Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/45

 The lower part or nozzle of the balloon cloud was seen to descend and unite with a whirlwind which had  caught up the agitated waters. It assumed a trumpet shape, with the broad end downwards. Its narrowest part between the whirlwind and the cloud was about  twenty feet broad. The sun, which looked like a huge ball of fire, was rising at the time. There was quite an upper current of wind, which drove the balloon-shaped  cloud onward and dragged the whirlwind or lower part  of the water-spout over the surface of the water. The sun shining through the spout gave it the appearance  of being on fire. Vivid flashes of lightning frequently issued from the black cloud, which continued from the  commencement of the first ripple upon the surface of  the waters until the bursting of the spout half an hour  later. This was immediately followed by a heavy shower of the largest raindrops I ever saw. Scarcely a breath of air stirred to ripple the mirror-like expanse  of the ocean, and the big drops falling upon its surface  sparkled like diamonds in the sun. The morning display was followed that night by an exhibition of old ocean’s fireworks that far excelled the most brilliant ever  given on Boston Common on Fourth of July.

I had often seen what seemed to be tiny sparks in the wake of the ship, but that night the whole surface of  the sea was bespangled with what seemed like lightning- bugs or fireflies of mammoth size. There was a considerable swell, and the sea, sparkling as it did in every part with light, was truly grand. It seemed as if the sky had dropped to a level with the ship, and its bright, glittering stars were rolling about over the billows. The