
LIGHT ON THE WAVES.

a Magnificent Scene I'm the Orient-Con-
hict of Moonlight and LightninG-A
Jamaica Shower on PhOsphOrescent
Waters--The Phantom Ship.
A sailing ship moving quietly onward,
or lying restfully in the heart Of a calm,
offers surface upon which the magic
brushes Of the moon viii paint hundred
lovely things. The clear, sharp shadows
resemble jet inlaid upon the ivory Of the
planks. The spaces of splenior upon the
yards between the black dyes, wrought
by the interception Of the reflection Of the
end Of boom or the clew of SAIL are
like bands of shining silver. There is
nothing fairer than the spectacle of a
sleeping ship with her canvas hanging 81
lent from the yards, stealing out to the
light of the moon that scars sparkling as
if wet from the sea.
a fine effect is often produced by n con-
flict of moonlight and lightning. 1 wit
messed a magnificent scene of this kind in
the Indian ocean, the Island of Amster-
dam in sight on the starboard quarter.
There was full moon in the north, and
In the south hung vast bank of clouds
charged with fire and thunder. The early
gusts of this electric storm broke away
great wings of vapor from the shoulder of
the main body, and sent them speeding
athwart the moon. The shining of the
lumnary was CHASTITY, rendered so by the
alterations of her own light, darting
wildly over the edge of the driven clouds,
with the quick dazzle of the southern
flashes. Her beams seemed to be colofed
by the electric leapings. 1t was the eye,
of course, that carried the reflection of
the blue and sun bright darts to the
northern illumination; but the effect was
as though the lightning struck its own
heiEsh quality into the fabric of the silver
beams RS they fell from the rims of the
flying clouds. The combined illumina-
ton put new and monstrOus face upon
the ocean. 1t made you think of dead
sea complexioned to very mockery of
vitality by the light of such flames as
those from which Milton's Fiend rose to
steer his flight to dry land.
PHosPIoREscENT WATERS.
was once becaImed in highly phos-
phorescent waters, but the surface was so
still that the few CLEANS visible in the
dark profound were faint as the reflection
of a star riding upon the heave of the hid
den swell. A cloud gathered overhead
and it's sooty belly seemed TO lean for sup
port upon our scarcely swaying trucks.
Suddenly it rained. One should spend
some months in Jamaica to understand
the meaning of such a Shower as this.
In a few moments our decks were half
full of water, the scuppers sObbing madly;
the roaring of the RAIN and hail shifting
the ocean drowned an other sounds. The
sea was so phOSphorescent thai q piece of
wood, dropped overheard, Clipped out fire
as though it had burst into flames. Judge
then Of the effect of that Niagara fall of
rain and halt The ocean was flashed up
into a plain of fire. 1t swept sparkling in
one vast iucandescent sheet to its limits,
dimming into sicllly sulphur as it APP
preached the horizon.
You might suppose that such an illu-
minatiou as this would have revealed any
thing afloat upon it; but, though took
long look round, being deeply impressed
by this sudden, wonderful burning of the
ocean, 1 saw nothing, till all at once the
darkness was split by a fash of lightning
that leaped from the clouds away over our
fOreyard arm and shot into the water, as
it seemed to me, n league distant and on
our starboard quarter, and then to this
mighty flare there sprang out upon the
view large ship, well within q mile of
us, snugged down to her topsails. The
sight made me catch my breath for an in
slant, for the wonder Of it lay in her
having been invisible until the lightning
threw her up, so bright was the water
with the flashing of the rain. One waited
for second flash to make sure; and 1
dare say, had she foundered before it
came, there would not have been wanting
people among us to swear that they had
seen the Phantom Ship.
ORIGIN OF THE LEGEND.
Indeed, it is quite possible that this
grand old legend had its origin in some
atmospheric effect due to lightning, moon
shine or fog. have sometimes at sea,
but more often in our narrow waters,
watched q ship for few moments, re-
moved my gaze, and, thinking of her
presently, looked for her again and found
her gone. This is one of those mysterious
disappearance with which all seamen are
acquainted. The evanishment, however,
grows more perplexing when, after search
ing for the vessel and believing her to be
gone for good, you look for her again later
on and find her almost in the same place.
A thing of this kind would have been ac-
cepted by the early mariner as a miracle
He would have come home with yarn
about it as long as his arm, and so have
fired the first POLITICALLY minded guest he
could cOnstrain with his eye with visions
and fancies of a spectral ship.
BE this as it will, disappearance and
temperatures of this kind can be due to
nothing but the subtle and imperceptible
gathering of haze about the object Mist
will often take its complexion from the
atmosphere. 1 have seen bank of haze
of so skylike an azure that but for the
curvature of the sea line under it caused
by the defective sweep of its base should
have accepted it as pure blue air. White
mists also, of a slightly opaline tincture
corresponding to perfection with the hue
of the heavens beyond, 1 have detected
only by the apparent depression of the
horizon under them. a ship may be in
the act of piercing one OF these elusive
wells with her flying jibboOm when you
first catch sight of her. She is as plain
in Your sight as your own vessel; yet when
you seek her a minute after she has van
ished, and there is nothing in the somber
or sunny texture of the stuff she has en-
tered 10 persuade you that what you are
viewing is not the same brown or ceru-
lean sky that stands over and on either
hand of it.-Nacmillan' Magazine
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