INTRODUCTION 



The ice season of 1933 differed greatly from the average year, in 

 that only two bergs followed the usual path in the Labrador current 

 down the eastern slope of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. 



The 125-foot U.S. Coast Guard cutter General Greene sailed from 

 Boston, Mass., on March 2, 1933, for the ice-patrol area in the vicinity 

 of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Her duties were to scout at 

 frequent intervals the area most likely to be ice infested, to locate 

 the limits of the ice, and to notify Coast Guard headquarters when 

 ice would probably become a serious menace to the shipping lanes 

 in order that the regular ice patrol might be inaugurated. Also the 

 General Greene was to make such oceanographic observations as 

 would not interfere with her main mission. Mr. Floyd M. Soule, 

 senior physical oceanographer. United States Coast Guard, was 

 assigned to the General Greene to perform the oceanographic work. 



The General Greene based on St. John's, Newfoundland, and made 

 observational cruises until June 6, 1933. At that time the cutter 

 Champlain made an ice observation cruise so that the ice regions 

 would not be left unguarded during the time the General Greene was 

 in port. By June 19 it had become evident that no ice would drift 

 southward and menace the shipping lanes this season and that the 

 cutters would not be needed to maintain the regular patrol. Then 

 Lt. R. M. Hoyle, ice observation officer for the ice patrol, was ordered 

 to command the General Greene. 



On June 26 the General Greene sailed on an oceanographic and ice 

 observation cruise in Davis Strait, extending as far north as Hudson 

 Strait on the American coast and Ivigtut on the Greenland side. She 

 returned to St. John's, Newfoundland, on July 27. 



This Bulletin contains the accounts of ice observation and ocean- 

 ographic cruises. The oceanographic results of the northern cruise 

 are still being computed and studied. They will be published with 

 the oceanographic results of the Marion Expedition of 1928 and of 

 the General Greene's Davis Strait cruise in 1931. (U. S. Coast Guard 

 Bulletin 19, pt. 2.) 



For the history of the ice patrol and method of conducting the 

 patrol during a normal ice season see the introduction to Bulletin 

 No. 22, International Ice Observation and Ice Patrol Service in the 

 North Atlantic Ocean, season 1932. 



This Bulletin was prepared jointly by Senior Physical Oceanog- 

 rapher Floyd M. Soule and Lt. R. M. Hoyle. The former is prima- 

 rily responsible for the section on oceanography and the latter for 

 the section on ice conditions and the rest of the report. 



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