staff arrived al Argentia 9 February to establish and organize the ice 

 patrol office and radio station. The Commander, International Ice 

 Patrol, and the remainder of his staff arrived at Argentia 13 February. 

 Broadcast of twice-daily ice bulletins to mariners by the United 

 States Coast Guard Radio Argentia (NIK) was commenced on 17 

 February. In addition, there was initiated transmission via the 

 teletype net of twice-daily ice reports to the United States Hydro- 

 grapliic Office, Washington, D. C, the Canadian Department of 

 Transport, Halifax, N. S., and the Royal Canadian Navy Radio 

 Station at Albro Lake, N. S., for inclusion in the ice information dis- 

 seminated by those agencies. 



During the 1954 ice season, the International Ice Patrol depended 

 mainly on the following sources for ice information: 



(a) Ice observation flights were made by the International Ice 

 Patrol aircraft operating out of Argentia as frequently as weather 

 conditions and the number of available aircraft permitted. These 

 flights were planned to scout all the ice-infested area in the vicinity 

 of the Grand Banks and off the east coasts of Newfoundland and 

 Labrador as far north as was necessary to guard against the unde- 

 tected encroachment of ice into the steamer tracks in use. 



(6) Reports were solicited and received from ships and aircraft 

 sighting ice. In addition to reporting any ice sighted, all ships be- 

 tween latitudes 39° N. and 49° N. and longitudes 42° W. and 60° W. 

 were requested to report their position, course, speed, sea surface 

 temperature, visibility, weather and sea conditions every 4 hours to 

 Commander, International Ice Patrol. As in the past, the Interna- 

 tional Ice Patrol relied heavily on these reports, and cooperation b}^ 

 shipping was excellent. 



(c) During the months of March and April, the Canadian Depart- 

 ment of Transport made ice reconnaissance flights in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence area and forwarded the results to Commander, Inter- 

 national Ice Patrol, via the teletype net. 



(d) Ice conditions off the east coast of Canada north of New- 

 foundland and off the west coast of Greenland were described in 

 frequent reports received from the L^nited States Hydrographic 

 Office. 



The ice information received by the International Ice Patrol was 

 evaluated with respect to drift and mortality rate in order to — 



(a) Eliminate from the NIK ice bulletins old reports of ice judged 

 with certainty to have melted; 



(b) Eliminate from the NIK ice bulletins old reports of bergs de- 

 duced with certainty to be identical with newly reported bergs; 



(c) Allow for the probable drift of ice in planning ice observation 

 flights to relocate that ice; 



