The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-23
CRASHING INTO AN ICEBERG.
The Beacon Lights Thrilling Encounter
in Mid-Ocean.
From the Ne,O York sun.


From the NeI0 York sun.
One of the crystal apparltions that have
been familiar TO high latitude navigators
for the last six months came pretty near
wrecking the brand new oil steamship
Beacon Light early on last Thursday MORN
ing. She arrived here on Monday right
with her starboard bow battered, her fore
castle head crushed in, and water gushing
through broken places in her steel hull.
The Beacon Light left Newcastle-on-Ty Tyne
fresh from the hands of her builders, Sir
William Armstrong & Co., on May 3, with
several thousand toas of water ballast in
her oil tanks. Like all freighters of her
class she took a route more northerly than
that usually followed by passenger steam
ships to shorten her VOYAGE and save coal
The weather was fair until Wednesday
night, when the ship entered fog bank
of great density. Capt. Elliot knew by
the pilot chart of the photographic
office that he was in a neighbor-
hood where les had been reported.
speed, and the fog whistle sounded
Internationally. A big electric reflector
light at the foremost head pierced the gray
vapor nearly 20] feet. There was no air
stirring and the sea was calm The temper
ature of the water was taken at brief inter
walls and revealed no signs OF the nearuess
of ice. At midnight the water thermome-
ter registered "a. The ship was then in
latitude 49, So, longitude 4S' IS Twenty
minutes later the lookout on the forecastls
head shouted to Capt. Elliot and Mate
George Chase, who were on the flying
bridge: --,S----
Light right ahead, sir"
The captain and the mate peered into the
gloom and saw what at first seemed to be,
the mate says, huge white cloud rolling
down upon the ship. That it was some
thing else became quickly apparent when
the lookout deserted his post and ran aft as
fast as his legs could carry him. The
captain at second glance knew that if he
did not quickly alter his course he would
run hard into towering berg nearly as big
above the surface of the sea as the New
York postoffice, and with a submerged
foundation of about coo feet Mate Chase
says the captains face blanched. aud he ex-
claimed:
my God, that's iceI'
The tremer of fear was only momentary.
Instantly following the exclamation came
the order to the helmsman:
"Hard-a-starboard, for your life, my
ladl"
The captain was as cool now as the i'm
pending mass of snow-white ice. He
quickly ordered the mate to signal the en-
gineer to stop and reverse his engines. All
this was done within few seconds, but not
soon enough to avoid collision with the
giant berg, the magnitude and awful
ness OF which seemed to be increased by
the glamor of the. big electric
light. The mate wildly recalls the outlines
of the monster. 1t was floating broadside
in a northeasterly direction, and the Beacon
Light was steering nearly southwest. 1t
had two peaks that glistened under the glare
of the foremost head lantern. Its south
easterly end was adorned with a crystallil re
cornice projecting fifteen feet beyond the
body of the berg. The Beacon Light would
have hit the berg about in the centre but
for the ig thing work of her cool COM
mander. As 1t was, she struck the south
easterly end a glancing blow just under the
cornice, which was loosened by the shock
and fell with the roar of an avalanche into
the sea and on the sterboard side of the
forecastle head of the steamship. Fifty
tons of ice struck the forecastle head,
crushed a big hole in the deck forward
tore down the iron rail, and smashed and
twisted dozen steel plates at the sJarboard
bow. Big blocks of ice that had fallen into
the sea and sank deep under the momentum
of the descent from the top of the berg,
came rushing to the surface again and
struck the bottom of the ship with such
force that she was lifted ten feet. Her
firemen and engineers ran on deck il a
panic of flight. The ship was forced on
her beam ends by the weight of ice on her
starboard side and the uplifting power OF
the ice under her. She backed away from
the berg and quickly righted.
The crew began clearing away the two
life-boats amidships. The kissing of all
from the cock of an empty tank indicated
that the ice that had come up under the
ship had started plates in the bottom, and
that water was coming IN. All the empty
tanks were sounded and not enough water
found to cause alarm. The fright of the
crew diminished. All hands were put t.
work clearing the Ice away. This done
the vessel proceeded slowly. Water was
found coming into the several tanks which
contained water ballast and one empty
tank. The steam pumps were started and
kept the ship In good sailing shape until she
got to Sandy Hook.
An examination of the hold yesterday
showed that several of the upright steel
frames of the ship had been bent ike be W
by the tremendous force of the ice that
struck the bottom. She was leaking in
half dozen places. she will be put into
dry dock and repaired before she carries Il
cargo of oil back to her owners. Stuart q
Co. of Liverpool. She is one of the finest
oil-carrying craft in the world. She meas
ures 2, 40 tons net, is 332 feet long, 40 feet
beam, and % feet deep. She can carry
1900 tons Of oil.
BROWNSVILLE TOPICS.