Huntsville gazette., 1885-08-15
ATLANTIC ICEBERGS.
The Great Risks Run by North At.
lantic Vessels.
Huge Masses of Ice Borne Along tho Broad
Bosom Of the Labrador Current
Ships Discovered ON tho Ends
Of Immense Bergs-Late
Collisions.

Collisions.
In the daily papers. atintervals, more
or less widely separated, we may see
notices of icebergs passed by ships on
their passages to and from the ports of
North America. Not unfrequently a
thrilling account reaches us of ship
wrecks, suffering and sad loss of life,
caused by some ill-fated vessel collid-
ing with an iceberg and sinking in mid
ocean. Occasionally, some noble
ship, replete with all modern improve
ments under the command of skill
full navigator, carrying precious
freight of eager hearts and willing
hands to their Eldorado of the Far
West, sails from our shores. Nothing
more is heard of her. In little while
she is posted at Lloyd's as missing, and
q total loss. Her insurance is paid;
and except to few hearts at home be-
wailing their loss. her fate fades away
In oblivion.
Few landsmen would, however, be
able to infer from these necessarily
crude and fragmentary paragraphs OF
the newspapers the great risks which are
run in all seasons Of the year by passen-
gers and crews in the North Atlantic.
The most important dangers are ice
bergs, fogs, and derelict vessels. Ice
bergs are more especially to be met
with in this ocean from the middle OF
February to the commencement of
July. The barrier of northern ice is
broken up by the increasing power of
the SUMS rays as he marches onward in
his apparent path towards the summer
solstice, attaining day by day greater
northern declination. Far to the north,
in those awful ice-bound regions within
the arctic circle where so many brave
men have perished, each glacier pro-
trudes an icy mass beyond the land and
resting on the water. In course OF
time the extremity is wrenched violently
off by the upward-bearing pressure of
the sea. After few convulsive somer-
saults, the resulting iceberg, in all its
grandeur, floats placidly in its
new element, and is now free to
be acted on by the forces of
wind and current. The bergs are
borne southwark by the Great Arctic
or Labrador current, which vast body
of water washes the east coast of
North America from Labrador to Flori-
da, and constitutes what is known to
meteorologists as the "cold wall. !"
Huge masses of ice or ice-islands are
borne along on its broad bosom, mixed
with smaller icebergs and feld-ice.
Icebergs and field-ice are formed in
quite distinct ways. A berg, as we
have seen, has its origin as a glacier
probably far inland, and moves down.
ward to the sea as a component part of
the glacier; whereas feld-ice is formed
on the surface Of the sea during the
polar winter. Side by side with the
Arctic current flows the warmer water
of the Gulf-stream. The direction of
the Gulf-stream is. however, opposite
to that of the Arctic current, and it is
more remote from the American coast.
So sudden is the change in the tenn
perature of the sea-surface when
crossed by these currents, that the tenn
perature of the water at the extreme
ends of q vessel has been found to diff
fer from twenty to thirty degrees
The influence of these two great riv-
ers in the ocean is very noticeable when
We compare the climates of two places,
both equally distant from the equator,
but separated from each other by the
wide expanse of the Atlantic. The
Americans have the cold current hug
ging their coast, thus increasing the
severity of their winter; while the
warmer water of the Gulf Stream,
stretching across in a northeasterly
direction from about Cape Hatteras to
the west coast of Ireland, tends direct
ly or indirectly to ameliorate the rigor
of our climate. In March, 1883. the
Dundee whalers reached point in lat
itude seventy-four degrees thirty min
utes north, longitude four degrees
thirty minutes east; while at the same
time the harbors of America were i'm
penetrable by reason of ice even as low
down as Bordeaux. Icebergs have
been observed aground on the Banks
Of Newfoundland, where the deep sea
sounding had showed that bottom had
been reached at depth of six hundred
and fifty feet.
During the past two or three years
many large icebergs and field-ice,
hundreds of miles in extent, have been
met with in latitude forty-two degrees
north. Many of these bergs attained
height of three hundred feet above the
level of the sea. When we remember
that but one-ninth of the volume of