’Ware Icebergs!

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 708, 6 July 1929, Page 2

’Ware Icebergs!

Unceasing Vigil of Ice Patrol in Atlantic Waters Saves Many Liners From Destruction

RADIO MEN KEPT BUSY

ARE icebergs!” is the cry IvlkVr/ in the Atlantic as soon as | the warm weather ap- | , proaches. Then is the j 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 northj era seas in search of these monsters 'in order to give timely warning of their presence by wireless to the many transatlantic 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 are 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 always 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 precari-

The captain r-eers his vessel straight into the iceberg. . . . ous 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 h e had time, would, instead of trying to the berg at close quarters, steer straight for it The bows of the shin would probably be badly telescoped but that would be far better thajj having thousands of gallons of sea water rushing madly into the hold i through a great rent in the side. Perhaps the most difficult time to sight an iceberg is when i: floats on a moonlit night, between the oncoming ship and the silvery rays of the inoon banging low on the horizon. The rippliug reflection of the moonlight on the water and the pale, glare ot 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 are such a danger to ships come from the Greenland glaciers. In that desolate island the temperature is so low that one layer of snow cannot melt before another falls on top of it. In time there is a tremendous accumulation which, because of the gTeat 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 the 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 the warmer weather approaches and they drift slowly southward they gradually melt until they finally disappear altogether.