PERILS OF THE ICE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 22 October 1924, Page 5

PERILS OF THE ICE.

TRADERS FACE STARVATION'. A RACE WITH WINTER. OTTAWA, Oct. 1. Forty Canadian fur traders and. (government officials living on Her.sen el island, at the mouth of the Mackenzie River, may starve before the spring because of the loss of the Hudson Bay steamer Lady Kindersley, which was dramatically crushed in the i'-.e beyond Cape liar row. Aboard that rhip were a year’s supplies, and the Hers mol station knows nothing of the disaster vet beyond a suspicion that all is not right because of the non-appearance ot the stores vessel. When the vessel -was lost the Government lost no time in despatching relief overland from Edmonton in the hope of getting a river steamer down the Mackenzie before that stream freezes below Fort Smith. If the river has frozen already the little community at Herschel is facing a serious time, oecnuse eleven months will elapse before any other succour can reach them, 'iiiev may get short rations from seal and caribou meat, bud the outlook will be serious if the river vessel fails. The motor-ship Lady Kindersley, a three-masted auxiliary schooner of 727 tons, owned by the Hudson Bay Company, left Vancouver in June for the mouth of the Mackenzie "River, via Behring Sea and Point- Barrow, on her third annual l’ur-trading trip. After her arrival at Point Barrow the vessel was caught in an icelield, and became a total less. The crew started out over the ice for the shore, but found they had drifted more than 50 miles to seaward. They returned to the Lady Kimlersiey and sent out wireless messages for help. The Canadian naval vessel. H.M.S. Patrician prepared to dash to the scene, with, an -aeroplane aboard, when news came by wireless that- the American Government steamer Boxer had forced her way through the ice to a point where she could see the Lady Kindersley across the iccfieid, and would rescue the crew.