Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-30
NO |CE-BREAKERS
What Usually Happens When
New York is Ice-Bound.
RATE OF $500 AN HOUR
CHARGED BY THE TUG OWNERS
TO LIBERATE BOATS.
Peril of the Men Who Are Caught IN
Ice Floes That Are Miles
in Extent.
RATE OF $500 AN HOUR
Copyright. 1904, by T. c. Mcclure9

Copyright 1904, by T. C. McClure)
Written fer The Evening Star by Alfred Miner
New York is a great city, but IL Is peihii'
Russia in one thing, at least
II is the second biggest port IN lhe "'ii'
and il hasn't an ice breaker in us ehlii
water area from Sandy Hook to the lifill
of tidewater far up the Hudson river.
Every winter New York's fleets are fceo
I'D for a time; and then the harbor presents
scenes like the old wood engraVlngs SNOW
ing an arctic scene full of ice ana ships
picturesqueIy placed in precarious positions
in prominent parts of the iciest parts OF the
picture.
Then. when transatlantic liners and
barges and ferryboats and scoWs anu
swearing tugboats are all locked ano
interlocked. and everywhere from the sky
scrapers the eve can see black hulls stick
ing boDelesslv fast in white foes. marine
New York vows that before next winter II
will possess an ice-breaking ship that shaii
Ermack the Russians ErMack' anu
keen the harbor open.
Rnt fine snrjng comes and the ice disap-
pears without the aid of an ice breaker aliu
the next winter seems so far away. anu
presently the frost comes ana turns NE
white key once more ana locks We" III
up neatly. 49,
1t is a delightful situation for the tug
boat.
The New York tugboat wasn't built to De
an ice breaker but then she wasn't buli'
for most of the uses to which she IS de-
voted by her captain and owners, with
simple faith in her timbers and eng mes.
So the New York tugboat becomes an ice
fields mass themselves around nfteen OF
twenty miles of city shore. Sometimes, IN
deed they become ice maSSefs, II one
can believe everything that may be heard
"a "a -
a raYing skipper, who has just paid from
$50 TO 500 to tug to extrlcate MIN from
the ice Iaments aloud and buys drinks 1or
all who would hear his tale OF the piraucal
Sea.
Not Easy to Scare.
The foe never was big enough yet to
scare a New York tug boat. A bobbing
thirty-foot tug will butt hopefully at
bOOo-foot foe, splitting at it like wild cat
A miserable little runt of tug that con-
sists of nothing except a smokestack and
screech will hurl itself at field that holds
a two-story house of a ferry boat tightly
in its cold grip; and the ferryboatful or
passengers will yell ''Hurrah!' for they
know the capabilities of the choleric little
craft.
Smash. and the little tug bounds back
ward like a rubber ball. Smash! and the
foe complains just a little. Hoo. hoo,
hoo.'' Smash. and quick eye can see
black water show for just an instant
through a mOmentary crack in the foe.
e. And then, Smash! Rip! Bangl and the
tug is showing foe and ferry boat bodily
along, till the outfit begins to come apart.
Now, when a 200-foOt steamship, full of
vanity and pride, starts to go down to the
sea and pleasantly stops quite dead and
still. with q half mile or of blocks of ice
neatly fitted around her, the tug that can
cut out a way for her is worth ready money
on the spot, and the knights Grant of the
harbor know ii.
So there is race against tide time and
foe to tackle that big ship.
Sometimes the tugs are so eager that
they butt one another instead of the foe.
ramming head first like stays. till one wins
way in.
Then the captain of the big ship counts
some of his money for the last time
Five hundred dollars" said one tug cap
tain 10 a ship off the Erie Basin.
NO" replied the captain with the in
dignation of the thrifty Scandinavian when
applied to for large sums on the naie
Very well. Hoot. Tooti' replied the
tugboat man.
Looked Worth the Price.
He went away ostensibly-very ostensi-
bly,; and the ice foes looked appalingly
thick and large when he began to disappear
There was no other tug around. The cap
tain of the big ship scanned the foes He
scanned the tug. He decided with a sigh
that the foe was $500 thick
And in one hour that tug had the ship
out of her tight berth. in which she couldn t
move an inch with all her mighty engines
The tug is as ingenious and divers in its
ways OF breaking ice as il is in all its other
concerns of life.
Sometimes It butts Sometimes IL smashes
into foes with the screw Sometimes il
hammers them and splits them open-a
Ratchet striking with the force of a loco
motive and making split half mile long
sometimes II viii lie against foe and
chue -chug peacefully and contentedIy till
the foe makes up It's mind to move on
But funniest OF all is 1t when the tug
hurts itself on the top of a field of ice and
falls through il.
Nothing but a New York tug could do n
or would IL it could
First, all the water tanks in the stern
are pumped fun till the tug sticks up in
the air III front like a classic horse. The
engine begins TO spiutter and weep and the
boiler threatens every moment to burst
With whoop the rampant tug charges
the foe, rears. bucks and jumps on top of
1T -
Floes sink under the sliding bow. Floes
uprear On each side. Cracks zigzae i'm all
corrections And when the tug settles again
she is In the midst of bobbing tumbIine
splfntered mass of what just before was
solid ice
But even tug cannot always beat a foe
One Fine Old Floe.
There was fine old foe one day that
came majesticaliy down the Hudson. and
slid gently and smoothly into the swirl OF
meeting tides off the Battery. In a trice
Il had blocked the passage
Then the tug boat Scandinavian came