A CRITICAL SEASON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 19 April 1912, Page 5

A CRITICAL SEASON.

ICEBERG PERILS

As illustrating the terrors of the iceberg peril, the following article, published in the "Shipping Gazette" in 1909, is interesting : —"The present year continues to maintain its unenviable notoriety for the seriousness of the iceberg peril. The whole of Newfoundland's eastern seaboard, and the Grand Banks also, are thickly strewn with these floating islets, that spell destruction for every , vessel that touches them, and all sorts of shipping, fronj the humblest fishing smack to the largest liner, are subjected to exceeding peril, and, in many cases, to serious actual damage. Daily the steamers plying in these waters report sighting scores, if not hundreds, of bergs, and one passenger from New York to -London, counted over 1000 during 24 hours. What they mean to ships at this season is shown by the fact of | three steamers being crippled by them during the past ten days. Oil July 23 Tiie steam freighter 'Regulus entered the Thames with her whole bow battered in by contact with a berg in a dense fog off Cape Race. She was so seriously injured that a deckload of machinery had ib be jettisoned, and 100 tons of coal I thrown overboard ; but oven . with this relief she barely succeeded in making port. Three days later the Black Diamond liner Bonavista, with 70 passengers aboard, made the port also, with i her bow stove-in in the same fashion. At the impact her passengers stampeded to he deck and rushed for the boats, and only the most strenuous exertions on the part of the officers averted a tragedy. At the same time the Canadian Pacific Railway liner Montrose was lying off Cape Race for four days, repairing the damage caused by colliding with another berg while on her way to Montreal with 300 passengers. She~was badly battered forward, and the British warship Brilliant stood by her until she effected repairs to enable her to reach her destination. Several other steamers, more or less crippled from contact with ice, had to make the same port recently, and there is grave reason to fear that not a few missing and overdue vessels have fallen victims ito the unusual abundance of these ice argosies during the past few months.

"No one can assign any explanation why these ice conditions exist in certain years and are not experienced in others. Not- since the year 1863 has there been such a state of affairs experienced as this season, and in those days very much less inconvenience was felt from this cause, as the ocean liners were smaller, and the flotillas were proportionately less, and the business interests did not "demand such regular communication.-

OCEAN TRAGEDIES. In the spring of 1890 floes and bergs were very numerous in the North Atlantic, and a large number of marine tragedies resulted, which are attributed to this cause. Four stout steamers, with an aggregate personnel of nearly 300, one or two having some passengers aboard, Vanished from human ken, and it has always been believed that the ice was the cause of their disappearance. In the spring of 1899, again, no fewer than ten freight steamers, with 380 souls, vanished in the same way. All.had left different American ports at dates which should bring them together on the Grand Banks, and the theory always has beeti that they were caught in the floes there, and, a hurricane springing up, were pounded to pieces, so that they leaked apace and speedily went to the bottom with all hands aboard. In the present year, however, the floes have been even worse than on these occasions, and the harbour of St. John's has been ice-bound and sealed up against all arriving and departing vessels even more securely than if surrounded by the finest war fleet afloat. The worst feature of the iceberg condition is that all the bergs and floes are now drifting south into the track of New York liners, and as the more ice is (lie more fog there will result, the mist that always overhangs the * rand Banks is due to the steam generated by the commingling of the Gulf Stream with the Arctic current and its burden of ice, the outcome will probably bo that during the summer the peril (o steamers on the North Atlantic will be greater than ever, what with fog on the one hand and ice on (he other. SILENT DESTROYERS. "The bergs, moreover, are of monstrous size, and the larger they are, of course, the longer they take to melt, and the further south they are carried before they disappear. There are always during the summer months more or less of these silent destroyers cruising towards the ocean line south of the Grand Banks, and this year promises to witness a record number. Until ten years age ac-ci-

dents to from collision with these were vurv iiumcfOHS, as then'the sailing track of' the -New York traversed the southern end oK the Great Banks. which, owing to the meeUttf? 07 the currents, is where most of the bergs art: found, and where they are as thickly strewn as fishing boats. ' Disasters became so common that an international conference was called, which resulted in fixing the ocean land nearlv 200 miles further south, and this has minimised the frequency of danger not, a little, though from time to time mere still occurs mishaps which only the superior of the modern liner prevents from being terribly disastrous. Last year one of the big German flyers struck a berg, fortunately without injuring herself, but it is rarely that steamers" survive an encounter with these ice masses, as only one-eighth of the tota-1 volume of the berg appears above watev, and its contour below may be different from that above, so that when a steamer rams an iceberg she disturbs its equilibrium, and causes it to topple over, the result being that an unsuspected. mass arises beneath the ship s bottom, and as she strikes this, either tears it out or tumbles over the ship, so that ail go to tlie bottom together."

AN EXCITING MOMENT. The Canadian-Pacific liner Lake CTiamplin, with 15 saloon and 583 steerage passengers and a crew of 156, boitfid ior Montreal, struck an iceberg at suilset on 6th December, 1909, in a thick fog, off Cape Race. The passengers were at dinner at the time, and the shock of the collision sent them rushing to the deck. The officers and crew were on the alert to suppress a panic, and speedily secured a renewal of confidence. The steamer's port bow was stove in, and the ship was leaking somewhat, but not seriously. Captain "Webster decided to make for St. John's, Newfoundland, fearing to meet with other ice which might cause further damage if he continued the voyage. The steamer arrived at St SoilzPs, badly damaged. WATERTIGHT COMPARTMENTS As showing tl~naiTu.y ™^ l . l is oetween safety £ltid disilß<. er nection with watertight dooi'# flTiv. heads, mention may be made at ihe of the Oregon, of the Canard Company # Line, on 14th -March, 1886 .The Oregon was run into by an unknown schooner, near Long Island, America; and wheu the orders were given to close the water--1 tin-lit compartment, it was found that one of°the doors would not close properly on account of having got blocked with some coal. The consequence was that the water ran through the edge of thA door, and the steamer finally sank, the passengers and crew, numbering "about 800, befng saved by the North German Lloyd steamer Fulda, assisted by a pilot boat and schooner.