We
Could Distinctly Observe The Water Hurled Upwards With The Greatest
Violence In A Spiral, And It Appeared That It Left A Hollow Space In
The Centre; So That We Concluded The Water Only Formed A Hollow Tube,
Instead Of A Solid Column.
We were strongly confirmed in this belief
by the colour, which was exactly like any hollow glass-tube.
After
some time the last water-spout was incurvated and broke like the
others, with this difference, that its disjunction was attended with a
flash of lightning, but no explosion was heard. Our situation during
all this time was very dangerous and alarming; a phenomenon which
carried so much terrific majesty in it, and connected, as it were, the
sea with the clouds, made our oldest mariners uneasy, and at a loss
how to behave; for most of them, though they had viewed water-spouts
at a distance, yet had never been so beset with them as we were; and
all without exception had heard dreadful accounts of their pernicious
effects, when they happened to break over a ship. We prepared, indeed,
for the worst, by clewing up our top-sails; but it was the general
opinion that our masts and yards must have gone to wreck if we had
been drawn into the vortex. It was hinted that firing a gun had
commonly succeeded in breaking water-spouts, by the strong vibration
it causes in the air; and accordingly a four-pounder was ordered to be
got ready, but our people, being, as usual, very dilatory about it,
the danger was past before we could try the experiment.
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