The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-17
l.. L. Dyche, Veteran of Polar
Travel, Wonders at Disaster.
Only One Safe Rule When I'm
Ice Fields.
STOP OR TRAVEL SLOWLY
Kansan Was in Three Wrecks
In Ice Fields.
no Ship Safe When Ice Is
Floating.

Washington, ID. c., May 17.-Prof
l. L. Dyche of Kansas, worldfamed
a naturalist and globe-trotter, has,
during his years of travel. been mixed
up in four accidents or shipwrecks
more or less serious on the Atlantic
ocean.
All these dangerous experiences
were in the ice berg zone off the New
foundland coast. where the great
monster Titanic and over 1900 souls
went down to their watery grave
Having spent two summers in the
North Atlantic and having seen thou
sands OF ice bergs and great fields OF
floe ice, Prof. Dyche says he is con-
WINGED that it is absolutely unsafe Tor
any vessel at any time, day or night,
to undertake to run only at slow or
precautionary rate of speed To do
otherwise, he says, merely means TAX
Ing chances of DEATH
In referring to the Titanic disaster,
Prof. Dyche, in a letter recently ad-
dressed to his friend, General W. h
Sears of Lawrence, Kan, now IN
Washington, expresses himself as as
passenger vessel was pushed at such
a tremendous rate of. speed right IN
to the jaws of death.
Many articles have been written
concerning
dfviduals who apparently had little
or no idea of the ice conditions IN the
North Atlantic. On this SUBJECT
Prof. Dycf1e, whose experiences at sea
have been most thrilling. tells a most
Interesting story In his letter 10 zen
eral Sears, he says:
II have been north and visited the
home of all the great ice bergs on the
Atlantic side. I have seen the great
ice masses blowing their way down
2 he Gil Of
themselves out into the ocean re
member of standing on rock eIn1n-
ence at time when great ice berg
was caIved, when the ice berg, mass
of ice 400 or 500 yards long ana
nearly the same dimensions in width
and more than 1000 feet thick, broke
loose from the solid mas that MADE
up part of the great ice sheet OF the
interior of Greenland.
THE commotfon was something
that could not be described Inc
noise on such an occasion IS very
great, sounding like heavy and pro- |
longed peaIs of thunder. In many /
instances when these ice bergs are /
given birth, large waves are commun-
icated to the adjacent waters, but if /
it so happens that the waters are
covered with sheet ice varying from
8 to 5 feet in thickness of course no
particular motion is communicated to /
the ocean waters
He Tells of Wrecks.
when east of Newfoundland, not /
far from the route which the steam
ers take, our vessel (the Miranda) |
struck a great ice berg. This was
about 1880 in the forenoon. The cap
tain and all parties on board were
watching for ice bergs, yet the white |
mist that enshrouded the ice berg and
the fog which had settled over the ice
masses, made the berg invisible.
I'VE were only moving at the rate
of about and one-half knots per
hour, yet that speed was sufficient to
jam the nose of our steamer into the
ice berg with a force that smashed a
great hole in the bow of the vessel.
1T so happened that we were not
in a solid ice field and after being /
nearly scared to death about the pos /
sibility of the ships sinking, we final
ly got piece of canvas stretched over
the hole that had been torn in the
bow of the ship and turned her nose
toward the Labrador coast. Before
many hours we had reached a harbor
and there temporary repairs We're
made on our vessel.
we afterwards ran this same yes
sci on reef of rocks on the coast of
Greenland and ripped a hole in the
hull under the water-tight compart-
ments. With the usual scare, when
IL was reported that the vessel was
sinking, we managed to conduct our
selves in fairly good order and get
our life boats shape for leaving
vessel however, we managed TO get
ashore again and the vessel was re-
paired once more with heavy steel
plates over the water-tight compart-
ments which now had to serve as a |
part OF the bottom of the vessel
Two or three weeks later we had
this same steamer in the ocean north
of where the Titanic went down. We
were caught in storm and the water
tight compartments that had been re-
paired on the Greenland coast be-
gan to weaken and the plates were
Ioosened as the storm ragged. We had
an American fisherman with GIous-
ter schooner IN tow. When the steam
Ell began to go to pieces and il was an
that she could float but
a few hours at best. there was a great
commotfon on board the steamer and
also the schooner
Schooner Saved Them.
1.-The Ifeboats were launched. but
the heavy seas drove them against
the side of the vessel and in a very
short time made kindIing wood out