Lightning Conductors in Ships. 159 



mast ; it passed through the coat of the mizen-mast on the lar- 

 board-side, and through one of the poop beams on the other 

 side ; it passed into the ward-room, into one of the officer's 

 cabins, started the butt end of a plank in the ship s side, and 

 spht a rider underneath on the lower deck. The electric matter 

 on the larboard-hand went close into the ship's side, in a per- 

 pendicular direction, and through the main and lower decks ; it 

 cut the clamp of the main-deck beams, entered the steward's 

 room, where it ripped up the tin. lining, and then passed 

 through the orlop-deck into the butter room. The vessel was 

 not damaged in the final escape of the electric matter into the 

 sea. 



(A.) In January 1830, H. M. S. Etna, under the command 

 of Captain Lushington, was struck by lightning, in the Corfu 

 Channel, in the Adriatic, at the time of coming to anchor. 

 In this instance three tremendous explosions came down a me- 

 tallic chain, attached to the main-mast, and passed into the sea, 

 without damage to the mast ; the ship at the time seemed co- 

 vered with sparks. 



9. It may be observed by an attentive examination of these 

 few cases, 1st, That the points to scnAJ'rom which the electric 

 matter is eventually determined, are out of the ship; and, ac- 

 cording with what has been stated in 1, 2, 6, are in the clouds 

 and sea, so that the vessel is merely, as it were, an intervening 

 object; the only action, therefore, which can be conceived to 

 belong exclusively to the ship, is that which may be required to 

 neutralize the opposite electrical state, induced upon the whole 

 mass of the vessel, as being a point of the great surface opposed 

 to the electrified clouds, and which is very small and of little 

 consequence, compared with the capacity of the surrounding sea. 

 Cases «, b, c, d, e,J', more particularly shew this. 2dly, That 

 the points through which the explosion is determined, are inva- 

 riably in the line or lines of least resistance between the points 

 of action — that is, through the best conductors. Cases dyj"^ h, 

 clearly illustrate this ; and the same may be traced in all the 

 others. 



10. It may be also observed in these, as in every other case 

 of damage from hghtning, more especially on ship-board, that 

 the greatest mischief occurs where good conductors cease ; the 



1 



