The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-04-17
s1RUcl BIZ a MeTEokIrE.

A storm-strickel Steamship Is Visited by
Sensational Electric Display.
From the New York Herald.
A hurricane and a sea which followed
fast struck the Bristol Line steamer
Brooklyn City recently. and after that
came the fireworks, which splintered
ner foremast and split the fore truck
like schoolboy does an apple.
The Brookly City. laden with tin.
steamed out from Swansea on Jan. rs.
ana reached here last night after a
temptestuous and eventful voyage of
20 days. She met all kinds of weather
ana the nearer she came to these shores
the more cantankerous those buster
Ing old fellows. HENS and Neptune,
became.
st. Elmos fire tipped her masts last
tuesday, and to the practiced eyes of
the ofncers that meant a hurricane.
everything was made shipshape and
toward evening the blue flames which
tipped masts and spars were glowing
like signal fires, calling together the
clans of sea and air. A bowling gale
whistled through the wire rigging of
the vessel, and toward midnight the
vessel was struggling along, rolling,
pltchng and lunging. She would not
trough of the sea- Floods of green
water broke over her rail and left a
crust of ice behind as they passed
through the scuppers.
Chief Officer Ellis, muffied to the ears.
chung to the bridge and longed for
warmth and comfort. He was think
ing, he admits, Of a cosy cabin where
stewards could at command brew a GER
tain drink called hot Scotch.
Il wanted a hot ball, as you New
workers. say" he remarked to me. "A
high ball, / believe you call an especi-
ally large drink. Yes, wanted a high,
hot ball"
He got 1t. A binding flash of light
blazed upon the truck of the foremost.
There came the sharp crack of light
ming and the sound of splintering wood
The truck, split in two, fell to the deck
and big splinter of the foretopmast
came Gathering after. That high hot
ball" a globe of fire two feet in diane
ter ran down the foremost quicker
than any sailorman could ever dare GO
1t CLEANED with an intense, white light
as though IL were metal heated to the
highest point. 1t Illuminated mast and
rigging with a strange, ghostly light
The sailors ran aft and the first officer
rolled his eyes and stared.
He had seen fire balls fall into the
sea before, but this was the first he
had ever taken aboard. Then this big,
white, hot globe struck the deck and
burst into a thousand brilliant frag-
ments like a big rocket After the
glare all was dark again, and when the
sailors went to find some of it they
could discover no trace. 1t had van
ished in air. There We're plenty of
splinters on the deck, though, and the
ruins of the highly ornamental truck.
"Fireball," said Second Officer Deehle,
ARE meteors, which, by the friction of
thier passage through the air, have
lost all their solid constituents and
have been converted into gas. The one
we saw looked very substantial for a
while, but after all IL was nothing but
gas. 1t was charged, though, with cleo
trio fluid, which played the mischief
with the mast"
The high, hot ball" struck the YES
sci at five minutes past o'clock last
Wednesday morning. The illumination
did not last long, and several of the
crew, aroused by the cry of the watch,
arrived just in time to see the fire ball
disappear in blaze of glory.
The quartermaster thought that the
display resulted from the falling of the
foremost light. He looked, saw the
light still there and fed into the fore
castle in dismay. The hurricane
seemed pacified after that, and the
weather was still and cold. The sec
ond officer solemnly AYERS that out at
Montauk Point yesterday morning the
thermometer must have stood full 40
degrees below zero. A frosty fog rose
out of the sea; an Arctic rhine, which
made things far away seem near at
hand. played strange pranks with Fire
Island Light. Captain Watkins crew
did not like the cold, even If it had
rhine with it, and half a dozen of them
have two or three frostbitten fingers to
show for it.