CHANNEL STORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 37, 13 February 1929, Page 7

CHANNEL STORM.

ICY COLD WEATHER

Steamer Exposed For 16 Hours To Blinding Snow.

SERVICES DISORGANISED

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received 12 noon.)

RUGBY, February 12

A small coastal steamer bound to London with a cargo of .soda grounded in a snowstorm early thin morning. The crew of 13 " verv rescued by the Plymouth lifeboat, which spent the greater part of the night at sea and by a rocket apparatus operated from the cliffs.

Severe snowstorms were experienced in the south coast counties of England and road transport was hampered? but the most serious effects of the blizzard were felt in Wales and Scotland. Snow ploughs were in some cases necessary tc clear the railwav lines.

Pilots on Imperial Airways' London to Paris route state that the'cold in the upper air was the most intense they had experienced in nearly ten years oV cross-Channel flying.

It appears that the cross-Channel steamer Ville de Lie<>e, which went ashore yesterday, is fast on the rocks but only a small part of her hull can bt; seen this morning. Some of her niails were taken off at low tide. An attempt was to be made later to "-et her off. • c

The steamer Peel Castle, with nearly 100 passengers on board, was exposed for 10 hours to a blinding snowstorm and tremendous seas on her voyage yesterday from Douglas, Isle of' Man' to Liverpool. She was due at the Liverpool landing stage at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon and did not arrive till shortly after one this morning. The icy gale froze the mixture of glycerine and water which covered her steering rods when she was off the bar lightship at 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon. The ship was helpless and was immediately anchored while engineers dismantled the steering gear. "

This was later reassembled and the anchor was weighed shortlv before midnight.

Bitterly cold weather continue-, throughout the British Isles. In London last night twelve decrees of frost weiv registered and the thermometer has risen little during the day. The cold is. accentuated by an east "wind.

BRITAIN ICEBOUND.

Channel Steamer Founders On

Rocks At Dover. PASSENGERS SUFFER. (Australian and N.Z. Association.) (Received 31 a.m.) LONDON, February 12. Britain is now ice-bound. Yesterday in London was the coldest day for "JO years. The thermometer registered 23 to 23 degrees, Fahrenheit, and in exposed areas down to 18 degrees.

A motor coach and five saloon cars were caught in a snowdrift on the Bristol-Bridge water Road.

A Channel steamer, the Ville de Liege, bound from Ostend, stranded on the rocks in Dover Harbour. The passengers', who included twelve women, suffered severely from the biting wind for two hours. They were huddled on the icebound deck until the crew lowered the boats in heavv seas.

Later the Yille de Liege sank. She carried 40 passengers and (50 of a crew. All were saved.

The women were placed in the first boat and landed drenched and half frozen.

A strong easterly wind increased the general discomfort. Owing to the cold the epidemic of influenza, which already has claimed thousands of victims, threatens to become still more acute.

There is no sign of a break in the Arctic weather. The intense cold is accentuated by snowstorms and heavy gales throughout Britain.

WORST YET TO COiME.

FATALITIES IN GERMANY.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)

(Kecelved '1 \>.n\.)

LONDON, February 12

Portions of the Thames estuary are ice covered and ships are arriving in the Thames with the rigging completely covered ill ice, sometimes inches thick. Remarkably low temperatures are reported, ranging from fifteen degrees at Hatnpstcad to nineteen degrees at Birmingham, and seventeen degrees in central London, the lowest since 1009, when it was fourteen.

The forecast is that the worst is yet to come in England, which is threatened with the greatest frost of modern times.

A Berlin message states that intense cold is responsible for two disasters. The Stuttgart express was forced to slowdown, owing to a freezing radiator, and th« driver of a following express did not see the signals through the frostcovered windows and crashed into tli2 Stuttgart train. Three people were killed and 17 injured.

An attempt to thaw frozen calcium carbide acetylene gas at a factory led to an explosion in which three were killed and 20 seriously injured. The whole factory was demolished.

The Rhiire, Mosel and Ruhr rivers are frozen for considerable distances. Frankfurt had the lowest temperature for a century.

A man who was blinded in the war was found frozen to death at Duisberg. His dog was keeping watch beside the body and would not allow anyone to approach. A Sofia dispatch states that from Varna to Burgas is ice-bound. The people are skating along the coast for the first time since 1849.

At Paris 26 degrees of frost were reported, the lowest, with three exceptions, for 55 years. The prefect of police is installing braziers at sheltered corners of the principal streets. Many trains are delayed owing to the points and the engine tubes freezing.

There have been heavy snowfalls in many places, even at Marseilles and at Cannes. The famous Chartreuse nioiiasterv, near (irenoble, is snowed up and isolated. There are 48 degrees of frost at Bel fort.