30 



usually long and heavy ice season, the radio apparatus and personnel 

 stood up excellently. Every effort is made before the season starts 

 to see that all radio equipment is ready for the strain that will come 

 upon it and to have the latest improvements for the sets installed. 

 The magnitude and importance of the communication work of the 

 patrol can be grasped in part by a study of the figures relating to vol- 

 ume of traffic shown on page 26 of this pamphlet. 



On the night of July 20 the British tanker Vimiera struck a berg 

 at 42° 40' N., 49° 44' W., some 70 miles north of the westbound 

 "B" tracks, which were then in effect for passenger vessels. She was 

 badly stove in forward and her propeller was totally disabled by the 

 bending -aft of one of its blades as the ship scraped by the berg. 

 Fortunately, there was no loss of life or even injury to anyone. Her 

 case should serve as a warning to the masters of other vessels to pro- 

 ceed cautiously when in the ice regions during all times of low visibility. 

 Recent comparative freedom from disaster seems to be causing a 

 growing carelessness, for the patrol noted in 1929 no less than 100 

 cases of failure on the part of passenger vessels to adhere to the 

 tracks prescribed by the trans-Atlantic track agreement. Every 

 ship that crosses the iceberg area at a speed greater that that at which 

 she can either turn or stop before striking a berg seen ahead under the 

 conditions of visibility prevailing is playing a game of chance. 



Thanks particularly to improved radio and to more effective 

 cooperation from shipmasters, much progress' has been made during 

 the past 14 years, and it is believed that a more efficient patrol can be 

 maintained now than then, but it must not be thought for an instant 

 that the ice patrol is infaUible or that it is all-seeing. Broadcasts 

 . listing the positions of all the southernmost ice of which the patrol has 

 knowledge are regularly sent out, but shipmasters must always 

 realize that ice can move rapidly and seemingly erratically when it is 

 off' the eastern edge of the Grand Banks and still faster and more 

 incomprehensibly when it is south, of latitude 43° N. The dates 

 given with all berg positions in the broadcasts show the freshness of 

 • the several reports. Possible drifts since time of report must be 

 considered by shipmasters most carefully. 



In view of the increasing speed and importance of trans-Atlantic 

 travel, this summary of the 1929 ice-patrol season can not end better 

 than by sounding a final warning by means of the words with which 

 Capt. F. A. Levis, of the Seneca, closed his summary of the 1915 

 ice-patrol season. These words are as true now as they ever were 

 and they will in all probability always remain true. Captain Levis 

 said: "Of: e^ourse there is always a chance that a berg will reach the 

 steamer tracks- 'mthout being seen or reported, on account oj prolonged 

 periods of fog, but the presence of the ice-patrol vessels near the danger 

 zone assures passing vessels that assistance is near by in case of 

 disaster." 



