THE INTERNATIONAL ICE PATROL, 1937 



The ice season of 1937 was in many ways an interesting one. Two 

 outstanding characteristics made it so. One, the very early appear- 

 ance of bergs and their wide distribution in January. And second, 

 the concentration of the main mass of both field ice and bergs along 

 the Newfoundland coast and southeast, south, and southwest of Cape 

 Race, Newfoundland; almost to the total exclusion of other areas. 

 (See fig. 1 and figs. 2 to 7.) These characteristics had some natural 

 results. The early appearance of bergs brought the patrol vessel to 

 the Grand Banks area on the earliest date in the history of the Ice 

 Patrol and the peculiar distribution of the ice made the approach 

 to the Newfoundland coast difficult during February, March, and 

 April (see figs. 3 to 5) and also left the more southern routes, the 

 United States tracks and Canadian track D, remarkably free of bergs 

 during most of the year. Track F was hampered by field ice and 

 bergs from the latter part of January through to the first of July and 

 track E also by field ice and scattered bergs from early February to 

 the first of May. 



The work of the Ice Patrol was carried out this year in the same 

 manner and with the same organization as in the last 3 years. The 

 patrol vessels for the season of 1937 were the United States Coast 

 Guard cutters Cham'plain and Mendota. The oceanographic vessel 

 was the United States Coast Guard patrol boat General Greene. The 

 commander of the International Ice Patrol Force was Commander 

 G. W. MacLane, who was also commanding officer of the Champlain. 

 The commanding officer of the Mendota was Commander Henry 

 Coyle. On the General Greene were Chief Boatswain Thomas Noland, 

 commandmg, and Senior Physical Oceanographer, United States 

 Coast Guard, F. M. Soide and his four assistants. The ice observa- 

 tion officer, technical adviser to the commander of the International 

 Ice Patrol Force, was Lt. G. Van A. Graves, who remained at sea 

 with two assistants throughout the ice patrol season. 



On February 1 and 2 reports of bergs were received located near the 

 Tail of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and along the eastern 

 side of the Banks. These bergs were only a few miles north of 

 west bound track C, then in use, in the critical area where bergs 

 move swiftly southward and form an immediate danger to traffic on 

 that route. Upon receipt of these reports the Coast Guard cutter 

 Cayuga was ordered to sail immediately for the ice regions to patrol 



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