The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-05-31

weeks ago the feet of vessels OF
! the American coast guard began
again the enormously important
work of securing the North Atlant-
ic ocean, particularly the crowded
steamer lanes between America ana
Europe, to locate drifting masses
of ice coming down from the
glaciers of the north.
The huge mass of ice making up
an iceberg is but a bit broken on
the seward end of a glacier, the
solidly frozen rivers which gradu-
ally move to the ocean. These
bits" of ice are bits only by COM
parison with the glaciers from
which they break away. IN the late
winter and early spring the ice
bergs break off from the glaciers
and start drifting south, and it IS
to find those that stray as far as
the Atlantic steamer lanes that the
American coast guard vessels keep
busy throughout the spring and
early summer months.
Through communication by wire
less it is possible now to guard the
shipping world from the menace of
crashing into icebergs. The ter
rible Titanic disaster is response
BILE for the yearly activity of the
American government in finding
and warning shipping of the toca-
ton of floating bergs. When that
vessel, then the largest afloat,
crashed head on into an iceberg
and sank it was able to tell other
ships of it's predicament while still
af1oat through the medium of its
radio apparatus. Its signals OF
distress brought the steamer Car
pathia to the rescue, and that yes
sci ives able to rescue many souls
who otherwise would have shaded
the fate of those on board who
went down with the Inflated ship.
Without radio, the fate of the tt
tanic would have been mystery to
this day, as no other ship CHANGED
to come along the same route dur
ing the time the wrecked vessel re-
NAMED above the waves. Other
similar disasters might have hap
pened with no proof of the vessels
fate, unless chance threw survivors
in small boats or on RATS in the
paths of other boats.
Out of the Titanic accident some
good did come in waking the worli
up to the iceberg menace to ship
ping. This disaster, like the 1ro-
quois theatre fire in Chicago, so
Mortified the world and aroused its
interest that steps were taken TO
guard in every possible way
against its repetition. In the case
of the Iroquois theatre, hundreds
of patrons were penned into the
blazing building because the great
swinging doors opened inward, and
the weight OF the frantic mass
pushing against the doors in vain
efforts to escape, damned and held
the doors tightly shut, and pre-
Guided all chance of escape. EY-
erywhere today theatre doors must
open outward. and regulations pro-
vide that there must be many I
exits which open auto !
naticalIy when pressure is applied ,
from within.
So, too, the lesson of the Titanic /
has not gone UNDECIDED. The actiy-
ty of the coast guard has been go !
ng on since the year of the sink !
ng of the Titanic. The main ship /
ping nations of the world came to /
IN international agreement by ,
which the United States was given !
he duty of securing the North At
antic to locate floating icebergs !
md warn all boats by radio of the
position of icebergs and their direc-
ion of movement, as well as the
speed at which they are drifting
rhe cost of this patrolling of the
ea is borne by the various nations
into the agreement, in
to the amount of ship
ling each has on the North At
antic.
Icebergs Hard to Locate.
Icebergs are not easily visible,
nd cannot be detected at all in
oggy weather or on dark nights. /,
about siX-sevenths of an iceberg is
Inder water. just as a bit of ice in
tumbler Of water floats with only |.
IS top exposed to the air. Thus I
My a point. of ice may project into ]
he air, and a ship a hundred yards
r more distant from the visible
ortion of an iceberg may be on the
erge of crashing into the sub I
Merged mass of ice
The work of the American ice pa
rol calls for excellent Seamanship, L
nd is an undertaking not without ,
considerable peril. For one thing,