AMID SEAS OF ICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18468, 3 August 1923, Page 7

AMID SEAS OF ICE.

A PERILOUS PASSAGE. ;l \vjj v '— -: ■ - : ;-:".v-.. THE .STEAMER. WAIMATE. - Through ' fields of.. ice. on approaching Montreal, and three ;. weeks of - successive gales in the Pacific Ocean, tho steamer vVaimate, ; which ; arrived in ; Sydney last ■week,; has passed .through plenty of adventure in ,the last two months. ; The Wahnate ; came ; from Montreal, call] ing only at Newport News, in a direct run to Sydney, inaugurating a new monthly servicie ;of vtha • -New . -Zealand ' Shipping Company from Montreal. Below* her decks was a shipment of about 500 motor-cars, which is believed i to. pe almost a record for a single > shipment to' Australia,' > ; 1; On V her way vto Montreal ;'-:■ to commence loading for "Australia, the /vessel; encountered ice, and on examination it was found/ that nine plates and/ a nmnher of frames, all •in the forepeak. were damaged. / / Speaking of " his experiences in f3ie , icefields^'Captain; Hamilton stated 1 ' that this year v the ice had been very severe on the ooasi of Labrador, and in th& Gulf of St. Lawrence the ice had ;, beeu very/ bad and was late {"clearing.// Vessels practically in company .with the Waimate in making Montreal had been delayed 'six/arid seven days. •' On /h^u*' -way /to/*- Sydney // (Cape Breton), the /jWaiinate passed through 38 | miles i of : thickly ice-strewn ~<s waters,- and another dangerous/ 48 miles of ice was encountered passing '■-;';; through' the 1 >;/. Cabot Straits and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, en -route for Montreal. /' . / / - • "It is wonderful," said Captain Hamilton, "how/ the .old ship (she was built in 1896) behaved there and ;in the gales w'fl struck on the way across :to Sydney;, i I do not■':believe that some. of the vessels built ; downg?; the ' last 10 years, with lighter I frames md scantlings, would have come { \ out of it:as well as we r did. //The ice in! places -was: 12f , to - 18ft. /.in . thickness;- : Shipping on ,;. th whole was. a ; month late . I in ' going to/ Montreal this year through j the- lateness of the ice, and this means , loss /of revßiiue to 'Montreal " ■'^' r /;':V;V ;--/■ r-- ■ . i : ;■ '"■