SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 169 



ice-cap where :^lle ^v;^^ beset northwest of Wran<iel Ishuid, Siberia. 

 The latter part of the nineteenth century on four different occasions, 

 viz., 1871. 1876. 1888. and 189G. witnessed a series of unexpected 

 " freezes." when the American whalino- fleets were crushed in the 

 |);ick ice east of Point Barrow. Ahiska. with a total loss of more than 

 .")(• sliips. Whalin<r. fur tradin<:-. and scientific explorations have 

 (lone mucli to educate tlie nuiny able seamen of both steam and sail 

 j]j the art of ice navioation. Bartlett (1028). one of the best known 

 (}f present-day sailin<r masters, has discussed some of his rich and 

 \ aried experiences in northern seas and published a few valuable in- 

 structions on the art of ice navigation. 



But the state of the ice in the Arctic is far different from such 

 ((•nditions in the more open, yet ice-infested waters of temperate 

 hititudes. The pack ice and the beset ship of tlie far North gives 

 way in the Nortli Atlantic to the massive iceberg and the sudden 

 impact of disastrous collision. Modern attainments in the art of 

 shipbuilding have ])laced in commission enormous hulls, aggregat- 

 ing r)0,()0(t tons, costing $5,000,000 to $15,000,000, and driven at rail- 

 } oad speeds of 20 to 25. or more, knots per hour. On board one of 

 these new-day leviathans travel 8,000 to 4,000 people, as many souls 

 as constitute a fair-sized village on shore: 1,500 to 2,000 total indi- 

 A dual passages are made through, or ])ast, the ice regions off' Xew- 

 foundhmd every season, and this represents approximately $10,000,- 

 ()0(i,0(i0 of property and 1,000,000 lives that come each year within 

 tjje sha(U)w of the ice menace. 



The icebergs off' Xewfoundland have for centuries been one of the 

 ii.ost dreaded dangers of trans-Atlantic navigators. John Cabot 

 describes sailing past these towering monsters shrouded in Grand 

 liank fogs on his first voyages to America early in the six- 

 teentli century. Pioneer navigators of the Xorth Atlantic soon 

 learned to determine their latitude approaching western shores by 

 the sharp line of Arctic waters tlirust southward along the forty- 

 seventh meridian. (See fig. 110.) Benjamin Franklin through his 

 lelative Capt. Peter Folger of Nantucket, pointed out the Gidi 

 Stream and a path to avoid most of the Newfoundland fog and ice, 



A perusal of trans-North Atlantic sailing ship disasters impress 

 (tne with the great numl)er of casualties that befell those vessels 

 which followed the shortest route (great circle course) across the 

 ire longitudes. Strange to relate, however, the risk of collisions 

 between ships, bound on opposite courses, especially in the fog 

 regions south of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, first elicited more 

 anxiety tlian did the dangers of the ice. Early in the nineteenth 

 tentury an unusually appalling disaster about 50 miles east of Cape 

 Kace, between the French steamer Vesfa and the American ship 

 Arctic with the loss of 300 lives brought an acute realization that 

 lemedial measures must be taken. Lieut. M. F. Maury of the United 

 States Navy was the first to pro})ose seperate lane routes in his Sail- 

 ing Directitms. published in 1855. Another active advocate of sepa- 

 rating the east and Avest bound traffic was Mi'. K. B. Forbes, of Bos- 

 ton, Mass. whose proposal to run the westbound lane diagonally 

 across the Grand Bank just south of Cape Race, while the eastbound 

 (lacks were to cross about 15 miles north of the Tail of the Grand 

 Bank (latitude 43"^ at longitude 50° W.) was the one eventually 

 adopted. 



