Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-08-30
ARCTIC SHIP RESCUE
WAS FULL OF THRILLS
Ice Breaker Fights Desperate
Battle With Flocs in
Kara Sea.

mirovitch, which drifted helplessly for
months in the Kara Sea, is n thrilling tale
of Arctic adventure. Capt. Sverdrup
story, as printed in the London Times,
follows:
1t was in April last that Twas entrusted
with the task of planning, equpplng ana
leading relief expedition to the kara oea
in order To search for, and if possible to
rescue the crew and passengers on board
the steamship Solovei Boudiniroviteh,
which at the end of January had become
jammed in the ice outside the White oea
and afterward was carried IN the Ice
through the Kara Straits into the Kara
Sea. There the vessel drifted dangerously
about She had left Archangel provision,
ed for only two months, and food, coal and
fuel were falling short.
The big, powerful icebreaker Sviatogor
was placed at the disposal OF the expedi-
tion by the British government ana sent
over to Bergen. Here she was quickly
manned, equipped and provisonso io1
six months. We left Bergen on May l5
and arrived at Tromso ON the 18th. There
we Law until June Ia very painful
ner;od of waiting for us and doubly pain
! full for the Russians hungry and cold, on
board the Solovei, who had been informed
bv wireless that we had started.
At Vardo we shipped so tons oil supplies
more, and having left on the evening Oh
June 9, anchored on the morning oi june
| IL in Bielushva Bay, Novaya Zemlya,
where we took on board 500 tons OF coal
from the steamship Harde, which had
been despatched direct from lromso.
Up AGAINST STRONG ICE BARRIER.
We passed through Kara Straits prac-
ticallv untroubled by ice until the morning
| of the 10th, when we encountered large
| mass of old close packed polar ice IL
was clearly no use trying to force pas
sage through this; we had to try 10 hnd
the newer and more penetrable ice wnlen
had drifted from the west into the nara
| Sea through the Strait. We steamed,
| therefore. in a northwesterly direction,
| but as there appeared no Improvement IN
| the conditions we turned about and went
| in southeasterly direction until the polar
| ice was passed.
| Then. fortunately, breeze sprang up
| from the northeast and made cons'u-
| erable improvement IN the ice conditions
| Then we steered north in the direction oil
| the Soloyei. and about $50 in the evening,
/ according to the last position received
/ from her by wireless, we reckoned that
we were within about eight or ten MN.
| distance. Ii had been bad weather, with
| snow and sleet the whole day, so 1t was
impossible to take observations, and we
| could not proceed further until we could
| determine our position exactly.
On the 18th the weather cleared, and
having taken the necessary observations
| in the morning and at noon, we continued
our voyage at p. m. At the same time
we received wireless giving the position
of the Solovei, which was considerably
further north than before.
A little later we suddenly caught sight
of the Russian icebreaker kanada, steam
ing after us She had had the advantage OF
the strong northeast wind, which had
parted the ice, and our hong wait for th'
purpose of taking observations had also
belped her to overtake us. On June II oul
wireless had picked up call from the
kanada to the Solovei, which confirmed
the rumor we had heard at Nardo that th'
Soviet government was equIppIng new
expedition.
Soon afterward we received dIrec
INQUIRY from the kanada as TO our posi-
tion. which we Immediately telegraphe'
both to the Kanada and the Soiovei, at tn
same time asking them 10 give US theirs
The Kanada replied asking us to stop 10
a conversation, and in the conversation
which followed with Commissar OF Marin
Mikhailoff and Capt Mokaloff OF tn
ksnada, il was explained that the Vesse
had been despatched by the Soviet govern
rnent in order to give assistance u
should be necessary or In case ther
should be difficulties OF any sort IN conse
} ! ouence of the political changes when ma
t Occurred since the Solovei had lei
!. ArchanpeI. II appeared also that they ha
: orders to bring the ship back TO Arch
, angel direct.
= EXCITING RACE IN IcE-LADEN SEA
After the conference was over, therefor'
a there began an exciting race between 10
2 two ships The ice through which we ma
/ to force a passage was very dinereht iroi m
: that we had had to tackle before. Ih
was the ordinary polar ice OF the Kara Sei
closely hacked, with only few small gar
- Of omen water. had very little hope
: getting through, and that we did succee
! was due only TO the remarkable quailtl'
Z of the Sviatogor as an icebreaker.
!. With full steam up from all OF her te
= boilers she burst her way Splendid
- through the strong pack ice. Now an
then she was beaten and had 10 back an
6 make a fresh attack at full speed. 1T WI
u not often that more than two attemp
|. had to be made, but it happened som
s times that the manOeuvre had to be :
peated nine or ten times where the Il
= was unusually awkward, Tor In places
: was 20 feet thick or more.
: At first the Kanada had little stai
but the roles were soon changed. III
: Syiatogor went ahead and continued
: increase her lead, and when at last, at q
in the evening, we sighted the Soiov
: far away northward on the horizon, q
Kanada had fallen far behind.
At about the same time we received q
following message from the Solovel; ~
see your smoke in the south, 20 degre
:, east" We were delighted by this messae
which made us realize that our har
q tried and anxious friends on board Il
z Solovei were in high hopes OF relief.
THRILLING NIGHT ON IcEBREAKER.
In the Sviatogor all were keenly ali
to the anxiety and seriousness of Il
situation, and followed with eager intere
the display of prowess given by the ic
breaker during these hours OF the nigt
OF the crew all who were not actual
keeping watch were on deck hour aft
. nour discussing and marvelllng at d
y VARYING features of this extraordlnal
e. drama. Some stood leaning over the ra
. so as better to enjoy the sight of the gre
U blocks of ice, now crushed into fragmen
e before our bows, now hurled in whirlil
. maze along the ships sides-and all TO
i wild accompaniment Of deafening crash
in the ice. and of groans and walls al
sbriaks from the hard-pressed yesse