The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1909-08-20
RECORD ICEBERCYEAR
Nothing Like t Up North Fol
Over Forty Years.
PERIL IN FLOATING ISLETs,
off Newfoundland Coast and an ~.
f; Grand Banks FIoes and Berg. Ar.
. Proving a Menace to shippina-Fish.
f, ing Fleets Business Sadly Ham.
| pered. t ,.

Proving Menace to shippino--Fish.
ing Fleets Business Sadly Ham.
pered.
Inc present year continues to main.
tain its unenviable notoriety for the
seriousness Of the iceberg peril. In
the first week of August icebergs
were as numerous about the New
foundland coast as they have ever
been III midwinter and more numer
Gus than at the same time in any year
or the past quarter century. The
whole of Newfoundland's eastern sea-
board and the Grand banks also are
thickly strewn with these floating
lslets that spell destruction for every
vessel that hits them. Daily the steam
ships plying in these waters report
sighting scores, If not hundreds, Of
bergs, and one passenger ship from
New York to St. Johns, N. F., counted
over a thousand during twenty-four
hours.
What they mean to ships at this
season is shown by the fact of three
steamers having been crippled by them
in the past few days. On July % the
steam freighter Bergulus entered st.
Johns with her bow battered in by
contact with berg in dense fog off
Cape Race. She was so seriously in
jured that deck load of machinery
had to be jettisoned and 100 tons of
coal thrown overheard, but even with
this relief she barely succeeded in
l-i,~ A..
Black Diamond liner Bonavista, with
seventy passengers aboard, made port,
also with her bow stove in. At the
impact her passengers stampeded to
the deck and rushed for the boats, and
only the most strenuous eXertions on
the part of the officers averted trag-
ody. At the same time the Canadian
Pacific line steamship Montrose was
lying off Cape Race for four days, re-
pairing damages caused by running
into another berg while on her way to
Montreal with 300 passengers. She
was badly battered forward, and the
British warship Brilliant stood by her
until she effected repairs to enable her
to reach her destination.
Several other steamships more or
less crippled from contact with ice
had to make the same port recently,
and there are few missing and over
due vessels.
Fishing Fleets Hampered.
Navigation along the Canadian route
has been seriously hampered by the
presence Of the bergs and foes in
lot TcIn e,t, hoe
been closed till an unusually late pc
Rod, and the Labrador waters have
been rendered very dangerous. The
fishing fleet from Newfoundland, num-
bering 1.50O vessels and employing
some 20,CO0 persons, had been unable
to operate there up to recent date,
and it looks as if the catch of cod on
the coast for this summer would be
seriously curtailed. owing to the long
continuance of the ice pack. Even Oh
the section of the Newfoundland sea-
board from St. Johns to Cape Race
bergs are so abundant now that fish
ing operations are practically suspend
ed, rs men have to take their nets out
of the water to prevent them from be-
ing destroyed.
AS the Labrador fishery represents
third Of the annual catch of cod by
the people of Newfoundland, it can
easily be seen how serious a situation
this iceberg incubus represents, and as
the season is short at best the situation
Is causing much concern.
On the Grand banks, too, the trawl-
ers are hampered by the presence of
bergs, and all the big liners are obliged
to slow down in passing. The story of
icebergs in the north Atlantic shows
nothing to resemble the conditions that
prevail at present.
Cause O.: Many Marine Tragedies.
No one can explain why these ice
conditions exist in certain years and
not in others. Not since 1863 has there
been any approach to the present con-
convenience was felt, as business in
terests did, not demand such regular
communication as at present. In the
spring of 1890 foes and bergs We're nu-
merous in the north Atlantic, and a
number of marine tragedies resulted
which are attributed to this cause.
Four stout steamers, with an aggre-
gate list of nearly 300. one or two
having some passengers aboard, van
ished. and it has always been believed
that ice was the cause of their disap-
pearance In the spring of 1890, again,
ten freight steamships, with $50 souls.
vanished in the same way. All had
left American ports at dates which
would bring them together on the
Grand banks, and the theory always
has been that they We're caught in
the foes there and, a hurricane spring
ing up. were pounded to pieces. In the
present year, however, the foes have
been even worse than on these occa-
sions, and the harbor of st. Johns
has been icebound and sealed up
against all arriving and departing YES
sells even more securely than If sur
rounded by blockading fleet.
Moae&ar Maeees of Ice