MAY BE SAFE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 165, 15 July 1938, Page 10

MAY BE SAFE.

ADMIRAL KARPFANGfcR.

BECALMED IN ICE AREA?

The opinion that the four-masted barque Admiral Karpfanger, which is now 156 daye out on a passage from South Australia to Europe, may still arrive safely, is expressed by Mr. P. Eaddy, of Birkenhead, in a letter to the "Star."

He statee that in the days of sailing ships, when the Cape Horn route was always used on the homeward voyage, ships often took as long, and sometimes longer, than the Admiral Karpfanger is now taking. Even if she did encounter ice, it did not follow that she had sunk through collision with a berg. Fog'was Very prevalent in those latitudes, and the ship might have been slightly damaged, or even be lying becalmed due to light weather and fog. "In the year 1908 I wae a member of the crew of the full-rigged ehip Carnarvon Bay, of Liverpool," he states, "And on the homeward journey from Portland, Oregon, to Queenstown, we rounded the Horn in the month of April. Early one morning, during a thick fog and in moderate weather, we collided with a berg and lost our fore-yard, besides suffering other damage to the gear and hull. We Were embayed for several days with large icebergs all around us. One measured 12 miles lon«r. When; clear of the' ice we were spoken by the four-masted German barque Seafarer, and after a passage of 154 days we took; the ; 'lame duck , into Queenstown Harbour."

He concluded by saying' that the Admiral Karpfanger may hav© had a similar experience to the Carnarvon Bay