DOWN SOUTH

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 35, 13 February 1929, Page 5

DOWN SOUTH

BIRD’S PARTI IN A STORM.

ICE GIVES WAY UNDER SWELL.

(By Russell Owen, copyright by New York Times and St. Louis Post Despatch, All rights reserved.) BAY OF WHALES, Feb. 9.

We are jogging about from one side of the bay and back again under a jib, staysails and spanker. It is snowing and foggy, so: that the high ■white cliffs are ..invisible, except when they loom suddenly out of the sea to warn us away from their crumbling sides. This doleful interim began on Thursday. We had been anchored securly under the shelter of the Barrier, but, as the wind increased, the three lines which held us to theice grew taut under the incessant buffeting, the rigging sang, and the ship laid over under the pressure. There was a thud against the side and the scraping of ice.

Men poured out from cabin and forecastle to discover that the ice

ha(d given away under the light swell, and our tugging and ice) anchors were caught on the far side of the floes. The ship began to drift' along the edge and the ice started packing round us. There was no time to save the anchors if the propeller was to be kept clear of the thick ice, and Byrd ordered the lines to be cut. Some of the crew wanted to get, out on the heaving cakes to save the anchors, but Byrd ordered them back. WIND DURING NIGHT. The wind picked up during the night 1 and the City of New York heeled well over under a few sails. The sea also rose and some of us became seasick. All night long the ship rolled through this wilderness of white. The man at the wheel ibility i;s not better, however, and his helmet 1 and beard. A few miles of /threatening grey cliff frowned suddenly ahead, and the ship went round with a rattle of stays, plunging in the short waves like a startled thing.

Tlie wind lasted all Friday and last' night, but this morning had gone down to a gentle breeze. Ihe vis ihility is no better, howeevr, and there seems little possibility of an immediate change. These days are valuable, but we cannot complain, for previously the weather has been so favourable.

Out 1 at the base the men are also weatherbound. They had dug part bf the excavation for the large house, but they found that the snow had drafted in full again, and shovelling must he U ut off fill th e storm ends.