New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-12-27
COMPASSES FROZEN SOLID.
ROUGH EXPERIENCE OF THE AUREsTrNA
PY wINTRY sTORMS-MORE ICE-CovERED
SLIPS COME INTO PORT.

people concerned with shipping, being dry COL
lection Of sailing dates, but to-day 1t mas
story to tell in the shape of long list OF Dig
ocean steamships which are overdue. Weather
that can delay big ships like the Umbria. Fulda,
Citv of Berlin and Normandic must be bad
weather indeed and that it is bad is witnessed
by the appearance Of the ships that have arrived
here and the stories told by their officers and
pas.cngers. As a rule, he who wishes TO thinK
we'll Of his fellow-nans vcracity is panied ny
learning that some oh seanIen have had the
toughest and most thrilling voyage they ever
experienced whenever they come into port Blu
all scamen are not like this and the captains OF
hig ocean liners especially prefer reporting good
or fair voyages. for they know that it VIII nos
20 TO flighten away intending passengers There
fore when they report rough weather ana say
that they had a bad voyage. it is safe 70
believe it.
Since last Saturday comparatively few ships
have arrived here and those that have como In
are all more or less damaged by fierce storms
or the ships which were dne ard overdue yes
terdav the only big passenger ship TO arrive was
tie City Of Rerln. and she should have com" III
on Sunday Captain Thompson had great soy
70 tell Of hor trip. during which rails ard veh'i-
lo+ors and a lifeboat were smashed. but the most
remarkable and strange story OF moving ah'e'-
lures and Arctic experience was bronght III ny
CAPTAIN John Gavin. who went down 10 the sea
in n shin called the Laurestina. She Is Briti1h
tramp steamship. and was simply one unsnhp"V
mass Of ice Something happened to her wi'lch
doesn't banpcn 70 many SLIPS even in the regions
of Polar ice Her three compassfs. thc pis
standard and the two steering compasses were
frozap solid and rendered useless. and the cop
tain SAYS he only managed to bring his ship 10
mort nv steering by the wind and calcnlaflnS
70 hit the broad side Of America somewhere
The City OF Berlin the ship which was
most anxionsly awaited. She sailed from
Iivornool on December II with thirty
ofaht frst-cabin, 10 second-cabin and lo3
storage passengers on board, anu lroni
the time she left Queenstown till she was sigh""
off Fire Island she met gale after gale which
mocked all the efforts Of her big engines. IL
took her II days, hours and 10 minutes 70
make tho trip and her record Of daily runs was
3Os, 500, 2s7, 232, ll3, 22l. 23l, PA, 2s4' 22'
and 2a2 miles That record shows what weather
she had to contend with. Gales and head seas,
gales and beam seas, gales and seas from all dl-
rcctions and intense unbearably cold weather
made the VOYAGE a miserable one. Her passen-
GERS were kent below. and it was bad enough even
there On deck it was terrible. Water that froze
as il struck her, seas that washed everything
Z
never stopped Blowing gave her crew hard
tussle The men had 70 he relieved at short in
toryals for no human being could remain exposed
long. She GOT along without serious accident,
however till December 49, Al IL o'clock than
morning n fearful sea arose 10 starbcard and
rushed upon the ship. 1t overwhelmed her COM
pletcly. and shook her rs if she had struck q
rock And when the water rushed over the other
side of the ship il bore with il the wreck OF the
lfoboat amidshps and left three of the big venti-
lotors bent as if they had been cardboard The
vessel had TO slow up. of and on all that day and
for several days afterward. 1t was then that she
made the record of ll3 miles for twenty-four
hours. an average Of a little less than five miles
an hour Two days before she arrived she was
complet-ly covered with ice but yesterday much
of il had vanished. and there only remained some
on her bow ard amidships, and thin coating on
the mas;s.
The Umbria. one of the Cunard Lines big ships.
should have been in port on Sunday. No fear
il felt for her. but the terrible weather at sea
makes her agents here extremely desirous that
she should come in She sailed from Liverpool
on December IL The North German Lloyd steam
ship Fulla, which sailed from Gibraltar on De-
cembcr IA, was due here Saturday, and her
AGENTS also are anxious 10 see her come in. IL
is not pleasant to have liners overdue even IL
70 fears are felt for them,
Looking like one of Dorc's illustrations for
The Ancient Mariner iced up from mast to
keel. there came into the NarrOws yesterday morn
ING an iceberg which was the steamship Laurestina
when she started on her winter voyage. Her
.hrouds and rope. and masts and decks and Prov
were hidden in ice. The forward mast espc-
cally YVES thickly coated with IT, the ice rising
from the bow 10 the top of the mast like great
hill. The only thing on the whole ship which
had no ice on it was the funnel. which rose DacS
and gloomy out Of whteness 50 wonderful anC
dazzling that il reflected the sun with pllnulna
glare. ,.,, .., .,.h; q,
300 tons and sail q from Bremen on December
: and Shields on December C. She has "A crew
of tventy-three men. aGd her captain said yester-
day: She made bad weather from the tnne we
sticL our nos, out OF port till we struck Bedlows
Island We ran against solid walls OF water, and
I can't eXarCerate tho terrible fury Of the storms.
In my experience of twenty-Seven years at sea l
have never seen anything like 1t, ana nope
never nav again. On last Friday she ran into
gale compared with which the preceding weather
had been hke 4 dead calm: he ship was then
blew and showed, the waves ran mountains high,
and the weather became deadly cold Then the
tiinr hopponcd which even Clark Russell never
irsoired in his most daring sea story. The COM
r,.scs froze solid. When this report was heard
hv the seafaring folk downtown yesterday there
was a mild sensation. for ships compasses are
does not freeze when il is pure. The cap
tains story i. that while the !aurestina
was rolling crafty in the biz, seas the second
officer made his way down TO the captains cabin
and reported that the compasses were frozen
solid Captain Gavin was astounded and re-
fn,od 10 believe it. but the mate insisted that
it was true and the captain followed him on
dock There hc found the wncem"n looking
helnlessly at the necdle. which was immovable
and frozen fast In proof of hi. assertion Cap
tain Gavin yesterday showed the three compasses.
which he said he had kept in his cabin since 8
o'cock Yesterday morning They were still
frozen and covered outside with ice. Through
The glass could be seen the disks and needles,
which were immovab!e, ard no amount OF shaking
or twisting had any effect on them.
The ROYAL Dutch steamship Prns Maurits came
in Yesterday all iced up and looking as II
gic,ntic t,liow candle had been melted over Ter.
Sb. .trucly = I~rcr hurricane with terribly cold
weather, on Christina. Day. in the Gulf stream
Captain Lewis, Of the British steamship
Archmedcs lad story TO tell. also. though he