The Washington herald., 1912-04-16
SEVERE WINTER
REAsONF FOR BERGS
Season Worse Ever Expert
enced in Newfoundland.
Say Old Seamen.
MANY VESSELS ARE LOST

ST. Johns. Newfoundland. April 1.-THE
prevalence Of icebergs on the Grand
Banks this spring Is due to the excep-
tional severity Of the recent winter. which
was the worst perhaps in the history Of
Newfoundland and Labrador. From mid
December to the present time, intense
frost and incessant storms have prevailed.
These conditions caused the ice forming
in every harbor along Labrador and
Northern Newfoundland TO become I'M
usually thick this year, and as the severe
winds tore the masses from the coasts
these immense crystal mountains were
flung widespread over the ocean and car
rled south by the current from the polar
regions. which. meeting the Gulf Stream,
cause the constant fogs which SO greatly
menace shipping.
Never in the history OF Newfoundland
has there been a winter so disastrous to
vessels since November. No less than
twenty sailing crafts, from 100 to 800
tons burden, have gone to the bottom,
seven OF them carrying their whole
crews down as well as some slxty-three
passengers. The crews OF the remaining
thirteen were rescued in the nick Of
time.
Two steamers Perish.
Two steamers also persisted with all
hands. The first was the Kamphoro,
coal-laden. from Sydney. which. II is be-
lieved, was crushed by ice in the Febru-
airy billiards. on Cape Race and sank
with her whole eighteen men. The sec
ond was the Erna, a 3OOO-ton liner, pur-
chased in England and remodeled for
use in the seal fisheries. She is now
forty-eIght days out from Glasgow with
fifty-one people aboE ID, and all hope OF
her survival Is abanG oned.
Besides this. the present season has
been the seyerest in the annals Of the
islands seal fishery. The sealing feet
this year comprised twenty-three steam
ers from 200 TO 1900 tons, and all report
Ice conditions worse than ever before.
As a result the seal catch this season
will be only about 10000 seals. against
10000 last year. The steamers Bellaven-
ture. Bonaventure, Florizel, and Sagona,
four Of the finest In the fleet. had to
return practically empty because their
propellers were smashed on, and to-day
the Labrador returned in similar
plight Others Of the feet sustained sun
dry damages through being crushed amid
the foes.
All incoming steamers report i'm
mense quantities OF ice scattered over
the Northern Atlantic, and so enormous
and widespread have been the foes In
the Gulf OF st. Lawrence that the
steamship travel of the island has been
seriously 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
locked for repairs, and the company
has had to charter outside ships to
the service.
Coast Il IeebOund.
The northeast coast OF Newfoundland
has been icebound since early IN jan
uary, coastwise travelling being practi-
cslly impossible. Owing to similar con-
ditions, the Donaldson line steamer Tr-
tonia, which was drydocked at Glasgow
last winter and remodeled AZ a cost OF
$50. Co., to serve as an ice breaker to en-
able the Harmsworths TO get pulp and
paper shipments out Of their spring port
at Botwood. found the ice so immensely
heavy that she was thirty days making
thirty miles up the Exploits Inlet. in
Notre Dame Bay, to Botwood Harbor,
and only succeeded in getting this by the
lavish use Of dynamite. When she ar
rived. on March /. she was without coal
to return, and is still there, with the
inlet frozen soI.l behind her, waiting
for the spring freshets to break up the
foes and admit a collier to supply her
with fuel for the return voyage to Eng
land.
The Reid Company's powerful new Ice
breaker Bruce, which made her maiden
trip in February and has been battling
the foes between Newfoundland and
Cape Breton. has suffered such damage,
though she is the finest Of her class in
the world, that she will require extern
sive repairs in drydock next month,
when the vanishing OF the ice will en-