INTRODUCTION 



In 1855 Matthew F. Maury, later to be known as "The Pathfinder 

 of the Seas," was a heutenant in the United States Navy and in charge 

 of the Naval Observatory at Washington, D. C. In January of 

 the above year he began strenuously advocating in the interests of 

 safety separate travel lanes for eastbound and westbound traffic 

 between Europe and America. The cause of the great concern was 

 a disastrous collision between eastbound and westbound vessels, in 

 which 300 lives were lost. There was some opposition at first, but 

 in the course of a few years a mounting list of disasters through 

 collision forced such a system of tracks to be put into efi'ect. Al- 

 though the danger of collision between vessels was thus greatly les- 

 sened, there remained the problem of the ice menace that threatens 

 in the vicinity of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland each spring. 



In 1890 Hugh Rodman, then an ensign in the United States Navy, 

 was ordered to proceed to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to make 

 investigations relative to the ice. The information that he obtained 

 was combined wdth that accumulated through reports for many 

 years from shipping and w-as published by the Hydrographic Office 

 as a pamphlet entitled "Report of Ice and Ice Movements in the 

 North Atlantic Ocean." A partial list of disasters contained therein 

 shows that from March 19, 1882, to April 16, 1890, there were no 

 less than 14 vessels lost and about 40 vessels seriously damaged in 

 the North Atlantic due to ice. Among these were many trans- 

 Atlantic steamers that had collided with icebergs. The Hj'dro- 

 graphic Oflfice admitted that if reports had been received of all the 

 fishing and whaling vessels lost or damaged the list would have 

 been much larger. 



A stud)' of the records up to 1890 clearly showed that the ice 

 came down from the north in larger amounts and extended farther 

 to the southeast of Newfoundland in some years than in others. 

 The heavy ice years were the ones when the greatest toll of trans- 

 Atlantic vessels was taken. Continual efforts were made to gather 

 reports of ice conditions, and the United States Hydrographic Office 

 gave out its information to the shipping interests as quickly and in 

 as much detail as possible. Other than accumulating ice reports on 

 shore from shipmasters, nothing new was done to combat the dan- 

 ger until after the world had been horrified by the Titanic disaster 

 of April 14, 1912, in which over 1,500 persons lost their lives. The 

 Titanic sank on her maiden voyage shortly after collision with an 

 iceberg in latitude 41° 46' N., longitude 50° 14' W. 



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