ICEBERG DANGER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 58, Issue 4190, 29 May 1939, Page 7

ICEBERG DANGER

ROYAL EXPERIENCE. EFFECTIVE PATROL MEASURES. The Empress of Australia, with the King and Queen aboard, had to slow down owing to the presence of icebergs. Nevertheless, it is probable that all the icebergs photographed by the King had been previously plotted by the Ice Patrol. Two trim little cutters, the Tampa and the Medoc, form the nucleus of this patrol, which was inaugurated after the Titanic disaster in 1912. Although America runs the patrol, other countries contribute towards its upkeep. The cost to Britain is about £5900 a year. Since the Start of the patrol, after the Titanic disaster, there has not been a casualty attributable to icebergs. The patrol is on watch during the months when icebergs are prevalent, usually from April to June. The patrol follows the fog banks and plots the position and direction of travel of all iceterg-s observed. Every year about 50,000 warning messages are broadcast by radio. The numbers of large icebergs varies from about 11 to 1500. The icebergs that form such a danger to shipping routes in the North Atlantic start as snowflakes. As the layer of snow increases their weight consolidates those underneath. Tn time ice is formed, and in the course of years the ice forms a glacier. The time that elapses between the fall of snow and the breaking off of the glaj cier into icebergs in the ocean may be

100 years. When the glaciers break off in the polar seas huge masses of ice float off. Single icebergs have been surveyed which weighed 2,000,000,000 tons. One may well appreciate the fact that a liner with a tonnage of 50,'000 or so is insignificant in comparison. There are records of icebergs whose pinnacles tower 1500 feet above the sea. This means that some icebergs are half as big as Mt. Pirongia. Actually, only one-eighth of the iceberg is visible above the sea. The remainder is under water. This means that a tall iceberg, say 1500 feet high goes down 12,000 feet into the sea. The proportion of surface of an iceberg affected by the winds is only small compared with the underwater area affected by deep ocean currents. Moreover, water being denser than air, has a greater effect on a given surface. It is possible, and it has often been noted, that icebergs can travel even against strong gales. Indeed, instances have been known of icebergs advancing on sailing vessels and overwhelming them. Dr. Kane, an American voyager, once hitched his vessel to an iceberg and travelled in this way due north when the wind was driving due south. Ice bergs, moreover, are great travellers. Some have been known to cover 3900 miles from the place of their birth until they disappeared. As they melt icegrow top heavy and turn over. Vessels standing too near have been overwhelmed in this manner. Nevertheless, there is no effective method to destroy a large iceberg. Explosives are effective on the smaller ones as well as heat bombs.