Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-01-24
Altar ON IcEeERos.
He Spins Some Interesting Yarns
About Ono of the Great Dangers
of MldoCean

TIC SplnS some interesting arms
About Ono of the Great Dangers
of Mldooean.
Out on one Of the long docks just below
Wall street ferry heavily bearded, rather
well-to do-loolSing man stood the other day
looking up into the rigging of a big ship.
rays the New York Mah and Express. He
wns an old sailor, having, as he said,
"crawled in the hawespipe and come out at
the cabin windows" which being translated
meant that he had worked himself up from
before the mast 70 the masters berth.
All Of sudden he shifted rather eagerly
In the rather damp, misty air. The reporto-
rial nose could only family trace tho Hunt
er's Point aroma that haunts the river, but
the sailor had caught Whit of something
else
"Do you know" said he, 81 thought 1
smelled an iceberg just then. A. sea in high
latitudo5 you can smell them miles away
and many night have kept all hands on
deck smiling and peering around on the
watch for field ice or berg3. 1 tell you it is
no fun to have half dozen icebergs loafing
around when your ship is lodging nine or
ten knots straight OF the reel and you are in
such hurry TO make passage that you
don't want 10 shorten sail"
The scent had awakened a train Of mem
Dry, and, seating himself on ono Of the dock
piles, he took largesized chew of plug
and settled himself 10 talk about fold ice
and bergs.
~ was for nearly twenty years master Of
O deep-sea ship" began the old shellback,
land have doubled both Cape Horn and
Cape Of Good Hope more times than have
leo. The bergs down there arc not so lofty
or so beautiful as those in arctic regions,
but they are much more dangerous; first, 10
cause Of their number fnd extent, and again
because they have submarine formations
that are just like ledge of rocks and project
sometimes half a mile or mile out from the
base Of the berg. You see, 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 81 S. and "A w, almost tho track OF
the English Liverpool beats bound to Mol
bourne. 1t was in 1853 that it was first
sighted, and the same chunk Of ice was re
portel from that vicinity Until 1855 when it
disappeared. II was said to have been
about $50 feet high. 60 miles long and 40
miles wide, and was curved very much the
shape OF "A horse shoe. The TWO arms OF the
curves embraced a bay forty miles across
md perfectly sheltered. A big English en-
g ant ship called tic Guiding Star, l think,
sighted the ice island. but whether because
OF fog or carele5SneSS, nobody knows sal cd
slap into the bay botw en- he arms of the
IL and and was lost with all bands. Pieces
Of Ecr wrcckaGe were picked near the island
by steamer bound for Australia.
"The highest be:g l ever heard OF was
seen in the Southern ocean. where they are
not generally very LOFTY. l sailed with q
man who declared that no had seen this
berg and that it was loo feet high above
the surface OF the water. Now as there is
always nine times as much OF berg below
the water as there is above, that would
make this telo 5000 feet from the base
under water = the highest po.nt above.
That's pre.ty big chunk Of ice. consider
ing that it is over fiftv times as high as the
Brooklyn bridge. III bet il made splash
when IL fell! That's where the danger is.
In warm attitudes the base me!ts 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 hav-
ing her mates carried away and seYeral Of
her crew killed.
Northern bergs are neither so large nor
81 numerous as those seen in southern wa
ters, but they are usually loftier and more
DSdNbllul, WIN lObS Oh spires ana comes,
and when the sun shines on them they
look like lot OF raiubows piled on top Of
each other. These fellows are tall and
draw a lot OF water. 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 Baf-
fms bay hard aground in 800 feet of Wa
ter.
"Some years there is much more ice than
usual. heard man who had run on
ship named the Swanton say that they saw
over 100 iccbergs in a single pas
sage in 1912. and most of them were in
about 43 north and about 80 west-that is,
less than 600 miles about cast northeast
from Governors island. The Swanton had
q hard time getting through the feet of
bergs, and passed between two that were so
close that she had 70 brace her yards sharp
UP for fear she would get caught. In 1888,
there were plenty Of icebergs, and last
spring or the year before the steamer Con-
cordia reported having seen over fifty ice
bergs aground in the straights Of Belle Isle,
one Of the outlets Of the gulf Of St Law
renee.
Everything considered the loss of vessels
on account OF ice is not nearly so great as
might be reasonably expected. Still there
have been some queer cases, In 1871 big
ice island was seen just or TO the cast of st.
Johns, Newfoundland. Very near the CEN
ter of the island and bedded between two
big hills of Ice were two ships, their masts
gone and not sign OF lie appearing. They
may have Deen there for wears and YOU can
find plenty Of old sailors today who believe
them 90 have been part Of Sir John Frank
Inns expedition. There was q German ship
named Hapsa that went TO pieces on an ice
Island and the crew took refuge on the ice,
built hut out Of wreckaye and spent eight
months drifting around on their ice island.
When discovered they had drifted way
down 10 d N, although tho ship struck tho
ice somewhere in the ffties
Sometimes icebergs are met in the middle
ported that they stopped and killed seals
that were found on the ice. In crossing from
here 10 England the big ocean racers take
the most southerly course possible, and in
that way avoid the ice OF course in some
months the ice is so solid that little gets
adrift, and then the ordinary northern
course is pretty safe, but from March TO
August you are likely TO see ice way down
in the rolling forSes. Tho fastest passages