The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1889-01-31
A TAR ON ICEBERCS
A Berg Sixty Miles Long and Forty Wide
That Drifted Around CareIessIy
for Two Years.

|
stood the other day looking up int,
the rigging of big ship, says tn,
New York Mail and Erpress. He wa
an old sailor, having, as he said
"crawled in the hawsepipe and com,
out at the cabin window" which be
ing translated means that he haC
worked his way up from before tn,
mast to the masters berth.
All of a sudden he shifted rather
eagerly in the rather damp, misty
air. The reportorial nose could only
| faihtly trace the Hunters Point aromi
that haunts the river, but the sailor
had caught Whit of something else
do you know" said he, Il though
/ smelled an iceberg just then. Al
sea in high latitudes YOU can smell
them miles away aud many night
have kept all hands on deck shifting
and peering around on the watch foI
| field ice or bergs. | tell. you 1t is nc
| fun to have half II dozen icebergs loaf
ing around when your ship is logging
nine or ten knots straight off the rec
and you are in such hurry to make a
passage that you don't want to shorten
sail"
The scent had awakened train OF
memory, and, seating himself on one
of the dock piles, he took II large
sized chew of plug and settled himself
| to talk about field ice aud bergs.
Il was for nearly twenty years mas
ter of a deep-sea ship" began the old
shellback, land have doubled both
Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope
more times than / have fingers twice
over. That's where you see ice. The
bergs down there are not so lofty or
SO beautiful as those in arctic regions,
but they are much more dangerous;
first, because of their number and ex-
tent, and again because they have SUBJ
marine formations that are just like a
ledge of rocks and project sometimes
half a mile or Il mile out from the base
of the berg. You sec. with those fell
lows you might think you were giving
them all the berth they needed and
still break your ship up on one of their
reefs.
1.-The biggest ice island ever heard
told of by sailors was seen drifting
around in about 80 S. 24 w, almost in
the track of the English Liverpool boats
bound to Melbourne. 1t was in 1853
that it was first sighted, and the same
chunk of ice was reported from that
vicinity until 1885, when it disap-
peared. 1t was said to have been about
$50 feet high, 90 miles long and 40
miles wide, and was curved in very
much the shape of Il horseshoe. The
two arms of the curves embraced bay
forty miles across and perfectly shell
tered. A big English emigrant ship,
called the Guiding Star, | think,
sighted the ice island, but whether be-
cause of fog or carelcssness, nobody
knows. sailed slap into the bay be-
tween the arms of the island aud was
lost with all hands. Pieces of her
wrockage were picked up near the
island by a steamer bound for Aus
tralia.
1.-The highest berg / ever heard of
was seen in the Southern ocean, where
they are not generally very lofty.
sailed with man who declared that
he had seen this berg and that it was
1000 feet high above the surface of
the water. Now as there is always
nine times rs much of berg below
the water as there is above, that would
make tnis fellow 5000 feet from the
base under the water To the highest
point above. That's pretty big
chunk of ice, considering that it is
over fifty times rs high as the Brook
lyn bridge. I'll bet it made a splash
when il fell! That's where the danger
is. In warm ATTITUDES the base melts
away and the first thing you know it
falls over. ] have heard of several
ships that had big chunks fall on their
decks, one vessel having her masts
carried away and several of her crew
killed.
''Northern bergs are neither so large
nor so numerous as those seen in south
ern waters, but they are usually lOftier
and more beautiful. with lots of spires
and dOmes, and when the sun shines
on them they look like lot of rain
bows piled on top of each other. These
fellows are tail and draw Il lot of wa
ter. | have heard of them grounded
on the banks of Newfoundland where
there was over 600 feet of water, by the
lead. They have been reported in
Baffin's bay hard aground in 1900
feet of water.
''Some years there is much more ice
than usual. l heard man who had
run n ship named the Swanton say
that they saw over 200 icebergs in Il
single passage in 1912. and most of
them were in about 43 north and about
80 west-that is, less than 1000 miles
about east northeast from Governors
island. The Swanton had II very hard
time getting through the fleet of
beFgs. and passed between two that
were so close that she had to brace her
yards sharp mp for fear she would get
caught. In 1888 there were plenty of
icebergs. and last spring ar the year
before the steamer Concordia reported
having seen over fifty icebergs aground
in the straits of Belle Isle, one of the
outlets of the gulf of st. Lawrence.
"Everything considered the loss of
vessels on account of ice is not nearly
so great as might be reasonably ex-
pected. Still there have been some
queer cases. In 1841 a big ice island
was seen Just off to the east of st.
Johns, newfoundland. Very near the
center of the island and bedded be-
tween two big hills of ice were two
ships, their masts gone and not sign
of life appearing. They may have
been there for years and you can find
plenty of old sailors to-day who be-
lieve them to have been part of Sir
COuh Ciduhllu cApSulllOu. mere
was IA German ship named Hansa that
went to pieces on an ice island and
the crew took refuge on the ice, built
a hut of wreckage and spent eight
months drifting around on their ice
island. When discovered they had
drifted way down to Al N, although
the ship struck the ice somewhere in
the fifties.
Sometimes icebergs are met in the
middle of the Atlantic, and several
ships have reported that they stopped
and killed seals that were found on
the ice. In crossing from here to Eng
land the big ocean racers take the
most southerly course possible, and in
that way avoid the ice. OF course in
some months :he ice is so solid that
little gets adrift, and then the ordi-
nary northern course is pretty safe,
but from March to August you are
likely to see ice way down in the roll
ing forties. The fastest passages made
by the Oregon and Etruria have been
made on southerly tracks"