INTRODUCTION 



Icebergs in waterways have long been objects of awe and of fear. Perhaps the first 

 description to come down to us is from St. Brendan's reputed voyage from Ireland to North 

 America in about 570 AD in which the iceberg is described as a column of pure crystal. It is 

 highly likely there were many later encounters and probably losses sustained by the Vikings 

 and by early Basque fishers and whalers but it is not until 1686 that we have the first 

 recorded casualty when the Happy Return struck ice in Hudson Strait. The mariners were 

 probably indifferent to the ice type of their encounter but the fate of the ship Anne (Treby, 

 1724) in April 1704 leaves no doubt as to the nature of the ice as the vessel bounced twice 

 off a huge island of ice. Eleven men were to die, and survivors suffered from frostbite and 

 subsequent amputations, in their struggle to reach St. John's in an open boat. 



There are about 400 recorded collisions of ships of various types hitting icebergs in the North 

 Atlantic during the 19"' century and up until the most famous incident ever, the sinking of the 

 RMS Titanic with the deaths of over 1500 people in 1912. The loss of life, huge in itself in 

 this one event, is less than half the total recorded in the last 200 years. Prior to the Titanic 

 disaster there had been concern for high speed marine traffic in natural hazards of fog and ice 

 as well as derelicts and there had been calls for sea patrols to provide forewarning. The 

 International Ice Patrol (IIP) was inaugurated shortly afterwards, and to this day regularly 

 delineates the area within which floating ice poses danger to shipping in the Grand Banks 

 area. No incident has occurred outside their posted ice limits in this area since, but despite 

 their warnings and improved ship-borne aids to ice detection, there have been over 130 

 collisions in that time inside their limits. Of these, there have been 10 serious incidents in the 

 approaches to Newfoundland since 1980 alone. In the last 20 years there have also been 

 about 20 other incidents around the coastlines of North America including the Arctic and 

 Alaska. 



Better detection methods and ship technologies have changed the nature of the incidents. 

 Larger icebergs are more easily detectable with current radar systems making a recurrence of 

 a Titanic like tragedy extremely unlikely. It is the smaller icebergs, the growlers and the 

 bergy bits which are hidden from radar in heavy seas or fields of sea ice, which pose the 

 main threat, as is well illustrated in all the recent incidents. The potential for loss of life, 

 while still a considerable concern particularly in smaller vessels, is now reduced due to 

 improved rules and regulations for safety of life at sea and more expedient rescue services. 

 However, vessels today are typically much larger, carrying huge amounts of expensive cargo. 

 Repairs to the bulk carrier m/v Trave Ore after striking a bergy bit in 1989 amounted to $4M, 

 not to mention losses due to damage and non-delivery of cargo and losses incurred with a 

 vessel out of service. Ecological concerns are important factors. Fortunately, when a 

 growler rent a 7 by 3 metre hole in the bow of the ni/v Omikronventure in 1993, none of the 

 600,000 barrels of oil was lost, and although not in itself an impact with ice, the m/v Exxon 

 Valdez, the largest ecological disaster of our time, went aground spilling 1 1 million gallons 

 of crude oil when trying to manoeuvre around icebergs. 



Incidental preparation of this report began during the preparation of another report. The 

 Historical Record of Sea Ice and Iceberg Distribution around Newfoundland and Labrador, 



57 



