30 



opportunity to observe action, for when they were near it one of the 

 three pinnacles broke from the main berg where it had been eaten 

 into about the water line. Hundreds of tons of ice fell off into the 

 sea with loud reports and roars. The berg did not capsize but rose 

 up and acquired a permanent tilt of about 30° when it was relieved 

 of the weight of one end. 



A considerable amount of ice in small pieces was picked up by 

 the boat and brought aboard. It was hard and brittle with a tendency 

 to crack up into pieces with very irregular surfaces if struck hard 

 or dropped. The ice itself was very clear but it contained many of 

 the usual air bubbles, each about half the size of small common 

 pinheads. 



At 8 a. m. on June 12 while the Modoc was drifting in a dense fog 

 in the vicinity of the berg sighted the previous day a report was 

 received from the Tampa, a freighter, stating that they had just 

 passed a dory with two men in it apparently lost in the fog. They 

 were endeavoring to relocate this boat. The patrol ship immediately 

 started for the position, about 80 miles to the northwest, to assist 

 in the search. Before half the distance had been run the Tampa 

 radioed that the weather was now clear and that no dory was in 

 sight but that a large sailing vessel was near by. As they assumed 

 this to be the mother ship of the dory they had resumed their course 

 to the east. The Modoc was stopped to drift again in the fog. 



Very soon the clear weather reached the Modoc. It was decided 

 to run up the Labrador current until dark, searching for ice coming 

 down. A strong current from the north with pronounced tide rips 

 was observed over the uneven bottom east of the 100-fathom curve 

 between the parallels of 43° 30' and 44° 00' N. The Tampa and the 

 Gripsholm ran across the Labrador current to the north of the forty- 

 fourth parallel. Neither they nor the patrol vessel sighted any ice 

 on June 12. 



On the 13th the patrol vessel steamed to the southwestward and 

 finished searching the lower end of the Labrador current. When no 

 ice was found it was felt pretty certain that the only berg south of 

 44° 30' N. was the one found on the 11th near 43° N., 49° W. It was 

 not seen near its previous location on the 13th because it had probably 

 drifted to the southwest past the Tail by that time. 



On the 14th, loth, and 16th it was foggy or thick and stormy 

 practically all of the time so no searching could be carried on. On 

 the 17th the weather cleared. It was thought that the berg of the 

 nth had melted by this time. At any rate it was futile to waste 

 valuable time trying to find this single small isolated berg after such 

 a long separation. It was deemed more advantageous to search up 

 the Labrador current as long as the visibility held good. Such a 

 course was followed but no bergs were sighted in the area east and 



