Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 246, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1913 — LIGHTNING FROM FOG BANK [ARTICLE]

LIGHTNING FROM FOG BANK

Captain of Pacific Coast Schooner Tells of Btrange Bombardment of His Vessel. Capt. A. Sunderberg of the steam schooner Wasp, which plies between Seattle and California ports, reports a strange experience at sea on August 7. In a report made to the Hydrographic office Captain Sunderberg says that at 10 p. m., when six miles east by south of Point Conception, his vessel ran into a thick fog hank which hung close to the water! Without the fog rising In the least, a violent electric storm broke out, and for one hour and 14 minutes the blanket of heavy mist was pierced continually by discharges of atmospheric electricity and vivid flashes of angular zigzag and forked lightning. At 12:15 a. in., August 8, the steel foremast of the Wasp became charged with electricity from the top down to the spring stay. Captain Sunderberg says this was not the usual display of St. Elmo fire, as the mast gave out loud reports as If from a powerful wireless apparatus. While the vessel was bombarded by lightning which coursed down her main mast, her officers and crew did not venture on deck.