The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1895-05-24
LIFTED BY AN ICEBERG.
A Ship Raised Bodily Out of the Water BY
a Mountain of Ice.

Mountain of Ice.
Strange stories of thrilling encount-
ers with icebergs have been brought
back from the Arctics by shippers
from time to time, but they must all
take back seat now and bow low to
Capt Chester, of the schooner Elwcod.
The Elwood lately returned from her
first halibut fishing cruise in the north
ern waters. She left here on January
"a, in ballast, but in order to pick up
an honest dollar on the voyage, put
into Departure bay and took on car
go of coal for Juneau. Alaska. After
discharging at the latter place, she
headed for the Muir glacier, the pur-
pose being to load the hold with ice,
with which to preserve the fish to be
caught later on. The vessel was pass
ing through the icy straits and was
just off Hoonia, says Capt. Chester,
when he espied an immense iceberg
about mile away. 1t was fully ten
times the size of the schooner and APP
peared to have become fast upon reef
which was known to exist at that
place. The captain considered this
lucky find. for he could now get all
the ice he wanted without having to
go to the glacier, fully days sailing
distant. The Elwood was headed for
the berg, and when the vessel was
within a few yards of it the anchor
was dropped. The schooner was then
permitted to swing around until she
came alongside the iceberg, to which
she was made fast with lines.
The tide was at the full at the time,
and to all appearances the vessel was
perfectly safe. A gang plank was
thrown over to ledge in the ice, and
the men set to work to break off huge
chunks of the berg and hoist them
aboard the vessel. All went well un-
til along toward evening. About thir-
ty tous of ice had been deposited in the
hold, and Chester encouraged the men
to work little faster, as he desired to
get the entire load and leave as soon
as possible. Meanwhile the tide had
been falling, which caused the iceberg
to settle heavily upon the reef beneath
and then to gradually tip over toward
the side opposite the vessel. The gang
plank connecting the schooner with
the iceberg began to rise in the air and
had to be made fast to ledge nearer
the water in order to keep it hori-
zontal.
The iceberg continued TO careen. and
Capt. Chester began to suspect that all
was not going to be we'll for him. He
ordered his men to get aboard and
was about to set sail when, with
grinding roar, the iceberg rolled off
the reef and started to revolve. Imme-
diately there arose on the starboard
side of the vessel, and beneath it, a
Jagged spur of ice. which until then
had formed the bottom of the iceberg.
With crash the ice struck the keel.
The next instant the astonished crew
found themselves and their vessel
lifted out of the water and resting in
sort of groove or cradle at the south
end of the ice mountain. 1t was
panic-inspiring predicament, to say the
least, and all hands began to pray for
their lives.
The weight of the vessel arrested the
revolution of the berg, but did not have
the effect of turning it back again to
its original position. The reef pre-
vented this.
Chester ordered his men into the
boats, with instructions to get out OF
harms way as fast as they could. Be-
fore abandoning the vessel the mate
cut the lines which held her to the ice
berg. The men then pulled away to
safe distance, and anxiously awaited
the fate of the Elwood. The anchor
l.o1l foe+ o,.J +ba coboopar nc If real
izing its plight, and desiring to escape,
rugged at the cham despairingly. The
tide dropped few more inches, the
iceberg careened still further, and the
Elwood rose still higher into the air.
Although at first thought this condi-
ton seemed to render her condition
still more desperate, it really proved
the schooner's salvation. The ten
dency of the iceberg to roll over and
raise the vessel brought such an enorm-
GUS strain TO bear upon the anchor
chain that something had to give way.
Something did, and to the JOY OF the
fishermen it was not the anchor or the
chain. The iceberg lurched, and the
schooner was seen to slide several feet
along the crevice it rested in. There
was another lurch and another slide.
Then the vessel reached a downward
grade, and the next instant shot off the
iceberg and into the sea bows on, like
a rocket. She shipped heavy sea, an
the result of plunging her nose be-
meath the surface, but quickly righted,
and, after stumbling over her anchor
chain and Juggling viciously to get
away, settled down to her original
state of tranquility, to all appearances
unhurt--San Francisco Chronicle.