request of Commander, International Ice Patrol. Results of these 

 flights indicated that the ice situation was normal, and that there was 

 no immediate threat to shipping in February or early March. An 

 advance party arrived at Ai-gentia on 3 March to open the Ice Patrol 

 Office, and the fu-st ice observation flight w^as flown on 6 March. 

 Commander, International Ice Patrol arrived with the remainder of 

 his staff on 9 March, and United States Coast Guard Radio Station, 

 Argentia (NIK), opened on 14 March to receive sea water tempera- 

 tures, weather and ice reports from shipping. Twice daily reports of 

 ice conditions to the United States Hydrographic Office, Washington, 

 D. C, w^ere commenced the same day, and NIK ice broadcasts to 

 shipping were begun 19 March. 



The major feature of the 1953 ice season was the fact that a potential 

 threat of major proportions existed in mid-March, but only a minor 

 threat developed, and instead of expanding in April and May, as is 

 normal, this threat rapidly vanished by the end of March. At mid- 

 March, the berg concentrations and the pack ice limits were similarly 

 menacing as those of 1948 and 1950, the heaviest recent ice years. By 

 the end of March, the ice situation compared favorably with 1951 and 

 1952, two of the lightest ice years on record. This complete reversal 

 of form is attributed to three events in the latter part of March: (1) 

 On 10 March, a low-pressure area passed just south of the ice limits 

 bringing easterly winds of 35 to 40 knots for 2 days, thus driving the 

 pack ice and bergs therein toward the coast, and removing all but 

 3 bergs from the east branch of the Labrador Current. (2) This was 

 followed by an extensive stationary high which remained in the area 

 for the next 10 days producing sunny and mild weather this whole 

 period, thus melting and thinning the pack ice and warming the 

 surrounding waters. (3) This period of unseasonably warm weather 

 was followed by a slowly moving low just south of the ice limits 

 causing easterly winds of 35 to 40 knots for 3 days, thus further 

 reducing the already thinned and weakened pack ice offshore of 

 Newfoundland, and driving the suspected heavy concentration of 

 bergs to the north toward the coast and into the bays removing w4iat 

 chance they may have had of reaching the steamer tracks. Of the 

 many bergs just north of 48°00' N., only 3 remained in the Labrador 

 Current and moved south, and of the 3, 2 bergs, in the form of a small 

 berg and 2 growlers, reached track C, having traveled about 435 miles 

 in 12 days, a rate of 36 miles per day. (See fig. 1 .) This was the only 

 ice to reach the shipping lanes w^hich pass under the Tail of the Banks 

 and was last sighted as 1 growler and 1 disintegrated growler in 

 position 42°37' N., 50°22' W. These two growlers soon melted, and 

 no other ice moved south of 48°00' N., along the east slope of the 

 Grand Banks. The other bergs moved toward the coast and into 

 the bays or grounded on the north sector of the Banks and then 

 drifted slowly to the south-southwest until disintegration. The cycle 



