DRIFTING ICEBERGS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 477, 4 June 1890, Page 5

DRIFTING ICEBERGS.

THE SUPPOSED FATE OF THE

MARLBOROUGH

Auckland, May 31. The missing Shaw, Savill ship Mailborough, Lyttelton to London, is surmised to have met with some accident amongst the icebei'gs of the Southern Ocean, and to have foundered. There is just this about it, that the presence of large quantities of ice, reported during the early part of the year, would add to the large list of accidents which might 'possibly have overtaken her. No doubt, many a good ship before to-day ha? run her nose into an iceberg, and not a soul of her company has been left to tell the sad tale.

During the months of January and February of this year, in the North Atlantic, and also in the South Pacific, much ice has been sighted ; indeed, in the North Atlantic have been more than the average ecord of hair breadth escapes and severe experiences from tho prevalence of ice-floes rand bergs. Numerous incidents are on record of vessels in that ocean being fixed in a field of ice, while again others have suffered through striking on the begs and damaging their hulls, and indeed it may never bo known how many good ships have met their fate by striking one of these terrors to sea captains. Many shipmasters trading bo these colonies have affirmed that the temperature of the sea is affected by the presence of icebergs they have sighted crossing the Indian Ocean from the Cape to Australia, and perceptibly so, long before the bergs were made out. But it is still a vexed question whether there is a possibility of obtaining timely indication of the presence of icebergs from a fall in tho tem.perature of the water surrounding a ship In view of conflicting statements, shipmasters will confer a lasting benefit on their fellow-creatures by eatefuliy noting the readings of a sea-surlace when in the vicinity of ice, and making their results public, together with any other hints for the avoidance of an iceberg, especially in foggy weather.