Hangö difficult of approach, and a westerly or northerly wind has the same effect at Reval. During gales, the ice-breakers of these parts suspend operations, as the pressure of the ice becomes so enormous, that even if the icebreaker can force her way, the canal behind closes up almost at once, so that to the ordinary tramp steamer it becomes a problem as to whether it is safer to proceed or to come to rest in the ice, in which latter circumstance she will be drifted with the ice, or squeezed if the ice packs.

There are two ice-breakers at Gotheberg, and two at Drammen, in Norway; these vessels are well able to keep these ports open.

"charge" the ice, or the plating would be holed, and it is impossible to drive the engines, or the blades of the propeller would be knocked off. On the other hand, if the ship is allowed to rest in the ice, the sea inlets become frozen up, and the risk of being squeezed and holed is ever present.

Many German, Finnish, Norwegian and Danish steamers, comply more or less fully with these requirements, and are therefore able to give a good account of themselves in ice.

At Reval there are four ice-breakers of varying dimensions, and the efforts of these vessels are supplemented by a well-arranged

At Christiania, there is a fine ice-breaker, the Isbjern, built at that port. She cuts a canal down the lovely fiord from the harbour to the sea, and keeps a channel free under all the conditions of ice at this place.

Ordinary merchant steamers trading during the winter in ice, should have the plating at the bows doubled, and the side plating for some width about the waterline should be of a much heavier scantling than usual. The propeller blades should be of very strong design, and fitted to the boss to facilitate repairs ; when this is done, steamers can take care of themselves to a very large extent. Without strengthening of this nature vessels dare not

system of telegraphing all ships approaching the coast. The larger ice-breaker attends to vessels to and from the harbour to the entrance of Reval Gulf, a distance of 15 miles, and occasionally goes as far as the open water beyond. The three smaller boats keep the ice broken inside the mole and harbour, and tow and move the vessels in the harbour.

The large boat is a fine vessel, but somewhat out of trim, as when she was put to work it was found that she pushed the broken ice in front of her, owing to her bow lines being too full. To meet this difficulty she is trimmed a good deal by the stern, but this prevents her having the valuable advantage of "tipping"

herself more by the stern when she sticks on or in the ice. An ice-breaker should be capable of altering her trim quickly by moving water from her forward end to the after end, or by filling up the after compartment rapidly, as should she stick forward her engines might be unable to release her.

At Odessa there are three powerful icebreakers, the latest one, Ledokol III., having been built at Walker. She is 148 feet long, 2,200 I.H.P., and has a speed of 13 knots. This vessel is well able to break the ice three feet thick and has, therefore, been most successful on her station, never having been jambed and being always able to free others in distress or fast in the ice. The ice at Odessa is principally pack ice of a broken-up description, which at times owing to wind and tide packs very tightly, and occasionally freezes together in a hard compact mass.

At Vladivostock, in Eastern Siberia, there is a fine ice-breaker, the Nadeshny, which is of vast importance and assistance to the port, as the Russian fleet stationed at Port Arthur is now able to patrol this harbour, which is the naval base, during the whole winter. The ice at Vladivostock attains a thickness in hard winters of 36 inches, but the packs only occur at the outer edges of the field ice, when the wind blows in the direction of the entrance to the harbour. The harbour is an ideal one surrounded by hills, is quite land-locked, and has a curved entrance from which the town cannot be seen.

The Nadeshny was built at Copenhagen, is 183 feet long, has twin screws of 2,800 I.H.P., and is fitted with powerful pumping appliances that can be used for salvage purposes. The vessel has a speed on trial of 142 knots in open water.

Coming now to the design of ice-breakers and vessels suitable for working in ice, they should have the bow angles and lines so arranged that when they have mounted the ice, and the ice is giving way under the vessel's weight, they must not jamb when returning to be water-borne forward, always remembering that they are advancing and should remount the ice. When the ice is broken down it should pass along below the vessel or under the field ice, otherwise it lies on the water and has a tendency to jamb the vessel sideways; this results in the ice-breaker having to smash a larger proportion of ice than necessary, to give side clearance, thus absorbing more power, coal and time, and probably resulting in having to lack and

charge the ice. An ice-breaker should also be able to turn out of the channel she has cut, and the form of the bow lines has much effect on this manœuvre.

The designs of ice-breakers vary so much that there are no certain data to guide builders; but practice has shewn that the full forward form of spoon-shaped bow is not successful in hard and packed ice, as the vessel pushes the ice in front of herself, instead of cutting and dispersing it. It should be borne in mind that ice-breakers when "charging" in heavy ice, are in collision, so to speak, during the whole time that they are at work; this, therefore, entails much more strengthening at the bow and sides, as the ice to be dealt with becomes more formidable. The shell plating must be

considerably increased in small boats, and still more so, as the vessels increase in size; additional stringers, stronger decks, and a liberal addition to the number of bulkheads, transverse and longitudinal, as well as many pillars, become a necessity to prevent constant recurrence of repairs.

