11 



safety. The number of ships, so cooperating, is increasing from year 

 to year, but there are still a few who do not comply. This oppor- 

 tunity is taken to thank those who sent in their reports as requested 

 and to urge those who did not, to do so. The more reports received 

 the more eifective is the Patrol. As it is impossible to treat each 

 ship as an individual case, it must be assumed that all ships have 

 copied the broadcasts (see Communications, p. 18), which contain all 

 available information up to the time of transmittal. For this reason 

 special information or warnings are not sent unless requested or some 

 unusual situation arises. 



During this season the Patrol had the opportunity to give medical 

 advice to several vessels by radio. Favorable results were reported 

 in all cases. One man was taken aboard the Patrol ship from a New- 

 foundland steam trawler, on the southwestern slope of the Grand 

 Banks, suffering from seriously infected wounds. He was treated for 

 5 days on board and returned to St. John's, Newfoundland, via the 

 General GreeTie when she returned to port. 



Some of the salient features of the season, which are thoroughly dis- 

 cussed under Ice Conditions, North Atlantic, 1935, immediately fol- 

 lowing this section, will be taken up here. During the first two pa- 

 trols it was noted that none of the bergs drifted south of latitude 44° 

 N. although they moved in a normal manner while north of this 

 latitude. They seemed under the influence of a current which turned 

 east and then northeast just north of the 44th parallel. The first 

 current map completed April 20, however, revealed the existence of 

 a strong Labrador Current setting southward between latitude 46° N. 

 and 43° N. just east of the Banks. Its maximum velocity was about 

 48 miles per day and it averaged about 24 miles per day between lati- 

 tudes 46° N. and 44° N. (fig. 19). At the beginning of the third 

 cruise, April 9 to 21, bergs suddenly began moving rapidly southward 

 at over 30 miles per day, between these latitudes, and continued at a 

 slower rate when south of latitude 44° N. (See fig. 12.) This was 

 almost in exact accordance with the current chart, the data for which 

 were gathered between the 10th and the 20th of April. Did this 

 swift current exist before April 10 as shown, or did the current indi- 

 cated by the berg drifts just prior to this date exist, or was there a 

 rapid ciiange in conditions between April 1 and 10? As has been 

 stated above, the current maps depict the deeper and more fun- 

 damental water movements which are sometimes masked by surface 

 conditions. In this fact lies the answer to the questions above. The 

 bergs whose amazingly rapid drifts were noted on the 10th and 11th 

 of April were the first large bergs to move south. Their deep draft 

 extended their mass below the surface layers into the grip of the 

 swiftly moving Arctic Current, so they conformed to the current chart. 



81771—37 2 



