Science (journal)/Volume 1/No. 1/A Singular Meteoric Phenomenon

by George Belknap

A SINGULAR METEORIC PHENOMENON.

⁠We are indebted to the favor of the Bureau of Navigation, for the privilege of publishing the following very interesting letter of Captain Belknap, addressed to Commodore John G. Walker, United-States Navy, Chief of Bureau of Navigation, Navy Department, Washington.

U.S.S. Alaska, at Sea,

lat. 37° 54' N., long. 124° 25' W.

Dec. 15, 1882.

⁠Sir, -- I beg to report that on the evening of the 12th inst., a few minutes after sunset, and in the lat. 38° 21' N., long. 134° 07' W., a remarkable phenomenon was witnessed in the western horizon from the desk of this ship.

Fig. 1. - Directly after explosion.

Fig. 3. - At 5.00 P.M.

⁠The sun had set clear, leaving the lower sky streaked with gorgeous tints of green and red, while the new moon, three days old, gave out a peculiar red light of singular brilliancy. Suddenly, at three minutes before five o'clock, a loud rushing noise was heard, like that of a large rocket descending from the zenith with immense force and velocity. It was a meteor, of course ; and when within some 10° of the horizon it exploded with great noise and flame, the glowing fragments streaming down into the sea like huge sparks and sprays of fire.

Fig. 2. - From 2 to 3 minutes after explosion.

⁠Then came the most wonderful part of the phenomenon; for, at the point in the heavens where the meteor burst, there appeared a figure like the shape of an immense distaff, all aglow with a bluish-white light of the most intense brilliancy. It kept that form for perhaps two minutes, when it began to lengthen upwards, and grow wavy and zigzag in outline from the action of the wind, and gradually diminishing in breadth, until it became a fine, faint spiral line, at its upper end dissolving into the fast-gathering clouds the meteor seemed to have evoked. It so remained, a gorgeous scroll of light, emblazoning an arc of some 15° or 20° in the heavens, and with all its vividness and brilliancy of coloring, for ten minutes longer, when it began to fade, and finally disappeared at eleven minutes past five o'clock, apparent time. So grand and startling had been the effect produced, that it might have been likened to a thunderbolt and its trail indelibly engraved upon the sky. All on board gathered on deck to look at the wonderful phenomenon, and all said they had never seen so marvellous a sight before. Had the meteor struck the ship, it would doubtless have been the last of the Alaska, and no vestige would have been left to tell the tale of her loss. And to those who witnessed this strange and unwonted manifestation of the forces of the universe comes the suggestion of possible un-thought-of cause of sometime disasters at sea.

⁠I beg to enclose sketches giving a faint idea of a portion of the phenomena described above.

⁠Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Geo. E. Belknap,
Captain U.S.N., Commanding.

[On the evening of June 29, 1860, when encamped at the mouth of the Red River, on the southern shore of Lake Winnipeg, the astronomical party, sent that year by the Nautical almanac office to observe, July 18, on the Saskatchewan, the eclipse of the sun, saw a meteor flash in the northern sky, the trail of which remained visible near the horizon for about three-quarters of an hour, taking on a form somewhat resembling the later ones depicted by Captain Belknap, and in that time changing its position considerably, both relative and absolute.]