ABOUT CAPE RACE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1, 27 April 1912, Page 2

ABOUT CAPE RACE.

THE SCENE OF THE TITANK COLLISION.

iSHiI I’M ASTERS’ EN PER I ENCES

Mr H. JJramwell, of the Pork Koto!, Bathurst, who has iiad 2D yonrs at sea, and holds a master’s eertilioate, had somethin”; to say concerning the iil-fate<] Titanic. “I liave crossed the Atlantic over 200 times,” said Mr Bramwell, “and the neighbourhood of Gape Race, in which the Titanic is said to have collided with an iceberg, is partienlarly dangerous on account of the fogs which almost continually hang around there. It is about there that all the steamer lines converge. .It may he news to some to know that tiie outward and homeward tracks across the Atlantic are followed almost alongstrictly defined lines, which in nautical phraseology arc called steamer Janes. The lanes are from fifty to a hundred miles apart generally, and thus diminish the risk of collision between the steamers of the outward and homeward routes. But towards Capo Race they converge, and after leaving there diverge -more or less as the steamers are hound to Boston, New York, Philadelphia- or Baltimore. “The vicinity of Cape Race is particularly dangerous, also, from the fact that it is near the fishing ground of the cod fleet, which Kipling, in his ‘Captains Courageous,’ describes with such fulness and accuracy. “What surprises me is that bergs are so far south so early in the year. June is generally the earliest they arc looked for. ft is rather exhilarating work being in charge of a ship about Cape Race in a fog. Yon are continually fancying yon can see ships and fishing boats or a derelict. It might be a berg at any time, and if yon do meet one it is generally too late to avoid it.” He was asked if the presence or vicinity of icebergs could be determined. “By some experts they can,” lie replied. “The waters about Cape Race are in the Gulf Stream, the temperature of which is very much higher than the water on either side of it. In a fog a man is employed drawing water and taking the temperature of it, and any considerable drop is an indication that icc is in the vicinity. But it is not by any means a relablc lest, as the berg may be shifting towards you and thus leaving the old track behind.” Concerning Scsbsrgs, Captain Stollherg, commander ol the German mail steamer Gneisenau, which was in Sydney last week, was for nearly nine years in the N.D.L. Co.’s express steamers crossing the 'North Atlantic, and lie states that the Bank of Newfoundland is a locality where icebergs and fields of floating icc are of particularly frequent occurrence, and from April to July dense fogs are quite the- rule. On the big liners, he explained, it is the practice to test the temperature of the sea-water every ten minutes, and any excessive drop in the thermometer readings is a warning that icebergs are probably in the vicinity. Captain Stollherg says he has known a. difference of from 6 degrees to 7 degrees centigrade (10.8 degrees to 12.(3 degrees Falir.) in two consecutive tests of the sea’s temperature. Shipmasters are assisted also by the publication in Germany and America every month of charts showing the furthest positions south that icebergs had been sighted from the big liners, the officers of which report regularly any bergs that may he noticed. An iceberg is a much larger object than it appears. Above the .water from one-eighth to one-third cf the total mass only can he seen, and as they melt from huge mountains of ice perhaps miles in extent down to nothing, it can he judged .’now easily a vessel can collide with .a lump ( ff ieo say as big as a house-—quite large enough to wreck a ship, and small enough to he unnoticed on a dark night. Icebergs come down as far south as 35(1 eg. north, and from there upwards shipmasters have to keep on the lookout. They arc seldom met further east than the lOblr meridian, which is about 300 miles beyond the Great Bank of Newfoundland. The “North Atlantic Directory” says that icebergs have a natural effulgence, or “ice-blink, ’ which Irequently renders them visible at some distance even on the 1 darkest nights. At a short distance this effulgence may appear like a white cloud extending over or nearly over a vessel s. masts. The presence of floating ice may often he detected by a deerec.se in the temperature of the sea, and possibly .a roaring of the waves at the base -of the bergs in rough weather.