and on the 'Effects of Lightning on certain Ships. 409 
At the time alluded to, I was first Lieutenant of the 
Beagle, and was attending to the duty on deck. She was at 
anchor off Monte Video, in the Rio de la Plata, a part of the 
world very often visited by severe lightning storms. Having 
been on board H.M. ship Thetis at Rio Janeiro a few years 
before, when her foremast ws entirely destroyed by lightnings 
my attention was always particularly directed to approaching 
electric storms, and especially on the occasion alluded to, as 
the storm was unusually severe. The flashes succeeded each 
other in rapid succession, and were gradually approaching; 
and I was watching aloft for them when the ship was appa- 
rently wrapt in a blaze of fire, accompanied by a simultaneous 
crash, which was equal if not superior to the shock I felt in 
the Thetis ; one of the clouds by which we were enveloped 
had evidently burst upon the vessel, and as the mainmast 
appeared for the instant to be in a mass of fire, I felt certain 
that the lightning had passed down the conductor on that 
mast ; the vessel was shaken by the shock, and an unusual 
tremulous motion could be distinctly felt. As soon as I had 
recovered from the surprise of the moment, I ran down 
below to state what I saw, and to see if the conductors be- 
low had been affected ; and just as I entered the gun-room, 
the purser, Mr. Rowlett, ran out of his cabin, (along the 
beam of which a main branch of the conductor passed) 
and said that he was sure the lightning had passed down 
the conductor, for at the moment of the shock he heard 
a sound like rushing w'ater passing along the beam. Not the 
slightest ill consequence was experienced ; and I cannot re- 
frain from expressing my conviction, that had it not been for 
the conductor the results would have been of very serious 
moment. 
‘‘ This was not the only instance where w^e consider that the 
vessel had been saved from being damaged by lightning by 
Mr. Harris’s conductors ; and I believe that in saying 1 had 
the most perfect confidence in the protection which those 
conductors afforded us, I express the opinion of every officer 
and man in the ship. 
Not being sufficiently acquainted with electrical experi- 
ments, I cannot remark upon those you have adduced in sup- 
port of your opinions detrimental to Mr. Harris’s conductors. 
“ I can, therefore, only repeat my conviction that the Beagle 
was struck by lightning in the usual way, and certainly with- 
out any lateral explosion or other ill effects similar to those 
you insist on in your Annals of Electricity.” 
3.5. Now these facts are totally subversive of all Mr. Stur- 
geon has advanced concerning his destructive lateral explosion 
Phil Mag. S. 3. Vol. 16. No. 104. May 1840. 2 E 
