WAR ON ICEBERGS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 April 1926, Page 3

WAR ON ICEBERGS.

DANGERS OF THE DEEP

PATROL’S EXCITING WORK

Right through the spring and early summer months vessels of the American Navy regularly built for icebergs in the North Atlantic. Tho object is to prevent a recurrence of the terrible disaster which happened to the Titanic, which was sunk on April I4th, 1912, through striking an iceberg. By an international agreement between the Powers, it was arranged that the North Atlantic .should ho patrolled, and the presence of ice and icebergs reported. The United States Government undertook the task, and the Hydrographic Department of tho United States Navy furnished a special service known as the Ice Patrol. Hence, when spring approaches, and the icebergs come floating down from the - great glaciers of Greenland, a number of vessels of the Anietican Coastguard Service go out in search of them.

it is work that calls for nerve, hardihood, and expert seasmanship. Storms, fogs and cold weather are of constant occurrence off the Grand Hanks of Newfoundland, and even in late spring ice in vast quantities and dangerous shape is frequently encountered and is a serious menace to passing ships. The patrol search out tins ice' and wireless its presence to the vessels of all nations in the immediate neighbourhood. ICEBERGS AND ECHOES.

It, i> a little to the south of Newfoundland where ships crossing the Atlantic sight icebergs. The fascination about them lies in their curious shapes and their beautiful colouring. Some look like Arab tents as they glide along, w hile others resemble yachts and castles, and perhaps a well-known animal. Their colours are almost beyond description, ranging from a pure white to a dark blue, caused by l lie rellection of light Iron) the submerged portion of the ice. Some of the information gathered by the ice patrol is exceedingly interesting. it is a tradition among mariners that an iceberg will give off an echo, fill! this is not the experience of the officers of the patrol. The other winter the coastguard cutter Androscoggin encountered eleven large bergs in rapid succession. Although she sounded her whistle on each occasion no sound was given oil', and from this and other experiences came the conclusion that ail echoes are erratic and not to be relied

upon. The ( 111 1 v bergs from which echoes have been obtained have a perpendicular or nearly perpendicular face. Echoes from such bergs have been beard at as great a distance as 1000 yards, but the majority were inaudible at distances greater than 400 yards. DANGERS THROUGH COLLAPSE. Another tradition of the sea in reference to icebergs which the patrol has smashed is that, contrary to the belief of most mariners, there is no appreciable change of temperature in the air or water when approaching a berg. If a fresh wind is blowing and a ship gets within n hundred yards or so to the leeward the crew experience a. sensation of cold. Imt the thermometer may not register any drop. Birds, as some sailors affirm, do not indicate the presence of ice. Ihev are more numerous around vessels where they can find something to eat. Again, there is no ice blink over a berg. In biief. in hunting icebergs, the mariner must to a very great extent depend cm bis

eyesight alone. In the late spring and early summer the bergs become vei'v unstable, owing to the corrosive action of the sea on their submerged portions and the action of the sun upon their upper parts. Large chunks of ice are continually falling off them, while frequently the entire bergs roll over and over again, and are thus constantly changing formation. When the bergs roll over they creak and groan like an old wooden ship labouring in a

heavy sea. The collapse of an iceberg is dangeroils on account of tlie sudden huge waves it sets up. The other season a large berg anchored itself outside the harbour of St. John’s, in Newfoundland. Two hoys in a rowboat pulled through ' the bottle-neck entrance of the Narrows and brought up close to the glittering ice. Just at, that, time the sun had almost completed its work. As the hoys watched, the pinnacles slid apart and fell tumbling into the sea. The waves they raised rushed into the harbour and tore boats lroin

their moorings. ROYS’ WONDERFUL ESCAPE. ! The hoys did not return, and friends ( set out with little hope of finding even a fragment of the boat; they returned to mourn. The billowing day a fisherman leaving the harbour thought he heard weak shouts high up on the face ot Signal Point and looking up saw a waving arm. Away up there they found boat and boys, and a man had to be let down till* face of the cliff by a rope to take the lads to safety. The wave that had created such havoc within the harbour bad lifted the boat and deposited it high and dry on a ledge ol the 500-foot cliff. Not infrequently for diversion the patrol vessels fire their twelve-pound ers at the big bergs, but their shots are usually as effective as they would be again the Rock of Gibraltar. Occasionally, when the ice is growing soft, the shots will sink in for a foot or two, but have no other effect. True, the other month they did succeed in smashing an iceberg up with a mine. The berg was 3501 t long and one of its two spires was 170 teet liigh. Die patrol ship sent a boat towing two mines toward it. Tho mines contained the high explosive T.N.T. They were put down in six teet of water close to the great precipitous face of the berg, which the men could hear snapping and crackling with a sound like rifle-shots above them, while great fissures were spreading in the berg's

lev face. A BERG BLOW NTO PIECES. The men sank the mines, drew off. and waited at a safe distance. They could not see much, because a fog settled down, but presently they heard crashes like thunder. Next day they saw the berg again. It was smaller, but hv no means done for. and it was not until they had attacked it again and again with mines that on the fourth” dav it broke in half. Then, with an explosion that sent the water 100 ft into the air, it blew into frag-

ments. Ml ice information collected bv the patrol vessels is sent out broadcast by wireless twice a day. If the conditions are unusually serious, messages art se „t more frequently, sometimes as often as once an hour. The cost of the patrol is borne by all the nations using the Atlantic in proportion to the number of ships sailing under thenrespective flags.