168 Mr Harris on the Utility of' fixwg 



the mast, without injuring them, as far as the main deck. Here 

 it fell upon the wet cable which had been just shortened in, and 

 was lying against the after-beam ; it knocked out a piece of the 

 beam, and passed by the wet cable out of the hawse hole, the 

 lead of which bore evident marks of the explosion. It was 

 perfectly calm at the time, and the lightning, besides striking 

 the ship, struck aim down upon the sea several times, and with- 

 in a short distance of the ship. 



(e.) The packet ship New York, in her passage from New 

 York to Liverpool, was struck by lightning twice in the same 

 day, April 19. 1827. The first explosion shattered the main- 

 royal-mast and mast-head, penetrated the deck, and demolished 

 the bulk-heads and fittings in the store-rooms below, — then di- 

 viding, one part fell upon a lead tube, which it traversed as far 

 as the side of the ship, and passed out into the sea, starting the 

 ends of three four-inch planks ; another portion passed into one 

 of the cabins, and shivered to atoms the plate of a large mirror, 

 without hurting the frame ; after this, it fell upon a piano-forte, 

 which it touched with no very delicate hand, and left it dis- 

 mounted and out of tune ; from thence it passed through the 

 whole length of the cabin floor, which was damp at the time, 

 and out of the stern windows into the sea. 



{f.) The operation of the second explosion was very diffe- 

 rent from this; — it fell upon a spike at the mast-head, and from 

 thence passed down a small metallic chain, which it disjointed 

 and partly fused, into the sea, without doing any damage to the 

 vessel *. 



(o-.) His Majesty's ship Bellerophon, under the command of 

 Captain Rotheram, was struck by lightning at sea in August 

 1807. A violent explosion took place in several parts of the 

 ship at the same time ; the main-top-gallant- mast totally disap- 

 peared, except the heel ; the rigging of it was cut and burned 

 in pieces ; main-top-mast shivered in splinters from head to heel ; 

 main-mast damaged, and thirteen feet of the fish on the fore- 

 part disappeared. The explosion also fell on the mizen-top- 

 mast, which it likewise shivered ; it descended down the mizen- 

 mast in a spiral direction, broke the hoops, and damaged the 



• This conducting chain had heen set up immediately after the first ex- 

 plosion happened. 



