VIGIL OF ICE PATROL

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1929, Page 13

VIGIL OF ICE PATROL

SAVES MANY LINERS. RADIO MEN KEPT BUSY. “ ’Ware icebergs is the cry in the Atlantic as soon as the warm weather apj proaches. Then is the time they are most to be feared, for the heat makes them break away from the icefields and drift southwards. The International Ice Patrol was inaugurated in 1913 to scour the northern seas in search of these monsters in order to give timely warning of their presence by wireless to the many trans-Atlantic vessels whose routes lie through these perilous areas. The job of the vessels on this patrol (says a contributor to Pearson’s Weekly) is to locate the icebergs and icefields menacing the northern Atlantic shipping routes; to ascertain how far down the ice reaches, and to keep in touch with it as it drifts slowly southward. As soon as the ’berg is sighted, bearings and details arc taken, and then the wireless operator gets busy, flashing all round for hundreds of miles particulars of the floating menace. THOUSAND FEET HIGH. Icebergs aren’t alvAays found just one here and there. Often they are seen in dozens, looming out of the sea like gigantic white spectres. Usually about a third .of the berg' is visible above the water, so that some idea of the immensity of these mountains of ice can be gathered from the fact that many measure as much as four hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea.

A ship finding itself, in the midst of such company is in a very precarious position. At any moment the riveted iron plates forming the hull might be ripped off by the submerged section of a mighty piece of ice. The captain of such a vessel, if he. had time, would, instead of trying to pass the ’berg at close quarters, steer straight for it. The bows of the ship would probably be badly telescoped, but that would be far better than having thousands of gallons of sea water rushing madly into the hold through a great rent in the side. Perhaps the most difficult time to sight an iceberg is when it floats on a moonlit night, between tho oncoming ship and tho silvery rays of the moon hanging low on the horizon. The rippling reflection of the moonlight on the water and tho pale glare of the moon itself all tend to mingle with and obscure the frozen monster floating there in icy stillness. HOW THE ’BERGS FORM. Although there is much ice formed elsewhere, the enormous ’bergs that arc such a danger to ships como from the Greenland glaciers. In that desolate island the temperature is so low that one layer of snow cannot 1 melt before another falls on top of it. In time there is a tremendous accumulation which, because of the groat pressure of its own weight, turns to ice, forming a massive sheet. This sheet is known as the “Greenland ice cap,” From this cap the ice, still being subjected to enormous pressure, flows down tho sloping valleys toward the sea. When it reaches the coast it still moves seawards until at last it is in water sufficiently deep for it to become water borne.

The great icebergs that menace the northern Atlantic shipping routes are portions of these ice tongues which have been broken off by the undermining action of the sea and the various other pressures such massive bodies are subjected to.

As tho warmer weather approaches and they drift slowly southward they gradually melt .'until they finally disappear altogether.