collected the -l-hourly reports from ships passing through the ice patrol 

 area and relayed the ice and obstruction reports to the Ice Patrol Office 

 ashore where this information was combined with similar information 

 from all other sources and condensed into the ice bulletins which were 

 broadcast to shipping twice daily. The Ice Patrol Office was located 

 at the Naval Operating Base, Argentia, Newfoundland. Planes of the 

 United States Coast Guard Air Detachment, Argentia, Newfoundland, 

 were used, together with the facilities of the Naval Operating Base, 

 Argentia, Newfoundland, at which place the ships were based. 



The surface patrol vessel carried the customary Ice Observation 

 Officer. His function was to advise the commanding officer of the cutter 

 in technical matters of ice patrol; keep a plot of ice, ships in transit 

 through the area, and sea surface temperatures; to warn ships standing 

 into danger; and to answer requests for special ice information. 



It has been emphasized in previous bulletins and is reemphasized 

 here that the above formal organization is only the framework of the 

 International Service of Ice Observation and Ice Patrol. The majority 

 of effort is supplied by all maritime agencies and ships crossing the North 

 Atlantic. Thanks are extended to all cooperating agencies and vessels. 

 Without their cooperation the successful performance of this international 

 service would not be possible. The total number of ships cooperating 

 was 572 representing 21 countries. 82.9 percent of these vessels repre- 

 sented 5 of the 21 countries. Following is a list of the 5 major par- 

 ticipating countries followed by their percentage of the total vessels: 



Percent 



United States 42.4 



Great Britain 28.5 



Norway 4.5 



Sweden 4.0 



Canada 3.5 



All others 17.1 



Total 100.0 



During the latter part of 1939, and at the April 1940 meeting of the 

 Commission of Snow and Glaciers of the International Union of Geodesy 

 and Geophysics, attention was called to the desirability of taking an ice- 

 berg census of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. It was believed that a 

 knowledge of the relative amount and extent of pack-ice and icebergs in 

 Davis Strait and Baffin Bay would furnish a better estimate than at 

 present of the character of the ice season the following spring on the 

 Grand Banks. As a result, in the late summer of 1940 ^ the USCGC 

 Northland carried out an iceberg and pack-ice census of Davis Strait and 

 Baffin Bay. Original plans called for this ice census to be repeated on 

 3 successive years, however th(^ census started by the Northland in 1940 

 was interrupted in 1941 because of the war. It was not possible to 



• Smith, Edward H., Ice OVjservati )n in the Greenland Sector, 1940. International Ice Observation 

 and Ice Patrol Service in the North Atlantic Ocean— .Season of 1940. U. S. Coast Guard Bulletin No. 

 30, p. 13 (1941), Washington. 



