Show A BOLT OF LIGHTNING Terrible Scenes on a Schooner in MidOcean One woman and eleven sailors the crew ot the shipwrecked bark L E Cann of Nova Scotia were landed in this port yesterday after an eventful voyage from Tucoluta Mexico Tbe bark left Tucoluta on March 30th and had only been out two days when she encountered a succession of tremendous gales the sea beating with terrific force against aud over the vessel Tbe gales continued con-tinued until the Quit at Mexico had been traversed and the bark made the open ocean The buffeting waters bad caused a series of leaks and the vessel began to fill rapidly For three days the entire crew were kept at tbe pumps but it was impossible to make any headway agaiuet the incoming water The vessels course was altered aud Fflbrls were made to gan the South Carolina coa twhicb was about 259 miles west Tae captain however how-ever discovered teat this would be impossible and toe boats were prepared pre-pared and preparations made to desert de-sert the lowly hut purely sinking bark On the 27ib of April when seven and a half feet of water was discovered in her bold s e made a heavy lift to starboard and was evidently evi-dently preparing to plunge to the bottom At this moment tbe sails of a schooner were discovered in sigot and signals of distress were hoieted Tbe rescuing vessel proved to bAtbe George IF Lochner Captan Whit bank bound for Philadelphia and the entire crew of the Cann were taken on board before she sank The schooner with the rescued party eleven men and a woman the wife of the eteward sailed away leavIng the doomed vessel to her fete That night the schooner encnuntr d a terrible storm tbe wind blowing the waves mountain high threatening to engulf the rescued and J Hcuera in a common grave Tbe lightning flashed like great sheets of fire about tbe schooners masthead And tbe thunder thun-der split the heavens with such powerful pow-erful crashes as to drown the sound of both wind and waves At 8 oclock I when the storm was at its worst the clouds seemed to be parted by a sword of fire and with a terrific crash an electric bolt struck tbe schooner with a report like the crack of doom Captain Whitbank and his firet mate were struck to the deck and appeared to be dead while all of I the crew then on deck were stunned by the shock and blinded by the Sash A part of the watch who were below deck and the Captain and crew of the Cams were hurled from their bunks and the whole schooner was enveloped envel-oped in a cloud of sulphuric smoke The smell of brimstone pervaded tbe air and everybody expected to go to the botton the next moment The vessel had however not sustained fatal damage Her mizzenmast had been shattered from topmast to mast coat and a portion of her sails torn in ribbons Tbe captain and mate recovered re-covered in a few moments and all hands were set to work looking for fire the general suppostion being that the schooner bad been set on fire by tbe lightning Fortunately such a 1 calamity baa not occurred and the storm having spent its fury in the last shock the vessel escaped further injury and was enabled to reach Philadelphia in safety under forsail and spanker Captain William Brooks of the bark Cann who related the above graphic story to a Record reporter last night estimates the value of the lost vessel at 20000 and the cargo which was of sugar coffee and general gen-eral merchandise at 6000 The Cann was owned by James Gasman and others of Nova Scotia and was of 83 tons register Captain Brooks i speaks very highly of the generous treatment he received at the hands of Captain Whitbank and his crew Philadelphia Record |