reports of the patients' progress are often essential to continued proper 

 treatment and in any case would be greatly appreciated. 



The ultimate success of the Ice Patrol is dependent upon the willing 

 cooperation of the merchant vessels for whom this service is main- 

 tained. Without this assistance it would be impossible for a single 

 vessel to adequately protect shipping from the menace of ice. The 

 cooperation of vessels with the Ice Patrol consists primarily, of course, 

 in the reporting of all ice sighted. The necessity for this service need 

 not be emphasized. Secondarily, the ships are asked to report their 

 position, course and speed every 4 hours wliile in the Ice Patrol area 

 (see fig. 1) and at the same time send in their sea water temperature, 

 at that position, and meteorological data, at that time. It is this 

 secondary function of the cooperating ships that it is desired to stress 

 here. These 4-hourly temperature reports serve a fourfold purpose: 

 one, the sea surface temperature is used to construct a biweeldy surface 

 isothermal chart which indicates in a general way the major water 

 movements and supplements the montlily current charts; two, the 

 information as to the whereabouts and movement of the vessels in the 

 prescribed area obtained by these reports contributes materially to 

 the safety of the vessels maldng the reports; three, the tracks of the 

 reporting vessels can be plotted and with the information on their 

 weather and visibility, large areas which might contain ice are scouted 

 out, which is of great assistance to the patrol; and four, the weather 

 reports are useful in the construction of daily weather maps, in 

 planning scouting and in advising vessels as to safe courses. The 

 number of ships sending in these reports is increasing each year but 

 there are still some who do not cooperate and it is thought that if the 

 importance of these reports, both to the Ice Patrol and to them- 

 selves, were realized these ships would be more willing to help. Oppor- 

 tunity is here taken to thank those ships who cooperated in this matter 

 and to urge those, who did not, to do so. 



ICE CONDITIONS, NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN, SEASON OF 



1937 



JULY TO DECEMBER 1936 



As far as is known no ice bergs drifted south of latitude 48° N., 

 during this period. A few bergs continued to be reported east of 

 ^elle Isle and in the Straits during the first part of July but these soon 

 disappeared. Bergs were much less numerous along the Labrador 

 coast during the fall and winter than in 1935. All the bergs had 

 drifted south during the summer months except eight bergs, which 

 were sighted between Ragged Island and Macovik, Labrador on 

 vOctober IL (Approximate latitude 55° N.) No bergs were reported 



1 



