The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-07
DR|F TING ICEBERG
 CR|PPLES STEAMER Columbia Collides With a Huge Mass of Ice Hid
 den by Dense Fog

| New York, August 6.-The Anchor fine steamer Columbia which collided with an iceberg on August ?, reached New York today from Glasgow under her own steam. Many yards of canvass covered the hole made in her bow by the iceberg but her officers said the damage was entirely above the water line and could be handlly repaired The accident occurred about i9c miles off the coast of New Foundland
 The Columbias 59S passengers had jus, sat down to dinner and because Of the heavy fog the vessels engines had been i stopped. Unheralded by the customary drop in temperature, the iceberg loomed Inn in front of the vessel almost at tie moment of the collision. There was a crash as the sharp stem cut into the berg and tons of ice rattled to the vessels decks Capt. George Mitchell signallea full speed astern and in the gloom the liner backed away before the officers oi crew could take in the measure of fhe icy mountain they had encountered.
 The bow was stove in badly and the linel took considerable water till the canvass was stretched across the splintered sec tion. The crew in removing the mass of Ice forward made little headway until with their axes they had split the lars 7st pieces, weighing tons, into section.
 Although the passengers could not see the iceberg through the fog after the steamer backed away, they heard their voices echo from its walls.
 | Close examination of the Columbia at her dock tonight revealed greater dam flooded with water, her bow plates were crumpled for 15 feet, her port anchor was torn away and several persons aboard were suffering from injuries.
 Captain Mitchell explained that the vessel was stopped In the fog when he heard the echo of his fog horn from the berg. After the impact he said, water poured into the forward hold to depth of nine feet The pumps were set going and the crew was put tc stemming the thrush with sandbags and other mak eshifts.
 The passengers and crew were in many instances thrown to the floor. l Tom Murray, the forecastle lookout, was buried under the ice which poured down upon the vessels deck and when shipmates dug him out he was sense | less. Tables in the dining saloon were swept bare of the evening meal, stew ards were sent sprawling in the gen. eral crash of crockery.
 | The SS first cabin passengers had hardly tasted food when the ship struck. | There was a momentary silence after the crash of falling dishes which were | broken by a man who arose In his seat and shouted: "Icev'
 | But Dr. David McCurdie, the ships surgeon, cried:
 Keep your seats, stay where you | are: there Is no danger" | He had little need to exhort the pas sengers, however, for there were no further symptoms of panic. They went I to the deck to gain view of the ice berg. Several of them said 1t lowered more than 100 feet above them and was quarter of mile in length The fog prevented accurate estimate of it's extent, however.
 | The vessel was then 1920 miles from New York, and as the pumps were low ertng the water in the hold, Captain Mitchell held his ship to her course without summoning aid. The wireless | sent word of the collision to the Co., lumbia's sister ship, the Furnessia, and the message was relayed to Glasgow and cabled to New York
 Captain Mitchell said tonight the &C., cident was the nearest to a maritime disaster he had ever experienced.