IN THE ICE BELT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 306, 22 June 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

IN THE ICE BELT

SOME EXPERIENCES OF AUSTRALIAN LINERS. Instances have occurred where Australian liners have collided with icebergs in crossing the Southern Ocean. The passenger ship Torrens, for many years trading between London and Adelaide, had a narrow escape from destruction through collision with a berg. She emerged from the encounter with her bow badly damaged. Another senastional experience was that of the steamer Port Chalmers, of the Anglo-Australasian Line. She was bouno from London to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, some, years ago, and during thick weather ran stem on into a huge iceberg. The.force.of the impact was terrific, and huge blocks of ice fell with a crash on the steamer's dteck. Several of the crew narrowly escaped being struck. With her bow badly wrecked and the fore compartment flooded, the Port Chalmers managed to steam into Adelaide, and! Captain T. Free, R.N.R., who was in command, was complimented by his owners on the good "save" effected. The Port Chalmers was docked at Svdney, and the repairs ran into several thousand poundis. Another experience was that of the Nairnshire, which collided with an iceberg some years ago, this side of the Cape of Good Hope, whilst bound for Australia. Her fore peak was knocked in, but she came on to Melbourne and Sydney before repairs were effected. The old! Arizona, one of the first of the Atlantic greyhounds, struck a berg 26 years ago, whilst doing 17 knots an hour. Her forepeak was smashed, but she kept out the water, and crossed the Atlantic safely. Shipmasters arriving at New York in May last year reported astonishing experiences in the ice-pack, blocking two cargo steamers, the Madura, of New-castle-on-Tyne, and the Bisley of Glasgow, and they had! to undergo repairs as a result of their encounters with large bergs. The Bisley had the plates below, the waterline badly dented and three blades of the propeller gone. "That we are here at all," the captain told a New York correspondent, "is only due to the fact that the ship has a round bow and a high rise out of the water." He said that the field of ice he encountered was 30ft thick. ItfUH The Madura's experiences were even more thrilling. She first sighted ice at 4 p.m. on May 17, and three hours later, was surrounded. She sought to escape to the south, and picked up a way along a narrow lane between towering icebergs, at times close enough to them for the crew to lean over enough and touch them. At 8 o'clock in the morning the crew heard through the fOg the whistle of another imprisoned steamer. Using the Morse code with his siren, Captain Horsley asked, "Who are you?" The answer, faintly heard was "The Devona." Later the Madura heard another whistle. This time it was the Allan liner Mongolia, which was stuck up by the ice.