CRUSHED LIKE EGG-SHELL

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 89, 21 May 1914, Page 3

CRUSHED LIKE EGG-SHELL

MEN SQUEEZED TO DEATH. FATE OF THE NEWFOUNDLAND. The news of the worst disaster in the history of the Newfoundland sealing fleet was received by wireless at St. John's, Newfoundland. The steamer Newfoundland with a crew of two hundred men, was caught between ico'floes south of Belle Isle Strait and crushed like an egg-shell. The crew barely had time to climb over her sides to the ice floes, on which they were forced to*"spend forty-eight hours in an awful blizzard, without fojd, stimulants, or sheltw. The blizzard caused the floes to drift in all directions, and the crew of two hundred, men were scattered.

Fifty dead were picked up by the Red Cross steamer Florizel when the blizzard abated.

Thirty survivors ' who were found by tlie Bella Venture are unable to give a coherent account of the catastrophe. There is little hope of finding any'more survivors. '■ ■

At least 180 men have perished, and the whole sealing fleet is sweeping the seas in search of bodies.

The Newfoundland was owned by the Newfoundland Sealing Company, Limit eft, and was built at Quebec in' 1875. Antarctic Ship Missing.

The steamer Southern Cross, formerly the Pollux, which was used by Lieut. Shackleton in his Antarctic Expedition, is also missing, and it is feared she has met with a similar fate to the Newfoundland. All those whose bodies have been found were frozen to death. They had no chance from the beginning, for a gale was blowing oflNshore, and there was a blinding snowstorm. St. John's is plunged in mourning and it is feared now that the loss of life, if both vessels are lost,'will exceed three hundred.

Public subscriptions have already been ■opened;for the relief of the sufferers. Some of those found alive have gone mad under the strain of their awful experience. Men Who Know No Fear.

Dr. W. T. Grenfell, of Labrador, was greatly distressed on learning of the disaster to the Newfoundland. "Although accidents are common, and ships are often lost," he said, "loss of life is not of very .frequent occurrence. "On Arriving at the sealing ground the men leave the shin and set out on the ice. If a gale springs up, and the ice-floe begins to move, they are sometimes separated from their vessel, and) unless picked up by other steamers their lives are lost. "The last disaster happened six years ago, when the vessel Greenland lauded one hundred and twenty men on the ice one Monday morning. A gale of wind sprang up and the lloe began to move. "Only after great hardship and difficulty were the men picked up, the last getting on board late on the following Wednesday. Forty'-eigh% lives were' lost in that terrible accident. "For the most part the men are stvoug, athletic fellows; God-fearing men, and all British subjects, mostly of Devon or Dorset descent, with a sprinkling of Irish blood. They do not know the meaning of ,fear, -and this qualification greatly aids them "in tlie perilous tasks they have to undertake." The Newfoundland sealing season ppeus on March 10 every year, and generally lasts about two months. The seals come down from the Arctic regions to breed, and are killed in the ice fields, the annual catch being about j>oo,ooo, valued at £425,000. Newfoundland' seals are killed for their fat, from' which a valuafiler oil is made, and their skins, which are made into leather.