Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-06-05
SAILING THROUGH ICE
EXPERIENCES OF A JOuRNEYACROSS
NORTHUMBERLAND

s.TNt6l$A1o W oSSb'\1 NStSSS
NORTHUMBERLAND.
1t q Speed of Ten Knots an Hour
Through Miles Of Thick Ioe-value Of
Two Big Water Tight Compartments.
Mr.. L. A. Currey has returned from q
trip to Prince Edward island, and accord
ing to his account, such a trip is one of the
most interesting and novel imaginable.
He is full of it, and to hear him tell of the
ice cutting achievements of the
government steamer Stanley would almost
induce one to start off at once to enjoy a
trip across Northumberland strait. I'VE
were about three days going across from
Pictou to Georgetown" said Mr.. Currey,
land we had a splendid opportunity of see
ing how communication is kept up in win
ter between Prince Edward island and the
mainland, rs required under the terms Of
confederation.
Until about three years ago, as you
know, communication with the island in
winter was kept up by the steamer Northern
Light. She was built of greenheart, and
was very strong, but as she could only run
through loose. broken ice and pick her way
among the drifting field ice in the strait
she was unable to approach either shore
nearer than the edge of the board ice or
the solid ice along the coasts would per !
nit. This board ice is generally about
the thickness of the ice in the river St.
John-probably from a foot to three feet
and during the winter months it extends
out about four miles from the Pictou
shore and eight or ten miles from the
shore of the island.
"When the Northern Light was run
ming she had to be met at the edge of the
ice ON either side of the strait by teams,
which transferred the passengers, mails
and freight to the shore, and an old res
ident of Pictou, who had great faith in the
achievements. of science and the progress of
the Nineteenth. century, was laughed at
when he prophesied that within a few
years a steamer would be built that could
make the complete passage from shore to
shore. The idea seemed we'll nigh impossi-
bic, but the old mans prophetic dream has
been realized much sooner than even he
could have believed possible, and the Same
captain which ran the greenheart North
ern Light from ice to ice now runs the
steel Stanley from shore to shore.
E SPEED NECESSARY.
Auc oUdulCy was VI especially lOk
| this service by the Dominion government.
She is necessarily very strongly constructed
of steel, the plates being of great thickness.
She has Il sharp bow, and is wedge shaped
on the bottom. When you see her lying at
the wharf, surrounded by solid ice, which,
as I said, extends for several miles from
the shores, you would think that there was
no chance for her to move. But she is fit
ted with triple expansion engines of great
power, and when these begin to whirl the
heavy screw propeller the ice has to give
way before her.
SIN a little while she gets up quite a speed,
and, cutting, crashing and cronching
through the solid ice, turning burrows
sometimes up and sometimes down, the
steamer proceeds on her voyage, very
quickly working her way out to the clear
water, or to the part of the strait where the
heavy field ice drifts down from the Gulf
Of St. Lawrence. 1t is here that she ex
periences the most difficulty, or it may be
said the onk' difficulty in making her regu-
lar trips, for while she cuts through the
solid board ice steadily at the rate of al
most ten knots an hour, her progress is
often greatly impeded by the heavy drift
ice, which is often fifteen to twenty feet
deep in the water, and which therefore in
%terferes with the working Of the propeller.
THE Stanley sometimes gets wedged
into a field of this heavy drift ice and has
to drift along with it for some time before
she can force her way out, and it was on
account of trouble of this kim that we had
to spend three days going across. We got
over one Wednesday, and the steamer
made up one of the lost runs by making a
roundt trip over and back next day.
BREAKING MILES oF ICE.
The distance is about forty miles from
Pictou to Georgetown, and the trip is q
most interesting one under any circum-
stances, for the steamer has splendid pas
senger accommodation, and the way she
cuts her way through the ice is the most
wonderful thing you ever saw. 1t makes
quite Il roaring sound and some little vi
bration, u not enough to make one fee.
uncomfortable.
"You can form the best idea of what sh&
| is capable of doing in the way of running
through ice when l tell you that the Stan
ley's captain asserted confidently that he
could run his steamer up the St. John river
in mid winter at the rate of about ten knots
an hour. A winter stea1ner service between
St. John and Fredericton would be a nov
city. wouldn't it? But there is no necessity
III / DIS OucIo Il III Iuo SeEVlCo SUpplleu ny
the Stanley.
Another interesting feature about this
wonderful steamer is the way in which she
is arranged for breaking her way out Of
the heavy field of ice. AT the stern of tho
steamer is a large water tight compart-
ment. When she gets stuck in ice that is
so thick and strong that she can't cut her
way through it, the water is let into this
compartment, so that the stern of the
steamer sinks enough to raise her bow out
of water.
"Then steam is put on, and she runs her
bow right out upon the ice and brushes it
under her. Where the pressure is not suf-
fcient in this way the powerful pumps are
set at work, II in a few hours tons upon
tons of water from the stern compart-
ment are transferred to a like ompart
ment in the bow, and this pumping kept
up till with the combined weight of the
steamer and the water in the bow COM
partment the ice is forced to give way, and
with the commotion raised in the water by