The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-04-12
RODE THE FOG.
Curiously Perfect Mirage, Right Side Up, of
Hatteras.

| Curiously Perfect Mirage, Right Side Up, of
Hatteras.
| A spectral fleet was observed off Hatteras
early one morning recently by the officers
and crew of the Morgan line steamship El
| Norte The first impression of the lands
men aboard the steamship was that the feet
| was real one, instead of a mere simulacrum
| of American coasters. They were truly fly
| ing Americans, and they were flying higher
than any craft ever seen in the neighborhood
| of the stormy cape In all there were about
30 of them, many under full sail, gliding
slowly to the northward in the sky under
the influence of a gentle southerly wind, and
others beating to the south. The surface of
| the sea was unruffied, and in the east the
sun occasionally appeared through riffs OF
its own creation in the light clouds
On the port hand, or to the shoreward, of
the Ell Norte there were strata of fog OF
different densities extending from the water
| far into the upper air. The vessels OF the
| aerial white squadron as seen at the first
were dim and shadow-like. Sometimes the
| topsails only were visible, and at other
times only the mastless hulls; but when the
sunburst through the easterly clouds slant
ingly struck the mirror-lke surface of the
sea, and then glanced up on the fog banks,
| the mirage was as distinct as a cameo, and
| according to Mate B. A. Benson, the craft
| looked very much like vessels ashore on a
sand bar.
Every now and then the men on the El
Norte noticed giant shadowy fourmaster,
with all her canvas up, duplicated on the
misty sky, one ship upside down, one right
side up.
None of the vessels except the duplicated
ones were inverted, as they usually are in
| mirage along the southern Atlantic Coast.
Those that were clearly defined appeared TO
be about mile from the steamship and ap-
parently several hundred feet above the
water. The sailors, that is, the make-believe
sailors on the make-believe schooners, could
be seen hauling ON sheets and halyards and
working about the decks.
The mate says he has seen phenomena OF
similar kind off Hatteras several times be-
fore, but never so vividly. He says the yes
sells imaged in the clouds looked like refec-
tions in looking-glass. He had never seen
the sea SO calm off the Cape, the water so
clear, and the Sunshine, when it dissipated
the mists to the eastward, so bright.
The architect of the towering wall of mist
was an aesthetic southerly wind. 1t blew
on the cool surface of the water and the
mist wall went up with magical swiftness.
Before the sun tore down the vapor struc-
ture he created wondrous light and shadow
effects which much interested the sailormen
and made the landsmen aboard the Ell Norte
marvel.
Doubtless the steamship was up here sail
ing somewhere in the vapor sea to the north
but the men aboard of her, OF course,
couldn't see her. They said they would be
very much pleased if they could have found
out how the ship looked and they themselves
appeared as they crowded to the port rail on
the ground-glass background of the Gamer a
of the sky.
The mate says he has seen inverted mirage
above Lake Superior, and that it has ap-
peared unusually distinct; but that he has
never seen such crystalline reproduction in
the sky of coasters off Hatteras.