NORTH ATLANTIC PERIL.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20314, 25 May 1934, Page 1

NORTH ATLANTIC PERIL.

How Patrols Warn Ships of Icebergs. LONDON. May 14. More than 600 icebergs are expected to cross the North Atlantic liner route between now and midsummer. The American ice patrol ships have begun their thrilling and perilous hunt, which will last through three strenuous months. When the first icebergs are detected a wireless warning will be sent out and liners will take a special course, set for this time of the year, about forty miles south of the usual track. Even so, great bergs, many of which rise above the water three times higher than St Paul’s Cathedral, do not always take a normal course, but drift where they are a menace to any traffic in the North Atlantic. During their passage, ships have been known to sight no fewer than 200 icebergs. Only one-eighth of a berg appears above water, which means that some formations may be as much as a mile and a half from top to bottom and weigh 3,000,000 tons. Big Task of Patrol. Ever since the Titanic disaster, the United States has provided the ice patrol, to which the various countries subscribe. At night, bergs are almost invisible, and the patrol is continuously on the watch for their presence. Chance distributes floes by current and wind and then conceals them in banks cf fog. The patrol follows the fog banks, and when it encounters a berg its exact position is charted and a wireless warning sent to shipping in the locality. A patrol boat then stands by the towering mass of ice, making" note of its speed, direction and size, and gives shipping the information. Every year about 50,000 messages are broadcast by the patrol to save ships from peril. The space between Arctic waters, where the bergs break away from the main icefield, and the Gulf Stream, where they quickly melt, is called the cold wall. It will soon be dotted with mountains of ice, and ships of all nations will be listening for the warning from the patrol boats.