Huntmg down 



icebergs is a 



chilly job 



In 1912, the British liner Titanic, built 

 at a cost of $7,500,000, left Southampton 

 for New York on her maiden crossing of 

 the Atlantic. Her passengers and crew 

 numbered 2,207. Only 690 ever set foot 

 safely on shore again. The remaining 

 1,517 went down with the ship when she 

 struck an iceberg as she neared New- 

 foundland. 



It was after this tragedy that a confer- 

 ence of the principal maritime nations, 

 meeting in London in 1914, decided to 

 inaugurate an International Ice Patrol, the 

 cost to be defrayed in fixed proportions by 

 the nations benefited. The Coast Guard, 

 however, had actually started ice patrols 

 in 1913. 



Icebergs in the fog 



The area patrolled is 45,000 square 

 miles or about the size of the State of Penn- 

 sylvania. During the ice season, which 

 runs from February to August, the area is 



heavily blanketed with fog and every year 

 an average of 400 bergs drift southward 

 toward the busiest steamer lanes in the 

 world. Considering the vastness of the 

 area, the generally poor visibility, and the 

 great number of bergs, it is not inconceiv- 

 able that one may occasionally get into 

 the shipping lanes unobserved, despite the 

 most up-to-date scientific developments 

 and detection equipment used by Ice 

 Patrol cutters and planes. Yet, in all the 

 time the Coast Guard has performed this 

 duty, no ship has been lost through col- 

 lision with an iceberg. 



In both World Wars, however, when' 

 submarines were more of a menace than 

 icebergs. Ice Patrol was suspended so that 

 cutters could perform more important 

 escort duty. There was but one major mis- 

 hap — in the second war. The British ship 

 Sreud Foyne hit a berg in March 1943. 

 Before she sank, 145 persons aboard her 

 were rescued by Coast Guard and other 

 craft. 



During most of World War II, a de- 

 tachment of Coast Guardsmen experi- 

 enced in Ice Patrol was based at Argen- 

 tia, Newfoundland, to serve as a clearing- 

 house for ice formation. The movement 

 of bergs was reported to them by planes 

 and escorts that encountered ice while 

 performing other duties. Finally, regular 

 patrols were resumed in 1946. 



Planes team up 

 with cutters to 

 detect icebergs 

 in the fog-bound 

 North Atlantic. 



