90 



Vessels maintaining high speeds southeast of the Grand Banks, as- 

 well as in more northern parts of the ice-patrol area, are at times 

 dependent for safety on their chances of having an ice-free track 

 ahead of them. It is entirely idle to think that micro thermographs,, 

 subsurface echo or listening devices, or any other instruments that 

 have as yet been developed by science, can protect ships from colli- 

 sion with ice if they are traveling at from 10 to 24 knots during dense' 

 fog, pitch darkness, and the like. If any device for detecting the 

 presence ahead of bergs or heavy field ice were practical the fine- 

 steamers on the Canadian tracks would adopt it and proceed at 

 reasonable speeds during bad conditions of visibility instead of stop- 

 ping or groping along at about 3 knots, as many of them do at such 

 times, while between the longitudes where icebergs are situated. 



The danger of collision with ice is a real and not a fancied one at 

 many times and places south of the Cape Race tracks and even south 

 of the Tail. The Titanic is far from being the only vessel to have- 

 struck a berg. To mention two recent cases, the reader is reminded 

 of the Montrose, which in 1928 and the Vimeita, which in 1929, struck 

 bergs head on off the eastern edge of the Grand Banks. Neither vessel 

 was lost, but heavy damage was sustained in both cases. No one 

 should deceive himself in this matter. To depend blindly on the 

 broadcasts of the ice patrol is not enough. The only way to be 

 sure of not hitting ice in regions where bergs are liable to exist is to 

 keep a bright lookout and to travel at speeds low enough to insure 

 ability to stop or turn aside before striking a berg just visible ahead 

 under the prevailing atmospheric conditions. 



The Western North Atlantic can be likened to a great dance hall 

 and the bergs to dancers. The southern part of the room is warm and 

 unoccupied. The cold northern part of it is where the orchestra of 

 the wind holds sway. There the floor is crowded by jostling dancers 

 through whom one must pick one's way with great care. The central 

 part of the room is occupied at times by a few of the hardiest and 

 swiftest performers. Their maneuvers are watched, but the floor is 

 vast and the light is so bad that fully half the time they can not be 

 seen. Sending vessels past the Tail at high speeds during low visi- 

 bility is like rolling thin glass balls across the central part of such a 

 dance floor and hoping that they will not strike the flying feet of the 

 dancers that occasionally execute intricate figures in the middle of 

 the hall. 



For postulated berg sizes and frequencies the mathematical chances 

 of collision with ice under the worst conditions of high speed and low 

 visibility can easily be calculated. Let us suppose that bergs 300 

 feet in diameter are ahead of a fast liner and that there is only one such 

 berg along each 60 mile front at right angles to the course line. It 

 very frequently happens that the southernmost bergs have not been 



