The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-05
FOUR TREMENDOUS METEORS
MAKE TIE SEA OFF CAPE RACE
BOIL AND STREAK THE SKY.
All Came Within q Minute. a. n u Baby
AsteroId Had Blown Up-The Biggest
Fell within q Mile OF the Steamship
st. Andrew-Big as the ships Cabin.

st. Andrew Rig as the ships Cabin.
A great meteor Kissing through a murky
sky startled the officers and crew Of tho
Phoenix Line freighter st. Andrew last
Tuesday afternoon about sixty miles north.
east Of Cape Race; Newfoundland. just
before the giant shooting star appeared
First Officer v. Spencer; who had charges
OF the bridge, saw several miles dead ahead
three meteors rip fiery lines almost from
zenith to horizon through the vapor curtain
in the west. The create st Of the trio,
Spencer said, would rave made a dazzlin0N..
illumination at night. /
While he was looking at it he heard O.
kissing far away on the port beam. Thas
chief engineer, who mad come out on deck,
called to Spencer to look TO port, The
first officer has sailed in many seas and haa
seen marvellous marine and meteorological
phenomena; he even has had the distinc-S
ton of reporting something akin to a sen
serpent, but the spectacle that met his eyes
when he turned them to port almost knocked
him OFF his feet.
Stretching far into the air was a reddish
white trail of flame twenty feet or more In,
diameter. Below. zigzagging toward tha4
surface of a lumpy sea, was the giant meteorx
that had made the evanescent scar of fire
on the face Of the sky. /
Il nave seen many meteors, chiefly at .
night, but | never have seen any act like |,
this one" Spencer said yesterday. When
il was within half a mile Of the sea it began ]
rocking, or swinging, if you like; anyhow
going from side to side, and leaving a ziz-
gag trail. 1t was bigger than my cabin!
which is twelve feet wide, and { must have
weighed tons. 1t was less than a mile away
TO the southard on the port beam, and wheS
it struck the sea it must have cooked a
million fish all around. The water boiled
up to Il height of twenty feet or more and
the vapor created by the steam spread over
a space wider than the length of this ship,
and that is more than $50 feet. 1t was
nearly half a minute before the sea went
down.
-The captain and | talked over the meteor
afterward. He didn't see it, as he had turned
in for a nap, but il caused him to make
some observations on the perils of life at
sea. We concluded that meteors explained
the disappearance OF a number of vessels!
including several liners that had run under
a shower Of meteors. suppose that great
mass OF metal, consuming the air all around
it, had hit our ship? Suppose it had struck
us amidships? Why, every soul aboard
would have been roasted to death before the
meteor had pierced the ship like a bolt
of lightning, tearing a great hole through
her or melting her in two as il she had been
subjected to the force Of a blast furnace.
why shouldn't a meteor, in the season
when meteors fall, strike a ship just as a
thunderbolt might? We might have been
under the very spot where that big fellow
fell. | tell you | believe the mystery OF
many missing ships can be accounted for by
meteors. We saw four within a month fall
into the ocean and l have no doubt that other
ships will report more of Newfoundland.
If it had not been daylight l haven't any
doubt we would have seen hundreds. near
and far"
The NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. liner Brazilias
in last evening from Hamburg, also observed
a great meteor when northeast Of Cape Race
on Tuesday night, about three hours after
the ST. Andrews experience. The Brazilia's
meteor was visible for thirty seconds befors
il buried itself in the sea.
The earth is approaching the meteor
belt, which its orbit cuts about November
1914, and il il can pick up such strays as
these big ones in October perhaps we are
going to have d fine meteor year.