INTERNATIONAL ICE PATROL 1950 



As set forth in the Convention for Promoting Safety of Life at 

 Sea signed at London on May 31, 1929, a service ot ice patrol and a 

 service for study and observation of ice conditions in the North 

 Atlantic is maintained for the principal maritime nations by the United 

 States Coast Guard acting as the agent of the United States Govern- 

 ment. This service has been inaugurated annually in the early 

 spring ol each year since 1913 except for the unavoidable interruptions 

 of two great wars. Over this period of some thirty-odd years instru- 

 ments and techniques have improved and as a natural consequence 

 the quality of the service offered to mariners in the form of an ice 

 patrol has also improved. However, the underlying principle of 

 ice patrol that forewarning merchant ships of ice in their path is 

 the best preventive against disaster is the same today as it was the 

 first year an ice patrol cutter put to sea to inaugurate an organized 

 patrol. 



The attainment of this principle in practice is accomplished by 

 giving mariners, who are in or about to traverse the area where ice 

 may be a threat to life and property, the most complete information 

 on ice that it is practicable to provide. Collection, collation, and 

 dissemination of ice information are the three processes involved in 

 reaching this objective. Ice information is collected from reports 

 from merchant vessels, sightings by surface craft and aircraft of the 

 International Ice Patrol, reports from shore stations, and reports 

 from naval surface craft and aircraft. Since the last war collation 

 of this ice information has been done in the ice patrol office at Argentia, 

 Newfoundland, which is also the base for the ships and planes of the 

 ice patrol. This centralization of functions in the office at Argentia 

 allows the reports of the aerial observers to be compared with reports 

 received from merchant ships and other sources immediately upon 

 return of the aircraft. All these reports are checked for duplication 

 insofar as is practicable and the information is condensed into a single 

 bulletin. 



Ice reports must be transmitted promptly to be of maximum 

 usefulness and it is because of this time factor that radio is used both 

 for the collection and the dissemination of ice information. The radio 

 call sign of the International Ice Patrol (NIDK) is guarded by the 

 patrol cutter in the area. Prior to the inauguration of a continuous 

 surface-vessel patrol the Coast Guard Kadio at Argentia, radio call 



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