Year: 1870

the yacht Atlantic relates his experience Of
storm and lightning stroke, while the
craft was lying at anchor in Whitestone
bay


The last adventure, with which we close the
| voyage, was more appalling in its character,
and fortunately rare one in the experience
of yachtsmen. The principal part of the day
we had passed in listless dancing in a calm of
Oldfeld Light At two o'clock fresh south
erly breeze sprung up and we joyfully sped on
our way. Hundreds of sail were in sight
which had been detained at the westward by
the calm and the thick weather of the last few
days, but were now crowding fast on one
another, as if it were grand race. Our for
tunate streak OF wind covered only the south
ern third of the Sound, and, as not unfre-
quently happens, other craft had the misery
OF seeing us bound along at eight knots an
hour, while they were still shaking in dead
calm and drifting still when we left them hull
down behind. Our run brought US by night
fall, at the end of forty miles, to an anchor
age in Wholesome Bay. All turned in but two
of US, who remained to watch the storm then
in progress at the westward. 1t seemed to
span third of the horizon, at too great dis
tance for the thunder to be heard except in
the faintest mutteriDgs, but the illumination
was incessant and dazzling, while it seemed
to be working northward along the course of
Hudson river. Such storms we often find
follow coastlines without touching the water,
and when they do their violence seems to be
abated. In such places, however, as Peconic
Bay, which makes fork Of the eastern end
of Long Island, storm will come up with
the tide, divide and go around Shelter Island
on both sides, and then retire with the ebb in
the same fashion, leaving the land dry as be-
| fore.


| About IL O'Clock the storm began to "lift,"
and we became aware that we must catch our
portion as its tail swept around to the east.


Black as ink the cloud came laundering
towards our bay, and the deck was cleared
for action. Everything that would catch
wind was removed the lashings made more
secure, cable paid out freely to the anchor,
and nothing left but bare pole and spars to
take the blast when it should come. And on
it came, roaring over the waters, the black
ness of darkness made more visible by the
flashes of lightning, which revealed to us an
on-coming wave crested white with foam.
The water was in fact lifted before the blast
and carried along like roll of ocean surf
into the death-like calm where we were
awaiting the event, ready to do anything that
the awful moment might call for, our princ-
pal anxiety being about drifting into other
craft or on the shore.


Nothing could be grander than the crisis.
As quickly as a dead forest leaf is turned,
over went our yawl, so quickly that the loose
oars were caught beneath it then our own
vessel caught the weight of the blow as sud-
den as that of a trip hammer, and keeled over
on her beam with a tremor as if struggling
with a monster come up out of the darkness.
Seconds seemed minutes before she had time
to pay off through the water and swing
around end for end and point into the blast,
the one position of safety, when we could
| hrp path hp frpplv un6pr he Of rift
We were comfortable, head to the wind.
the first fury over nothing worse to blow, and
the anchor true to its holding 1t might rain
a deluge, but we were quite at home with
water in any amount. But suddenly there
came crash as of ten thousand columbiads
fired at once, or rather crash that no words
can describe, with binding daze as if we
were enveloped in seething furnace. To
the curious in such matters we can only say
that nothing but personal experience could
give any idea of the sensation. The order of
subsequent impressions was as follows: A
recovery of sense sufficient to know l was
still alive and unhurt, with the conviction
that if it had been otherwise there would
have been no consciousness of what had hap
pened; an anxiety for companions, and re-
ljoicing that no one of them was hurt; feel
ing as though the atmosphere was full of va
por or smoke; very strong, almost suffoca-
ting, odor of ozone, which soon penetrated
and filed the cabin, that which is generally
termed enormously sulpherous smell; and,
lastly, the full conciousness that lightning
had struck very near us as one persisted in
saying in the water few feet from US.


1t was all over and we were safe at least.
But when the rain held up and we began to
stir around, long fresh splinter of wood was
found in the cockpit This startling dis
covery, along with others of the same kind
in other places, showed that we had no time
to lose, for the pieces were from the mast,
and there was no telling hnt ths. the hull had
been penetrated beneath the step, and we
might be even then filling with water. An
anxious search from stem to stern revealed
that the mast, as far as we could reach, was
intact; that an eyebolt ON the sail had been,
by some strang freak, broken off, and that in
two places on the hull at the water line splin-
tiers two inches or more long had been gouged
out of the sides just over two nail heads, with
out however communicating with the inte-
rior. In fact we were still water-tight.


What saved us from distructionI In the
first flush of morning light we discovered the
topmast head all smashed, as with down.
ward blow, and looking very much like /.
demoralized brush-broom standing on end.
About two feet below the head is a band of
copper, to which are attached five stays-two
main shrouds, two back-stays, and a forestry
carried down to the end of the bowsprit;
these are all of galvanized iron-wire, and
acted as SO many lightning-rods to disperse
the stroke and carry it harmlessly to the
water. That which reached the bowsprit
connected with the bobstay-an iron rod con-
netting with the stem at the waters edge. The
other connected with the chain-plates on the
sides, which are also of heavy strap-iron,
but not reaching quite to the water, though
we were very likely keeled over at the mo-
ment 1t was beneath and a little to one side
of these that the nail-heads spoken Of seemed
to have been started. The value of wire rig
ging has been much debated. Our own ex-
( perience has convinced us that it has not alone
sufficient elasticity, and should always be
mounted with hemper lanyards. 1t can hard
ly be so firmly spliced but that sudden
strain will part it, aside from the stiffness
which kills motion; but wire rigging has
saved in this case seven lives, and though the
accident of lightning's stroke is of the rarest,
a careful seaman could hardly wish to be
without it. Having been once through such
a scene, il is something to look back upon
with wonder, with unfeigned thankfulness at