closed, although on normal years it opens by about the middle of 

 April, and was navigable on 4 April of the preceding year. The 

 southern and western part of the gulf opened up rapidly between 

 the 16th and 23rd. On the 24th a navigable track via the Gut of 

 Canso, north coast of Prince Edward Island, and the western part 

 of the Gulf was open to the River and Quebec. On 26 April the 

 Northumberland Strait route could be used. At the unusually late 

 date of 30 April, the regular shipping track from Cape Ray to 

 the St. Lawrence River opened, and navigation was possible to 

 Montreal. 



During early May the southern limits of the field ice in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence receded rapidly. By the 10th it was well north 

 of the Bay of Islands and no longer threatened the shipping lanes. 

 Some field ice remained in the Strait of Belle Isle, however, until 

 after the 16th of June. 



The gradual clearing of the gulf from the south and west in the 

 1943 ice season is a sharp contrast to that of the 1942 season in 

 which the Cape Ray to Fame Point track opened first, and the Gut 

 of Canso-Northumberland Strait track was blocked by ice until 

 early May. This is in part due to the abnormally heavy westerly 

 and southwesterly winds of 1943 that were so effective in keeping 

 the ice from moving west along the south coast of Nova Scotia. 



NEWFOUNDLAND AREA 



For the purposes of this discussion the Newfoundland area proper 

 is considered to take in the coastal and offshore waters from the 

 Miquelon Islands past Cape Race to the Strait of Belle Isle, includ- 

 ing the Grand Banks and Flemish Cap. In time of peace the 

 Grand Banks region is the one of prime importance, for in that 

 vicinity the icebergs and heavy pack ice normally reach their maxi- 

 mum extension to the south. Ships enroute to Europe shaping 

 their courses to pass south of all ice on the Grand Banks may then 

 continue on a great circle with little danger of encountering ice else- 

 where. If, east of the Banks, a more northerly course is taken ice 

 may be met in the Flemish Cap region. Ordinarily transoceanic 

 shipping is not concerned with the ice areas along the Newfound- 

 land east coast and the Labrador Coast, but these areas are vital 

 because they lie in the Labrador Current immediately upstream 

 from the Grand Banks and feed heavy ice to both that and the 

 Flemish Cap area. By virtue of their position farther from the 

 continental land mass, the waters east of Newfoundland are not 

 so quickly affected by winter cooling as are the waters of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence and along the Labrador Coast. The first ice of the 

 season to appear in the Newfoundland area was that on 30 Decem- 

 ber, 1942, in the vicinity of the Strait of Belle Isle, as discussed 

 in the section treating the St. Lawrence area. Although no other 



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