The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1908-06-19
A Meeting With a Meteor.
By D. II. VITTERY. -

The Cambrian, the steamship of
which have the honor to be second
officer, is large cargo vessel of 5000
tons, and has been engaged for many
years in the North Atlantic trade,
sailing between London, Boston and
New York. We left London on Au-
gust Z, 1907, on the eventful voyage
I am about to describe, and made an
ordinary summers passage across the
ocean until within about three days
OF our destination. The night of Fri
day, August 16, was one of calm and
peaceful beauty-an ideal summers
night. The sky was cloudless and
the ocean smooth, save for slight
swell from the northwest, to which
the vessel heayed gently as she hast
ened on her course. Overhead the
stars looked bigger and brighter than
ordinary, owing to the absence of
haze, their light giving an unusual
range of observation, while low down
on the northern horizon a comet was
plainly visible in its wonderful fight
across the sky At midnight the ship
was in latitude ~ deg. min. N. and
longitude 81 deg. 10 min. W., and
was steaming her best to make a good
passage.
Eight bells was struck, and Mr..
Thos. Hughes, first officer, mounted
the ladder to the bridge to relieve me.
my watch on deck being over. After
some minutes conversation with him
l was about to leave the bridge and
go below, when our attention was at
tracted to an unusual number of stars
which were falling from the heavens
away over the starboard quarter.
"Halloa!" said Hughes, there's
something strange going on up
there"
The stars continued falling for
about two minutes, and we remarked
that they all travelled in very nearly
the same direction across the sky,
from northeast to southwest. Some
of them left trails of light as they
SCARED over our heads, and the ships
rigging dropped tracery of shadows
along the deck, the effect being the
same as if a big firework display was
in progress. Indeed, the stars looked
for all the world like the rockets
which are used at sea as signals of
distress to attract the attention of
passing vessels. BY and by, how
ever, they grew fainter and less nu-
merous, and presently ceased alto
gether
While Hughes and were standing
talking and wondering at the mean
ing of this unusual stellar activity
another shower took place, even more
striking than the first, and soon the
display got quite alarming, passing.
as nearly all the stars did, directly
over the ship. I suggested calling the
captain from his berth, which was
Just under the bridge, as it was a
ut we'll worth turning out to see,
but the commander had been on deck
good deal during the passage, and
we decided to wait and see what was
going to happen before rousing him.
All the time the stars were becoming
more and more luminous.
Il wonder what we are going to
get next" said Hughes, and the
words were hardly out of his mouth
when, from the sky to the northeast
there iared up something that looked
like rocket, save that it was much
larger, and the train of fire that fol-
lowed its glowing head trailed away
behind like a horses tail, while frag-
ments of fiery matter fell away from
it like shower Of spray, and now
and then a larger piece dropped off
into the sea. We had no time to pom