Nine Days Among Icebergs

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 382, 16 June 1928, Page 10

Nine Days Among Icebergs

MOTOR SHIP S ORDEAL OFF CAPE HORN

Blinding Snow and Raging Seas

NIXK days of voyaging among icebergs, some of them as long as 14 or 15 miles; 500 feet high, and four miles across, made the recent passage of the motor-ship Alynbank round Cape Horn, as adventurous as any experienced by F* ships of sail or steam.

The Alynbank, which is a firstclass modern ship of 5,151 tons gross register, built in 1925, was bound from the ports of the Pacific Slope of North America to Table Bay. She loaded at San Francisco, Vancouver and Tacoma, and in addition to a full cargo under hatches carried long and huge square-cut logs, as well i as ordinary lumber on the decks, fore and aft. After leaving San Francisco, says the “Cape Times,” it was the intention of the commander (Captain W. E. Clayton) to make his way from the South Pacific to the South Atlantic through the Straits of Magellan, but when nearing the entrance to the Straits a strong north-east gale with high seas prevailed, visibility being low. Captain Clayton, considering the conditions., determined to make his way round Cape Horn, which was accomplished on March 27, in a blizzard of blinding snow, fierce winds and tremendous seas, when the weather was at its very worst, even for Cape Stiff. In the early hours of the morning of April 1, after having experienced wet fog throughout the night with low visibility, the fog cleared and a large number of icebergs were observed. At half-past five o’clock, when in Bat. 49.47 S. and Long. 37.10 W., the first berg was ahead to the northward distant about three miles, and for the three following hours the vessel proceeding on true east course, skirted the southern border of a large number of bergs. This southern margin ran, irregularly, in an east and west direction, the line of ice being almost unbroken, the bergs being from 200 feet to 500 feet high and up to one mile in length. Line of Endless Ice Beyond that line there was other ice, extending to the northward as far as the eye could see, and apparently thickly distributed. The majority of the large bergs were of tabular form, having vertical sides and flat tops, in many cases ridged, peaked, rounded and castellated, showing the action of water, having evidently ; turned over. The description given by Captain Clayton suggests that the bergs appeared to him much the same as the side of Table Mountain appears when looked at from the more or less safe streets of Cape Town. The weather was fine and very clear, with a small amount of cirrus form of cloud with diverging woolly filaments. Sludge, or thick mud ice, in an advanced stage of erosion, extended irregularly from two to three miles from the main body. At one period an enormous tabular iceberg, between 14 and 15 miles long, up to 400 feet high and about four miles thick, lay about eight miles t.r> the southward of the ship, and from this position, along the parallel, large detached bergs were passed close to. on an average of about four an hour, while in all directions bergs large and small were to be seen on the horizon. Sludge ice, at times in large pieces, was everywhere in evidence, but chiefly in the vicinity of the larger bergs. While the ship travelled a total distance of 132 miles, there was at no time a horizon ahead clear of bergs. Navigation was necessarily cautious. Stopped by Fog During the night the most careful watch was maintained. In the very early morning of Monday, April 2, a berg I,oooft. long and 250 ft. high was passed. At 8 o’clock on that Monday night the vessel was stopped on account of the low visibility through the thick fog and mist. It was not until just after five o’clock on the Tuesday morning that Captain Clayton deemed it prudent to proceed ahead. A little before midday a tabular berg about 2,000 ft long and 250 ft high was passed in close proximity, others of varying sizes being visible to the southward.

On Wednesday, April 4, the weather being fine and sunny, with light northerly airs, other bergs were passed. In the preceding three days all the ice presented a sound and well-preserved appearance, with little signs of melting, save in cases where the bergs had evidently capsized. The ice passed on

Wednesday, however, showed every indication of rapid disintegration, large fragments of the above water portion of the bergs breaking off at short intervals and collecting round their water lines. Huge vertical fissures were also remarked. A Misty Aura A peculiar feature of Wednesday’s ice was that from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each large berg with its attendant small ice was enveloped in an aura of thin white mist extending outwards, horizontally, several hundred feet, but only attaining an altitude of about 100 feet. The prevailing light airs were not sufficiently strong to dispel this mist, which would seem to have been induced by the warmth of the sun on the mush and cold water. On Good Friday when in Lat. 46 S. and Long. 13.48 W., a large berg of unknown dimensions was passed during a sudden clear spell of overcast weather, that being the last observed until Easter Sunday, April 8, due probably to the impossibility of seeing more than two or three miles from the vessel. On Easter Monday and the following day ice was observed. Thus for nine consecutive days the Alynbank was voyaging through an ice field full of danger, the captain and his officers experiencing a very trying and exhausting time of it. Captain Clayton remarked that ice was observed on two occasions while the Alynbank was in the area marked on the chart as ice free during March, April and May.