Bisbee daily review., 1912-04-27
TWENTY SHIPS
 SUNK BY ICE THIS YEAR

HAlIFAX, April 26.-The preva- lence Of ice bergs on the Grand Banks this spring is due to the exceptional seventy or the recent winter, which '" as the worst perhaps in the history or Newfoundland and Labrador. From mid-December up to the present time intense frost and incessant storms nave prevailed.
 These conditions caused the ice forming in every harbor along Labra- aor and northern Newfoundland to be. come unusually thick. and as the SC. were winds tore the masses from the coast, these immense crystal noun tains were flung widespread over the ocean and carried south by the cur rent from the polar regions. which meeting the Gull stream caused the constant fogs which SO greatly men. ace shipping
 Never in the history of Newfouni- land has there been a winter so disas. terous to stream and sail vessels since November. No less than twenty sail. ing craft, from 100 to 300 tons burden, have gone to the bottom. seven of them carrying their whole crews down as well as some sixty-three passengers The crews of the remaining thirteen were rescued from the sinking hulks in the nick of time. Two steamers also sank
 Newfoundland loebound
 All incoming steamers report i'm mense quantities of ice scattered over the northern Atlantic. and so enorm- ous and widespread have been the flows in the gulf or St. Lawrence that the steamship travel has been serious ly crippled the whole winter
 Three Furness line steamers were so badly damaged by ice that as each in turn arrived in England she had to be dOcked for repairs and the com. pany has had to charter outside ships to continue the service. The north. east coast Of New Foundland has been icebound since early January, coast wise travelling being practically i'm possible.
 Owing to similar conditions the Don aldson liner Tritonia, which was dry docked at Glasgow last winter. and re. modelled at a cost of s60,0O0 to serve as an ice breaker Co enable the Harms worths to get their pulp and paper shipments out Of their spring port at Botwood found the ice so immensly heavy that she was thirty days mak. ing thirty miles up the inlet in Nor te Dame bay to Botwood harbor. and only succeeded in getting there by the lavish use of dynamite.
 s Ice Breaker Wrecked.
 When she arrived on March 1 she was without coal to return and is still there with the inlet frozen solid. Be hind her, waiting for the spring fresh ! cts to break up the spring Hoes and ad- !. nit a collier to supply her with fuel for the return voyage to England, is the Reid company's powerful new ice breaker Bruce, which made her maid | en trip in Februnrv and has been bat ting with the foe; between Newfound- | land and Cape Breton since and has ! suffered much dam2ge-thOugh she . Is the finest of her class in the world ! 75that she will require extensive re 1 pairs in the dry dock next month . when the vanishing of the ice will ! enable an Unsheathed steamer to take . her place.
 Because Of the prevalence of ice i this winer the operations of the | American-Canadian and Newfound | land fishing vessels on the Grand ! Banks have been greatly hampered. while fresh stream trawlers have found it impossible to operate at all 1 The immense foes are dispersed . over the whole ocean where these fishing smacks cruise, and form the I greatest menace to their success. 4 The changing winds often bring i'm mense ice fields crashing together, I jeoPsrdizing fishing boats Tn their yi- cinity, and when ice prevails on the | Grand Banks, as 1t has this winter, fishing vessels are obliged to give the area a wide berth.