New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-17
WINTER TRAGEDIES.
Those Which Occur to Vessels on
the North atlantic.


lsntc there is a record Of shipping disasters 10
chronicle and for weeks afterward anxiety pre-
walls overdue steamers until they are given
Up lost. The exceptional severity OF the present
season has prepared ship owners Tor series Of
calHmities Ear exceeding any recent years while,
now that the mighty northern icepack is invading
tie liner routes beyond the Grand Banks, repetl-
siou 81 mysterious dlssppearances. like that Of the
7Saronic. IL 1889 and of the HurOnian. in 1902 Is
wellnight Inevitable among the fleets OF cargo car
r1crs traverging tbe great road during this
perilous period
The extent and solldity OF the foes which over
spread the western ocean and Grand Banks this
winter outrival the crystal plains sighted In any
recent season. sheeting the vast watery floor Tor
thousands Of square miles with gttering coverlet
more dangerous for the modern steel built shell
than any encounter with gale or bilow. The Ice IS
swept past the Newfoundland coast daily, ana
reaches even past the southern banks. while winds
and currents disperse it over the ocean until ships
meet il three hundred and four hundred miles from
land Woe betde the craft that strikes II! The Ice
scores her sides crumples her unoerbody often
sending her swiftly 10 the bottom with every soul
on board.
II was IN the winter OF 1928 that the Naronic the
crack White Star fregfter. LEFT Liverpool for New
York. She nearly new. in prime condition. and
her $500 tons OF register represented the best
science could devise in those days. Even * she
had met any mishap she should have been sighted
or got 10 some haven within a month. but save for
q Hfeboat. empty and aGrifs in midocean weeks
later nothing Of her has ever since been found
Nine years later. at the same season and under
similar circumstances she Allan liner Huronian left
Glasgow for St. Johns and vanished as completely
from human ken Both were splendid craft In
first class order and Of class that safely traverses
these waters every day
There Is At present in harbor here the steamer
POLYNESIA. OF the FUruess Line. with cavity g
feet by in her bows, the result OF contact with
low lying ice mass. blow from which a few feet
further art would have shattered two compart-
TrHau hrw
crew had a most desperate experience in endeavor-
ing to get her 10 land. She beset with gales
and frosts I'll the ice formed three feet thick on
her decks. and only that the wind blew her toward
the Newfoundland coast she could never have
made a harbor. Last winter the Warwick and the
Alala made their way into St Johns in February
ard March with fractured sterns and SIDES and
not q winter passes without several steamers ind
sng shelter here with similar infirmities.
No less terrible than the danger from fee IN mid
winter IS that from monster waves, apparently
weighted with frosty scum that Increases the
density q the water and makes the onslaught Of
OF them doubly destructive to the ship they at
tack. on January the big French liner La Savoie
was submerged forward by one OF these huge
combers. which smashed hole through her fore
most bulkhead twelve feet across and high enough
10 admit trolley car, crumpling UP stout stan
chions rails and steel plates and stove in her side
also. the oncoming food making complete wreck
OF the main saloon. and then. sweeping into the
dining room below. among the passengers then at
luncheon, flooded that apartment knee deep and
cent the gathering panicstricken to the decks.
thinking she was about TO be engulfed.
Shortly before that the Cunarder Cmbria came
safely through a somewhat similar experience.
Her promenade deck was badly damaged by a large
save ore night and the next morning another big
sea boarded her about the place, wreckng
the captains stateroom and the chart house. de-
Etroyfng nautical instruments and steering gear,
invading the saloon and swapping the berth deck.
THE Allan liner PretOrian too. in February, was
fourteen days in crossing from Liverpool to Hall
fax. having had her steam pipes and steering gear
oismantled by breaking which flung its hun
oreds OF tons OF water over her and left her help
less when they wreaked their fury Before the
season passes there viii be many more cases 10
chronicle Of steamships staggering into port Grip
pied from their fierce battles with the waves. as
did the Chimborazo in 1850. which took in one soil
tary but colossal that swept away in the twink
ling OF eye seven boats. the smoking room. the
saloon companion ana everything movable on deck
o. the Austrian. in 1890 which was popped by one
and had a quartermaster killed, a deckhouse de-
Etroyed. bulkhead stove in. and her rudder head
and spare steering wheel torn away bodily.
Thrilling. however, are the adventures OF the
ships that survive such encounters with natures
most violent outbreaks, they be only trivial
compared with the stories that are never recorded
cUmh, OF the doomed men VINO line their decks
and vanish IN the oceans depths as the waves over
whelm them. In the last week in January. 1901
70 fewer than ten cargo boats left ports on the
Eastern coast Of The United States for British and
european ports ana Were never heard Of after
ward Beng only freight steamers, though they
ranged in size from two thousand 10 forty-eght
hundred tons. and few the American British. Dutch
than a disaster or even serious accident to a pas
Henger vessel But the claims OF humanity would
awaken wider response II IL were generally known
that over five hundred persons lost their lives in
this series Of disasters. They neither sunk
In collisions nor stranded q coast and therefore
from he Combined e-Fecfs ~ no.nSinr va Ites
grinding foes and Gripping frosts in the narrow,
peril strewn region Of the Grand Banks.
1--WE hundred men IN one week. But each recGring ing
winter ADDS Its quota TO the long catalogue OF
ships that have been blotted out OF existence in
these ice laden waters without leaving
tel how they came TO their end A study OF the
Mhoie SITUATION compels the appalling conclusion
ShsI the assurance N the public mind as to the
2s not Wei founded " nile the pressure OF trafhc
ana competition requires the building OF swift,
and seaworthy ships. well equipped and humanely
perfect Tor passenger conveyance. there is such
These are built shallow. that many ports may be
entered without the expense Of Tightening: In
tage over shallow one but the latter type can,
via smaller oraHght OF water carry heavier car
goes. and this means a saving OF money the
owners An initial saving is Effected in the con-
be made sufficiently strong to resist the unpleas-
ant and Injurious Earring OF the machinery. a con-
passenger boat Nor is speed primary considera
s on ~ aLsehter' SO me rolling Jarring, shallow
safety. Steel moreover, is used almost exclusively
- pe ig tese ships ltstead OF the iron frames
lighter and thinner than the harder and more dura-
Die ones. and the experience OF every unbiased
authority is that the latter under the same CIR
cuinstances can more successfully stand the same
But strange 10 relate. most marine underwriters
give the preference 20 steel steamers. because when
than iron ones. though Curing her life the ocean
49, neT ao5ity 70 maintain conflict with the
y she Is out OF steel fer II rendeXs her unit for
dangerous waters like the ice zone OF the North
Atlantic IL addition this recent British leeis-
lation has relaxed the stringency OF the laws To
d II