ON A HUGE ICEBERG.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 483, 25 June 1890, Page 5

ON A HUGE ICEBERG.

AN ATLANTIC STEAMER IN PERIL. COLLISION ON HER FIRST VOYAGE. AN AVALANCHE OF ICE FATES ON DECK—ALL READY TO TAKE TO THE BOATS. New York, May 20. With bows stove in and with her water line very low,the staunch iron tank steamer Beacon Light came into port this morning It was evident that the vessel had come forcibly in contact with some heavy obstacle since May 3rd, when she left Newcastle, England," upon her first voyage across the Atlantic.

Captain Elliott stated that the trouble had been caused by a large iceberg, upon which the vessel had struck suddenly during the night of May 13th in latitude 43deg. and 55min and longitude 84deg. and 18min. The vessel was injured by falling ice, and sprang a leak, but was able to continue her voyage. The Beacon Light was a new vessel just off the stocks when she sailed. On the night of 12th May ice was sighted ahead. The object suddenly materialised into an iceberg with two peaks. The ship was heading toward the very centre of the peak which lay to port and which towered above the vessel’s foremast;. The ice seemed to be little more than fifty feet away. Instantly the helm was put hard to starboard, but the ship glided on toward the big white crag, against the base of which the long swell of the ocean broke with a dismal roar. It seemed to the captain and his officer’s that the ship would batter her head to pieces against the ice wall, and the men on deck stood with pale faces and waited for the crash which they feared was to send them to the bottom.

But the ship had answered her helm more speedily than had been expected, and she now began to swing quickly around to port. An instant later she had cleared the ice wall, but she was now confronted by a huge ledge that reached out from the berg. Then came a shock and a crash, and the terrified sailors saw a huge avalanche of broken ice tumbling down from the ledge upon the forecastle head and pouring over upon the forward deck. The bluff of the steamer’s bow had struck the foot of the ledge with a glancing blow. The ship was on her beam ends but a moment and then righted. She now began to feel the effect of her reversed engines and backed slowly away from the iceberg, which appeared to be about 600 feet long and 90 feet high at the peaks. The men quickly cleared away the boats and got these in readiness to lower, although they had received no order to do so. The captain found that the vessel was not sinking. One of the pieces of ice that fell upon the ship would have weighed tifty tons. The weather continued foggy after the collision, and the following day several small icebergs were seen.