Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-05-04
LINERS IN THE ICE
Transatlantic Steamers ImpriS- Oned Between NeWfOund-
 land and Cape Breton
SITUATION IS SERIOUS

Halifax, N. S., May 4.-Ihfee large trans Atlantic liners are believed to be imprisoned in the vast ice field that completed block Cabot strait, be tween Newfoundland and Cape Bre- ton, and other liners in the Montreal and St Larence service have been forced to land passengers and freight in this port after intellectual at, tempts to pierce the impenetrable barrier.
 The Allen line steamer Sardinian' Captain Near, from London and Havre for Montreal, which was forced into this port yesterday to land her six hundred passengers reports that imbedded in the ice fields he could see two large steamers. One was the Allen liner Unitarian from London for Montreal and a four masted Domin- lon liner which Captain Near thought was the Vancouver, which sailed for Montreal from Liverpool on April 70, the same day which the Unitarian left London. Both of these powerful ships, Captain Near reported were helpless and moving only with the uncertain motion of the ice fields. He was unable to see the Allan line steamer Ionian which is also believed to be fast in the ice. Ionian arrived here April 27 from Liverpool which port she left April IS, and ,sailed from here on the 2Sth for Quebec with a thousand passengers on board. She has not since been reported. and it is thought that she, too, must be at the mercy of the ice fields somewhere in the Gulf of St Lawrence. The fields stretch across Cabot strait for dis tance of little over fifty miles. and to add to the dangers of navigation thick fog hangs over the coast.
 Not for years has the opening or the summer service to Montreal been so delayed as this year, and as a re- suit immense quantities of freight designated for that port, which in the summer is one of the greatest ship ping terminals on the continent, have been seriously delayed. During the winter the trans Atlantic business of Montreal is suspended on account of the ice in the St Lawrence river and gulf and Halifax, St John Portland, Me. and Boston, are made the termi- nal points for the liners. These steamers were withdrawn from the winter routes in Apriu and many of them have sailed from across the wa ter with unusually heavy cargoes bill ed for Montreal, as the season usual ly opens under ordinarily severe con dltions by the 18th of April. The first of the steamers found the ice fields impossible and many of them were forced to put into this port, while others have been picked up by wireless and ordered to come here instead of trying to make the strait.
 The ice conditions this winter all up and down the coast from Maritime provinces has been worse than for many seasons and has caused great damage to shipping and marine ill., terests. The government ice breaking steamers have been helpless for weeks at time, having been caught in tleir efforts to relieve other vessels. The sealing fleet has been one or tne BeaV- fest losers. Its catch has run thou- sands behind that of last year, ow- ing to the sealing grounds being wall cd in by vast ice fields. Several of the steamers were badly damaged in the ice and three are still imprisoned somewhere along the coast. The fish ing industry. upon which the French island of Miquelon depends for its ex- istence, has been very hard hit. For several weeks now the winds have held to the northwest thus packing the ice in all the harder and no relief Is hoped for until the breeze gets in- to the southwest It will take brisk southwestern several days to break up the ice sufficiently for work even the most powerful liners to get through lt is believed.