352 Liglitning Conductors in Sh'ps. 



scended down the mizen-mast in a spiral direction, broke the hoops, 

 and damaged the mast ; it passed through the coat of the mizen-mast 

 on the larboard side, and through one of the poop beams on the other 

 side ; it passed into the ward-room, into one of the officers' cabins, 

 started the butt end of a plank in the ship's side, and split a rider 

 underneath on the lower deck. The electric matter on the larboard 

 hand went close into the ship's side, in a perpendicular 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 mat- 

 ter 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 metallic chain, attached 

 to the main-mast, and passed into the sea, without damage io the 

 mast ; the ship at the time seemed covered with sparks. 



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

 cases, 1st, That the points to and from which the electric matter is 

 eventually determined, are out of the ship; and, according with what 

 has been stated in 1,2, 6, are in the clouds and sea, so that the ves- 

 sel is merely, as it were, an intervening object; the only action, there- 

 fore, which can be conceived to belong exclusively to the ship, is that 

 which may be required to neutralize the opposite electrical state, in- 

 duced 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 a, b, c, d, e,f, more particularly shew this. 

 2dly, That the points through which the explosion is determined, are 

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

 of action — that is, through the best conductors. Cases d,f, h, clear- 

 ly 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 lightning, more especially on ship-board, that the great- 

 est mischief occurs where good conductors cease ; the electric mat- 

 ter being then enabled to produce all the disastrous effects of an ex- 

 pansive force, as if, whilst in the conducting body, it was in a diffu- 

 sed and low state, and again condensed and brought into a narrow 

 focus, at the moment of leaving it. The damage, therefore, may be 