In the days before ice-breakers came into use at Amsterdam, Stockholm, and other ports, the custom was to have from 50 to 200 or more men to liberate a vessel. These men formed two parties, making holes through the ice at a sufficient distance apart to clear the beam of the ship, then from hole to hole a groove was cut, and the ship would charge to the best of her ability to break the ice, or saws were used to cut from hole to hole, but the operation was very slow and tedious. From a fortnight to six weeks to go fifteen miles to the open water from the ports of Reval and Amsterdam, was a fair time for a vessel, with success, to clear the ice.

In arranging the accommodation in icebreakers, it is desirable to have all this under the weather deck, for the sake of warmth and comfort, with covered-over companions forward and aft for access below. All piping should be kept under the deck, and the fire pipes should be fitted with hydrants below and above this deck. The boiler rooms must be well closed up, and consideration has to be given to the disposal of the ashes, and special arrangements have to be made inside the vessel on which the sea inlets are fitted. Steaming arrangements and circulating water should be delivered at will to the sea inlets, to warm the circulating water, and prevent ice forming in very severe frost.

Care has to be given to the lining of the cabins at the ship's sides, and it has been found that air spaces are the best non-conductors of cold. Condensation is always a difficult problem, and dried heated air pumped in lends itself better to overcoming this trouble than the ordinary system of steam heating, Ventilation has also to be carefully considered, though it is not so complex a question as that of heating.

The rudder should be arranged for easy unshipment afloat, and should be of large area and immensely strong. The moving parts of the machinery and the shafts must be extra strong and largely in excess of ordinary practice. Large surface in the stern tubes is also required to support the shafts when the blades are striking the ice and smashing it up, and the boss and blades must be of the most liberal dimensions. The vessel should be so designed that, if possible, she can be "tipped" to replace a propeller blade whilst afloat.

On the engines it is preferable to have steam reversing gear, as the "all-round" type is a very heavy tax on the engineers when the ship is ice-breaking. In fact all the controlling gear of the engines, if they are large, should be mechanically worked so as to reduce to a minimum the labour entailed by the almost continuous handling of the engines when the ship is at work.

The safety-valves should have silent blowoffs to the condenser so that at sudden stoppages, commands on deck can be given to the crew, or to another vessel alongside of which the ice-breaker may be at the moment. Noise occasioned by escaping steam is most annoying, and makes it nearly impossible to transmit orders on deck.

Most ice-breakers are fitted with large pumping arrangements for salvage pur

poses, as cargo steamers often get damaged in the ice and require assistance to keep afloat.

Navigating in ice, although hazardous, is most fascinating work; it is always changing, difficulties to be overcome at a moment's notice are ever present. Think of the position of an ice-master in a breaker, with say one or two steamers following in his track! Down comes the fog; no astronomical observations can be made; all lights are blotted out; he cannot take a sounding on account of the ice; if he stops, the boat behind (if the master is not on the alert) will run into him, and this in turn applies to the second following boat. Add to this, that the ice is "on the move,' but its direction is not certainly known, and the snow comes to help the complex problem! Only an iron nerve and a quick decision by those in charge of the ice-breaker can meet such a position, and if the vessel is amongst rocks or shoals, and in most places these dangers to navigation are present, the difficulties are indeed increased.

Ice pressures are far reaching and serious in their results; as showing the distance they reach, one case came under my personal observation at Reval. A north-west gale had blown the drift ice at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland into Reval Bay, against the field ice at rest in the Bay, thus forming an enormous pack at the mouth of the Bay, fifteen miles from the harbour. The result of this great pressure was shown on the outside of the stone mole, or breakwater of the outer harbour, where the ice was pressed 32 feet in height, destroying a wooden pier used for steamboats; the amount of ice pressed up represented many thousands of tons in weight.

The captain or ice-master has to exercise considerable care in cutting out vessels fast in the ice, and the procedure is to pass across the bow and then the stern of the fastened vessel. Endeavour should be made to crack the ice in some direction towards the ends of the vessel, before passing her in a parallel direction, in order to obviate as far as possible all chances of crushing the steamer's sides. In passing close alongside, the ice may "upend" between the vessels, with the result that the ships fall together, and the " drag" of the ice-breaker is sure to fetch the other vessel alongside, unless the speed of the breaker is great enough to clear the other vessel. This has actually occurred in the writer's experience in the Gulf of Finland, when a train of eight steamers were following the Ermack to

Cronstadt, and but for the timely assistance of the Ermack life would have been lost.

Another type of steamer used in the ice is the ice-breaking passenger and mail steamer. There are not many of these vessels at work, and of course they are not able to force the packs as readily as an ice-breaker can. They are fitted with every requisite for winter service, including electric projectors. As a rule they propel themselves through the ice at night as well as by day. Three vessels of this type, the Express and the Abo, running between Stockholm and Hangö, and the Bore running between Stockholm and Abo, keep up a steady time-table

self badly. These boats run from Hull to Helsingfors, and are, therefore, ocean-going

steamers.

The Oihonna and Wellamo are also handsome boats of the same class, but smaller in their dimensions.

