ICEBETG PERILS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5490, 1 April 1910, Page 3

ICEBETG PERILS

The following extraordinary storj of an adventure through which Ihe steamer Portia passed in Notre Dame Bay (Newfoundland) is fiven by the "Argonaut" :— ln clear "daylight as iceberg was sighfed, and passengers > nd crew begged the captain to approach . carer in ordei that they might inspect and photograph it. 11 ePortia, therefore, steered close to the t< werinj sides of the mighty iceberg, wl ose highest pin nic?e3 gli.tened several hundred feet above the sea Then the unexpected happen* d. There vas an explosion like the shock of a volcanic eruption, aad the mighty berg was riven asunder. One of the pieces split npart, grew topheavy, andt^ppled over Us base, founder watr, catching the Portia and lift ing her high and dry some ten or twelve feet above the sea. The mighty over' timing of the berg created enormous swells, and those huge waves were the only thing that saved the ship from destruction. The weight of the ship caught on its shelf of ice kept the berg? from turning a c m) lete somersault, ano a huge swell p'eked up the vessel .an< launched her again, stern fi-st, in tbt eea. 1 his kind of n.ugh launching was not thekind a ship expects, and the f >ree carried her so far down into tl • sea, that the captain and crew never expected her to come up ngain. But she battled bravely for her equilibrium and' finally righted herself and f steamed awny frtm the dangerous spot. Thp whole .mishap had taken only a few minutes, and before crew and passengers had time more than to catch their breath they had" teen into the jaws of of death and out again.