Page 26. MAINE COASTAL NEWS July 2017 HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Hancock Gazette - 1827


BEC TRADER. No such vessel has sailed from Rhode Island for a long time past.


MARINE LIST Port of Belfast Arrived


New York. June 23rd


June 20 – schooner FALCON, Turner, – schooners TRAD-


ER, Emerson, New London; DEFIANCE, Wood, New London. June 24th


– schooners


TELEGRAPH, Otis, and RACHEL & NANCY, Robinson, Boston, sloops AB- IGAIL, Gilman Boston. PENOBSCOT, Ross, Portland. Steamboat PATENT, Cram, Eastport, having the new steamboat which was launched at Castine last week in tow; the new boat proceeds to Boston for the purpose of having her machinery put in. * * * * *


The schooner PROOF GLASS, of


Boston, got on some rocks in the Marsh River, Frankfort, last week, and bilged; she has been raised by means of gondoloes and empty casks and taken on shore, consider- ably damaged.


4 July From the Liverpool Albion Arctic Discovery. -- Letters have


been received at the Admiralty from Capt. Beechey, of the BLOSSOM frigate, which detail the particulars of the voyage of that ship into Behring’s Straits. It appears the vessel arrived in the harbor of St. Peter and St. Paul, at Kamtschatka, in June last, and there learnt of the failure of Captain Perry’s expedition; and after refi tting and taking in such stores as could be procured, sailed to the northward. The BLOSSOM entered Kotzebue’s Inlet, and then proceeded to Behring’s Straits, and reached the latitude of 72 30, when all further progress was put an end to by an impenetrable, barrier of ice, which extended in an entire mass as far as the eye could reach. After several fruitless attempts, and remaining as long as


it was prudent, Capt. Beechey returned and again entered Kotzebue’s Inlet, the shores of which are represented as having a most inhospitable and dreary appearance. They had several interviews along the coast with the natives, but could not from them, or by any other means, obtained the least informa- tion of Capt. Franklin, or any of his party, who, it was understood were to proceed, in the course of last summer, from the mouth of the Mackenzie River to the westward, in the hope of being able to reach some part of the coast in the neighborhood of Icy, cape or Kotzebue’s Inlet. The offi cers and men were all well, but the ships had suff ered some damage from the pressure of the ice. It is understood the letters are dated in November last, from St. Francisco, where the vessel was undergoing some necessary repairs and refi tting for sea.


Storm at Sea. – Liverpool papers con-


tain a detailed account of a disaster which occurred to the packet ship NEW YORK, in a late passage from New York to Liverpool, have been twice struck with lightning on the 19th


April last, when three days out. The fi rst


shock struck the royal mast head, and pene- trated through the deck into the storerooms, cabins, &c. doing considerable damage, shivering a mirror to atoms and exciting great alarm; but the passengers escaped uninjured, being fortunately in their berths. We have not room for particulars, but cannot omit the following, which is important in a precautionary point of view. The account written by a young Bostonian proceeds: – “The operation of the second shock


was very diff erent from the former, and is more deserving of attention, as furnishing a new instance in proof of the effi ciency of lightning rods, as a protection at sea. We had


a chain conductor on board; but it not being the season to expect much lightning, and the fi rst shock coming on quite suddenly, it was not up at the time. The morning squall was over; it continued, however, to blow fresh all the day, and about noon, heavy clouds began to gather in on every side, rolling their volumes apparently among the rigging. We had reason to expect more lightning; the conductor was prepared, and Captain Bennett ordered it to be raised to the main royal mast head. It consisted of an iron chain, having links, one fourth of an inch thick, and two feet long, turned into hooks at each end, and connected by rings of the same thickness, and of one inch annular diameter. The chain was fastened to a rod of iron, half an inch thick and four feet in length, with a point well-polished and tapered, in order to receive the fl uid with facility; it was secured to the main royal mast, the rod extending two feet above the masthead, and thence it was brought down over the quarter; and repelled by an oar, protruding, say ten feet, from the ship’s side and sinking a few feet below the surface of the water. “Dr. Franklin was of opinion that a rod


of this size would sustain without injury the severest shock of lightning. I have been thus minute in stating the dimensions of the chain, for the double purpose of conveying some idea of the force of this shock and of impressing the necessity of providing larger conductors. The chain, however, in this instance performed its offi ce, and it was up in happy time to avert a blow that, in the opinion of all on board must have sent this staunch vessel in an instant to the bottom. “Soon after 1 PM we saw lightning; a


little before 2 observed a very smart fl ash; looking at my watch, which marks seconds,


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LS DINGHY ARUNDEL 19


I counted four, when the report followed: I felt no alarm, however, having frequently known it to approach nearer without any injury. At 2 o’clock we were astonished by another shock like that in the morning: the fl ash and sound simultaneous. I happened to be in the cabin with another passenger; a ball of fi re seemed to dart down before us; at the same moment the glass in the roundhouse came rattling down below. Those on deck agreed that the whole ship appeared to be in a blaze, from the vividness of the princi- pal fl ash, which they distinctly saw darting down the conductor, and agitating the water. All parts of the ship, as before, were fi lled with smoke, smelling of sulfur. “The ship was again thoroughly exam-


ined. The conductors had been rent to pieces by the discharge, and scattered to the winds: small fragments of it were found on deck; in saving the ship it had literally yielded itself to the fury of the blast. The pointed rod was found to be fused and shortened several inches, and covered over with a dark coating; some of the links had been snapped off and others melted. The whole operation was singularly striking, and aff ords another of those rare cases where the conductor yielded to the violence of the shock, while it eff ectually averted the bolt from the object it was designed to protect. “This was a property of the rod, of


which Franklin was satisfi ed very early after the application of a theory that has disarmed the lightning of heaven. One of the earnest cases which fell under his notice, I believe occurred in one of the Dutch churches in New York – a chain connected with the clock probably saved the church much damage but the chain itself was melted.


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