The Aegir and Linnea, of Helsingfors, are typical cases of ice-breaking cargo steamers. They trade regularly all the winter between Hangö and Lubeck; are 172 feet long, 15 feet draught, and 500 I.H.P., and are much strengthened over the requirements of the Registration Societies, and well-arranged for winter navigation in open water and amongst ice.

They

The Arcturus and Polarius, of Helsingfors, are splendid types of these vessels. were built in Dundee, are 281 feet long and 3,500 I.H.P. They are first-class passenger vessels, are magnificently found in all respects and have a speed in open water of 14 knots.

I have seen the Arcturus make a splendid entry to Reval through the canal cut in the ice by the Ermack, although in passing through the great pack at the entrance of the Gulf, she had too much speed on and damaged her sides below the waterline-in fact, she squeezed her

The Stanley is an ice-breaking mail boat belonging to the Canadian Government; she is occupied in running between Prince Edward's Island and Newfoundland, across the Gulf of St. Lawrence. During the winter the ice at times packs heavily from wind and tide pressure, but this vessel is well able to negotiate the packs she meets on her station. Her length is 208 feet, her beam 37 feet. She has a powerful engine, and is well found for the service, which at times is extremely arduous

and hazardous.

The Britannia, the first steamer of the Cunard Company, in 1844 became fastened in the ice in Boston Harbour; the townspeople arranged to help to cut her out; this was accomplished by sawing and breaking the ice, and by the aid of the vessel's paddle-wheels,

she reached the open water, as the townspeople of Boston made up their minds that the vessel should keep her sailing date. The distance that the Britannia had to be cut out was seven miles, and at that date this was a remarkable undertaking, and meant a great deal to the mail service between England and Canada. Mr. Nelson Cameron (the owner of the print from which the slide is made) inherited it from his father, who was on board the Britannia at the time she was fast in the ice. He had crossed the Atlantic as a passenger over 100 times in the Cunard line, and his yarn about the Boston ice pack was the best of the very many he could tell of his experiences in the early days of Atlantic steam navigation.

The old time whalers of Dundee, and other ports, some of which are now engaged in Polar work, either on Polar expeditions or whaling, are essentially ice-breakers of a type; they are built entirely of wood, the bows sheathed with iron, and many daring deeds have been done with some of these vessels in the Polar seas.

We must not except from this class Dr. Nansen's Fram; she is well designed to withstand shocks and ice pressures, and this she has proved in her long endurance in Polar ice on two expeditions, having but lately returned from four years service in Davis Straits, under the command of Captain Sverdrup.

Nor must we overlook the Discovery of the National Antarctic Expedition now at work in the immense ice of the Southern Polar Ocean, specially built for service in the ice; and the Scotia of the Scottish National Expedition, known for long as the whaler Heckla, built of wood, having sides 24 inches thick, and nine feet of solid timber at the bow wherewith to attack the ice.

There is without doubt a large field for winter service steamers, and their number and power will probably increase in the future, especially as more information regarding ice is obtained from winter to winter, and the method of dealing with ice navigation becomes better known.

of these only the five largest have two lines of rails, the remainder one line, and only three. have screws-two being twin screw, the remainder having paddle-wheels.

The Zyeland, built at Copenhagen, is 171 feet long, has a draught ot 11 feet 6 inches. Her indicated horse-power is 1,200, and she is a very useful ship. She crosses between Korsoer and Nyborg, on the main route of railway between Denmark and Germany, a ferry of about twenty miles.

Another fine railway ice-breaking steamer is the Malmo, built at Malmo, running across the Sound between Copenhagen and Malmo, a distance of 16 miles. She is a powerful vessel, 268 feet long. She draws 10 feet 6 inches water, and has a speed in open water of 13.25 knots. Her engines are triple expansion, she has a space on deck for eighteen railway waggons, and successfully copes with the peculiar conditions of the ice at this station.

On the main route of railway between Denmark and Sweden at Elsinore, there is a railway ferry steamer, the Heslingborg, built at Elsinore, and only lately put to work. She is 177 feet long. has one line of rails, and is fitted with a screw propeller at either end. The distance across is 11 miles. She has compound engines of 800 horse-power, has attained a speed, in open water, of 109 knots, and has to attack heavy packed ice during the winter.

The Danish State Railways are now establishing a railway ferry between Gjedser, in Denmark, and Warnemunde, in Mecklenberg; the distance across is 24 miles. There are to be four steamers on this route, two twin screw and two paddle, 285 feet long. They are to have two sets of rails, and will be able to take on four express bogie coaches of 65 feet in length. Their speed will be 14 knots an hour, and the intention is to keep up an express railway service between Germany and Denmark all the year, without the passengers having to leave the carriages, and at times during winter the ice sets heavily on the land.

Following these vessels come the famous railway ferry ice-breakers at Saratoff on the River Volga, which are used for keeping up the services of the Riazan Ouralsk Railway across this mighty river. The river is icebound for several months during the winter. The fleet consists of two steamers, one being an icebreaker, whose duties consist of taking across the passengers, mails, and luggage. The distance across is less than a mile, and she is generally able to accomplish the journey in