Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-08-30
If Sable Island sandbanks are the

| or cape Race are second only In eVll
notoriety. Cape Race Is the south
ern extremity of Newfoundland, and
| The shortest route between New York,
boston, Quebec-in fact, all the east
ern American ports and England and
the north of Europe lies past this
frowning headland. Although nova
days the great New York liners take
more southerly course, yet nearly
4,OUv vessels of all kinds pass yearly
within sight of the cape.
| Cape Race Is SO near the meeting
, ground Of the warm Gulf Stream and
the ice-chilled current which steals
down from the Arctic that 1t Is per-
haps the worst place in the world for
fog; also, the currents themselves are
| sufficiently powerful to defect even
| well-engined steamers from their
course, and, worse, still, they are con-
| stantly shifting. Add to these dan
gers that the cliffs Of Cape Race are
fringed with terrible reefs, and abso-
lutely without harbors or even landing
places, and 1t will be easily under
STOOD that the cape Is equally hated
and feared by sailors all over the
world.
Within the past half century Cape
Race has claimed on an average two
ocean-going vessels yearly, besides in
Vulnerable smaller craft. The value
of these vessels is estimated at G6,-
| 500, 900, and the loss Of life mas been
| upward of 1000. In 1899 two large
vessels went ashore on the rock under
Cape Race in one day, and both were
totally lost. In 1910 ten vessels were
| wrecked there, eight Of which were
steamers. Their average value was
100000 apiece. So notorious is Cape
] Race as a destroyer Of ships that the
fishermen who live along the coast
make more by salvage work than they
| do by fishing, and there Is not cot
| tage or farm house for miles but is
full of relics of wrecks, ancient and
| modern.
Owing to the nature Of the cliffs,
which in most places are not merely
| perpendicular, but actually over
hang deep water, the difficulty in saw
ing life from the frequent wrecks Is
very great. When the British trans
port Harpooner went ashore Off Cape
Race in the winter Of 1916 only Ga
out of $50 got to land. OF 444 souls
on the ill-fated steamer Anglo-Saxon,
which ran upon the rocks near Chance
| Cove in 1863, 317 were drowned. Four
years later the George Washington
was lost with all hands near the same
spot. This was a terrible business
storm at the base Of a sheer cliff more
than 800 feet in height. Fishermen
on the top could plainly see the wreck
and watch the hungry waves snatch
ing their victims one by one. Yet ow-
ing to the enormous height of the
precipice and the fury of the storm 1t
was a sheer impossibility to render
aid.
| Besides Sable Islands shoal and the
currents and cliffs Of Cape Race, there
is another reason why the northwest
| ern portion of the Atlantic is the
most perilous to shipping Of any ocean
in the world. The modern steamer
has no fear of the huge waves Off the
| Cape of Good Hope; she rides out
with equal ease the West Indian cy-
one or the typhoon of the China
| Dat nd mi n
cry can avail upon a fog-clad sea
where swim at random uncharted is
lands of ice. From March to August
that is to say, during most OF the
busiest months of the transatlantic
shipping-ice may be met almost any
where in the North Atlantic, but more
| particularly on the Grand Banks and
near the coast of Newfoundland. 1t was
because of the perils arising from Ice
bergs that in 1897 all the principal
steamships sailing to and from New
York abandoned the direct or grand
circle" route, and now take longer
but safer passage to the south.
Ice accidents would require an arti-
Gle, indeed, a volume, to themselves.
| Still fresh in our memories is the aw-
full disaster which overlook the Titan
ic, that giant of the ocean, which,
though believed to be unsuitable, was
sent to the bottom by a glancing col
lision with a great iceberg. 1t was
a piece of the cruelest ill-luck that
the blow was a glancIng one. Had
she rammed the ice full with her bows
the chances are that she would have
survived.
There are two cases on record Of
large liners hitting ice at full speed
and yet arriving safe in port. The
first was that of the Arizona. She
left New York for Liverpool in No
vember, 1879, and about $50 miles
east of st. Johns rammed an iceberg.
She was the fastest ship then afioat,
and was going over seventeen knots
at the time. For few moments there
was a fearful panic. Every one be-
lieved she was going down; but the
forward bulkhead held, and thirty-six
hours later she staggered safely into
st. Johns.
In September, 1890, the City Of
Rome, with no fewer than 1900 hu-
man souls aboard, had a similar ex-
perience, save that in this case the
berg was one of the smaller sort
known as a "growler." Her bows
were stove, but her bulkheads held.
and she reached port safely.
| Ice drifts much farther to the south
than most people would believe to be
possible. Great masses Of ice have
been sighted little north Of the thir-
tieth parallel Of latitude, so far to the
south as a line drawn from the north
ern coast of Africa to Charleston, s.
| c., but the chief danger zone Is a
great irregular semi-oval running
southeast of Newfoundland so far as
the thirty eighth degree Of north lat
Iitude.-Chambers Magazine.
| Testimony of tho Blind.-Before the