CAPTIVES OF ICE FLOES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

CAPTIVES OF ICE FLOES.

SIXTEEN PERSONS CARRIED

AWAY

Sixteen skaters living in the suburbs of Rogers and Lake Forest were carried out into Lake Michigan on icefloes on February 12; Ten of them were rescued, and during the entire evening search parties made fruitless efforts to secure some trace of the

missing six

All those rescued were carried out on the ice off Lake Forest, and two of the number who ventured on the frozen lake there are supposed to have been drowned. The remaining three of the sixteen were carried away on a floe oft" Rogers Park. Most of the rescued were students at Lake Forest Academy.

Attorney Brothers, who is an amateur photographer, had gone out on to the ice, accompanied by his niece and nephew, to take some pictures of the shore. He had taken several 'shots' when suddenly, half a mile to the north, the ice broke. The vast force exerted upon the floe near shore, upon which the unfortunate party were, caused a rapid disintegration. Before Brothers realized his position, escape was impossible. At dusk, Mrs Brothers, alarmed at the absence of her husband, reported to the police. Fully a mile out from the shore faint flashes of lightcould be seen. Between the shore and the points where the flashes were distinguishable, floated immense cakes of ice. The police officers tried repeatedly to find an opening in the floating mass through which a boat might pass, but without success. Finally telephone calls for aid were sent to Chicago. Several lifeboats were loaded upon trains and started to the rescue. Tugs were unable to make the slightest impression upon the pack, and after several efforts this mode of rescue was abandoned.

Guy Carron and George Malloryhad started to walk to Waukegan about noon. They had ne»t passed from sight when the change of wind caused the ice-field upon which they were to break from its moorings. They had not reached Waukegan at midnight, and all hope of saving them has been abandoned.

The ten boys rescued were skating on the smooth shore ice when it broke away. The alarm was given at Fort Sheridan, and a detachment of. the Third Cavalry quickly manned the Government lifeboat. After a desperate struggle with the floating ice they succeeded in reaching he floe and transferred the skaters safely. •