The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-12-18
The Peril
Of
theIceberG;
By GEORGE ETHELBERT WALSH


ly removed in recent years by wire
less telegraphy, but their presence on
the seas is still menacing enough to
cause anxiety to many captain.
Nearly all the other dangers OF
ocean navigation have been overcome
by the modern palatial steamers that
ply between America and Europe.
Ships carry wireless telegraph instru-
ments and submarine sounding bells,
so that even in fogs captains can tell
when another. ship is in the nelghbOr-
hood and thus avoid collisions. But
an iceberg is different. 1t carries no
wireless apparatus and makes no re-
Spouse to submarine bells and tele-
phone signals. White and ghost-like
it looms up suddenly out of the dark
ness or fog and crashes down upon the
Inflated ship that crosses its path.
Government scouting ships now go out
to sea to destroy and sink derelicts
abandoned ships), but so far they
have proved useless in scattering ice
bergs 1t is true that they can locate
them and report their findings by
wireless. Other ships finding ice
bergs make similar reports, and in
this way track is kept of the great
floating dangers.
The government every summer and
fall makes out an iceberg chart.
When some ship reports an iceberg
in a certain latitude and longitude a
little red dot is placed on the iceberg
chart. It is drifting in a southerly di-
rection, and allowances are made for
so many miles of advance every TWEEN
ty-four hours. So the red dot is moved
slowly forward But adverse winds,
seas, and currents may change the
course of the berg, and this sort OF
reckoning may prove all wrong.
Then another ship reports the same
Or another iceberg in a different place.
More red dots appear on the chart,
and as the season advances the dan
ger-points increase. These charts are
issued as warnings to mariners. Ships
sailing in certain northern ATTITUDES
must study the location of the ice
bergs,, and for the sake of safety the
captains provide themselves with du-
plicates of the charts.
But even with all of these efforts to
plot out the floating bergs, the dan
ger Of colliding with one is always
present. An adverse wind may have
driven one far out of it's course, or
big one has broken in two and the
halves have fioated wide apart. The
icebergs are dangerous distractions to
navigation on clear, dark nights as
we'll as in times of fog. They carry
no lights, and they cannot be detect
ed in the dark until close upon ship.
Experienced sea captains possess
certain instinct for detecting the
presence Of icebergs. Some captains
claim that they can smell an iceberg
miles away. Something in the atmos-
phere warns them of the danger, and
they double the watch and reduce
speed until out of the danger zone.
Then, again, when near an iceberg the
air grows suddenly cold and chilly,
and sometimes there is drop of sew
eral degrees in the temperature.
On the other hand, many instances
are on record of icebergs crashing out
of the dark without any warning and
wrecking ships. Marvellous escapes
and disastrous wrecks have thus been
recorded, and each such incident
makes a captain shudder at this I'M
seen terror of the seas.
The ocean liner has little more
chance of escape in collision with an
iceberg than the smallest sailing
craft The rotten ice towering hun
dreds of feet above the water level is
ready to fall in great masses the mo-
ment slight shock is given to its
base or sides. Many unaccounted dis
appearances of ships and steamers
are attributed to tragic collisions with
icebergs, ships and all on board going
to the bottom without so much as
remnant left to tell the tale. To this
cause mariners and marine insurance
companies attribute the mysterious
vanishing of the City of Boston from
the face OF the ocean with all it's pas
aengers
1There is the unparalleled case of
the steamer Portia in Notre Dame
Bay. In clear daylight an iceberg
vas sighted, and passengers and crew
begged the captain to approach nearer
in order that they might inspect and
photograph it. The Portia, therefore.
was steered close to the towering
sides of the mighty berg, whose high
est pinnacles glistened several hun
dred feet above the sea. Then the
unexpected happened. There was an
explosion like the shock of volcanic