SEAS OF ICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 183, 2 August 1923, Page 9

SEAS OF ICE.

A PERILOUS PASSAGE. STEAMER WAIMATE. Through fields of ice on approaching Montreal, and three weeks of eucceesive gales in the Pacific Ocean, the steamer j Wai mate, which arrived m Sydney re- j cently, ha« paseed through plenty of adventure in the last two months. The Weimate crnne from Montreal, calling only at Newport News, in a direct run to Sydney, inaugurating a new monthly service of the New Zealand Shipping Company, Ltd., from Montreal. On her way to Montreal to commence loading for Australia the veaeel . encountered ice, and on examination it j was found that nine platee and a number of frames, all in the forepeak, were j damaged through ice. Speaking of nis experiences in the ice fields, Captain Hamilton stated that this year the ice had been very severe on the coast Of Labrador, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence the ice had been very ibad ahd , wius late in clearing. Vessels practically : in company with the Waimate in tnak- | ing Montreal had been delayed six and j seven days. On her way to Sydney (Cape Breton) the Waimate passed through 38 miles of thickly ice-strewn | waters, and another dangerous 48 miles of ice wae encountered passing through ( the Cabot Straits and the Gulf of St. , Lawrence, en route for Montreal. I "It is wonderful,' , said Captain Hamilton, "how the old ship <ehe wae built in 1896) behaved there and in the gales we struck on the way across to Sydney. I do not believe that some of the vessels built during the last ten years, with lighter frames and scantlings, would have come out of it as well ac we did. The ice in plaeee was 12 to 18 feet in thickness. Shipping on the whole was a month late in going to Montreal thie year through the lateness of the ice, and this means loss of revenue to Montreal."