RUNNING ON AN ICE FLOE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 113, 27 April 1912, Page 5

RUNNING ON AN ICE FLOE.

PIERCING COLDNESS OF THE WATER.

“The coldness of the water which flows round an iceberg almost at once causes the collapse of anyone who has the misfortune to be enveloped by it.” Thus spoke a resident oi Dunedin, Mr. F. W. Riach, who has an even more than usual interest in the wreck of the Titanic, seeing that he, twenty-four years ago, suffered shipwreck in the vicinity of the place where the Titanic sank, his steamer also running oh to an iceberg.

Mr. Riach w as a sailor on board an Anchor liner, the Columbia, which sailed from Gibraltar for. New York with some 600 Italian passengers (says the “Otago Daily Times.”) On the night of September 17th, 1887, whilst the steamer w r as enveloped in a heavy fog and travelling - at twelve knots an hour, she crashed into the sea edge of a berg, slid over part of it, and finished up by striking a solid wall of ice with tremendous impace. Immediately tons of ice fell on the boat, it being estimated that there were 600 tons piled up on board, right to the funnel. The crew and passengers made for the rigging, Mr. Riach spending the night there in h;s singlet, but the steamer kept her precarious position on the berg, being pinned by the ice. When daylight broke it was seen that the icefield was about ten miles in length, and as no assistance was forthcoming the captain decided on the desperate expedient of lifting the ice from the fore part of the vessel and allowing her to slide back into the water. The crew and passengers therefore set to-work, and after two days the ice was removed in sivfficient quantity to let the ship glissade back into the water, the while everyone watched with painful eagerness to see what would happen. When the Columbia struck the berg she had a projecting bow after the style of the U.S.S. Company’s Rotomahana ; when she sheered back into the water this had been cut clean off, and her bow was straight up and down. However, her bulkhead saved her, and though she made water fast, sails and other material were used to keep out the water. It was found necessary, however, to steam backwards, using canvas bags to steer by, New York making a very welcome appearance after a journey of nine days from the time the steamer struck. “Had one got into the water, though,” concluded Mr. Riach, “we would, as I say, have succumbed from the intense coldness in a verj’ short time.”

THE LATE COLONEL ASTOR

Colonel John Astor, one of the victims of the Titanic disaster, was the head of the well-known American multi-millionaire family of that name, and was regarded as being one of the richest men in the world. As a young man Mr. Astor held a position, with the rank of colonel, on the start of Dr. Levi P. Morton, who was Governor of New York State in 1895 and 1896. He received a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel in 1898. He served in the American Spanish war in 1898, and also presented the United States Government with a mountain battery for use in the war. In 1897 lie built the Astoria Hotel in New York, adjoining th.' Waldorf Hotel, which was

built by his cousin, Mr. W. Waldorf Astor. He was the inventor of a bicycle brake, and a pneumatic road imporver. He was also the author of some publications. Colonel Astor was married in 1891 at the age of 26, to Miss Ava Willing, who divorced him in 1909 on the grounds of unfaithfulness. There were two children of the marriage, a son and a daughter. After the divorce the Colonel invited his friends to a ball in honour of the event. The function was described as “a wildly extravagant affair.”

The name of Colonel Astor was brought prominently before the public in August and September last, in connection with his engagement and marriage to Miss Madeline Talmage Force, a New York girl of only 18 years of age, and the daughter of a New York importer. The engagement was condemned in unmeasured terms by the Rev. Dr. Richmond, of Philadelphia, whose denunciation the bishops were inclined to regard as intemperate, but which were said to be fairly expressi\e of the churches’ attitude. Mrs. Brown, president of the Federated Women’s Clubs, declared that the New York idea of changing wives every few months was utterly subversive of morality and common decency, and that it was even more abominable than the unions of old men and young girls.

A renewed sensation was caused early in September by the refusal _>f the Rev. Frederick Brooks, a New York Methodist minister, to marry Colonel Astor to Miss Force. The pastor stated that he declined to marry divorced persons, and the wedding had to be postponed (ill a week later, when the millionaire was secretly married. Before leaving in his yacht with his wife on their honeymoon tour, he made a statement to the press to the effect tha now he was happily married he did no care how difficult divorce and marriage might be made. Mr. Astor, who was 47 years of age, was a director of corporations whose capital amounts to £40,00(1,000. Mrs. Astor is a tall and graceful girl with a mass of brown hair and the strong features of the type magazine illustrators select as a representative style of American beauty. She is a year younger than the colonel's son Vincent, and but a little older than his daughter Muriel, who is noy/ in the custody of her mother, who lives in London.