The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-05-24
STRANGE SEA STORIES. I
Tidal Waves, Submarine Eruptions
and Showers Of Fishbones.
Great foundations Resulting frem Vol-
canio Upheavals- Mammoth War
Vessels Carried Far
Inland.

ences. Big waves rank among them,
says the Pittsburgh Dispatch. We do
not refer to those waves which are
the immediate consequence of high
winds and atmospherical disturbances,
but to those single waves of immense
height which show themselves sudden
ly in the midst of a sea comparatively
smooth. A vessel may be sailing along
In fine weather and with no swell ON
worth mentioning, when, without the
least warning, comes sweeping along a
wave that towers like mountain,
falls on the deck and carries away
everything movable, members of the
crew among the rest. The steamer San
Francisco was once struck by a tidal
wave of this sort in the gulf stream and
one hundred and seventy-nine persons
were swept into the sea and drowned.
In March last all the crew save one Of
the bark Johann Wilhelm were
washed overheard by single wave. In
June last year the ship Hollywood en-
countered another such sea, which is
said to have risen up suddenly, like
WALL" and to have flooded her decks
fore and aft. The Cunarders Etruria
and Umbria have both encountered the
phenomenon, and the former had one
man killed and several others injured.
Sometimes these waves are the result
Of submarine eruptions and land earth
qualles occurring in close proximity to
the sea.
An English bark crossing the North
Pacific met with one of these big
waves and Immediately afterward the
ocean seemed to be boiling, and the
sulphur fumes that emerged from the
water were so powerful as to drive the
crew into the rigging. Clearly there
was an eruption here as the ship sailed
over, and the wonder is that the great
wave did not do more injury.
Again, the American schooner Dara
]. Ward, while on voyage to Seattle,
Wash, from Copper island, was sail
ing quietly along when suddenly she
was lifted as if whale had struck
her bottom, and then experienced a
succession of shocks which cast every
thing loose about her decks and
knocked the crew off their feet. There
were few big waves succeeding the
main one, and then everything was
smooth again. The biggest solitary
wave ever known was that caused by
the Peruvian earthquake of August
10, 1868. In no other instance we are
assured, has ID been known that well
marked wave of enormous proportions
has been propagated over the
largest ocean tract of the globe
by an earthquake whose action
has been limited to relatively small
region, and that region not situated in
the center, but on one side of the area
traversed by the wave. At africa it
was fifty feet high, and enveloped the
town, carrying two warships nearly o
mile beyond the railway to the north
of the town. The single sea travelled
northward and westward, it's height at
Jan Pedro, in California, was sixty
feet. 1t inundated the smaller mem
bers of the Sandwich group, six thou
sand three hundred miles away, and
reached Yokohama, in Japan, in the
early hours of the morning, after TAX
ing in New Zealand on the way. 1t
spent itself finally in the South At
lantic, having traversed nearly the
whole globe. A singular occurrence
was reported recently by the English
ship Lucipara. She was about mid
way between the cape and Australia
when she encountered hurricane.
About midnight of August last the
II fol oil
peared as if the sea was affected by
some tremendous pressure" when sud-
denly the whole vessel fore and aft
was enveloped in sheets of flame that
rose half way up the masts and over
ran the decks for three-quarters Of an
hour. 1t was an electrical storm and
Jhe crew, never having encountered
Such a thing before, were panic
stricken, and very naturally so. They
expected every moment to see the
masts go by the board. After what
must have been very cheerful forty
five minutes the flames snuffed out
and left darkness so thick
that it might have been cut.
Another singular occurrence was
that OF the bark Peter Pr1dell, winch
was off Valparaiso when a whirlwind
passed over her stern, taking away
everything movable, sails and all, on
The after part of the ship, leaving the
forward end untouched. Here was the
Iharp end of storm with vengea nee.
Almost as surprised at their good for
tune and narrow escape must have
been the crew of the barlSentin For
tunate, which, while on voyage from
Rio Grande to Liverpool, felt tremen-
Sous shock that could not be account
I'd for until the vessel was put into dry
dock. when the sword of a swordfsh
was found to have penetrated some
feet into the wood of the hull. Yet an
other of the curiosities of the sea is the
occasional shower of fishbones or the
like falling on the deck when many
miles from land. These showers are
easily explained. The fish are taken
up in waterspouts and come down in a
more or less rarefed condition. But
perhaps the most awful of all things
that can happen at sea is fire. A
severe squall breaking over vessel
for it and with all her