Evening star., 1962-04-08
Chasing Iceberes
This Patrols Job

ficial Coast Guard report put it
this way:
Although some damage to the
bergs resulted, it must be admitted
that all of the means tried were
unsuccessful in destroying the
icebergS."
Fifteen effective hits were scored
by the bombs on the single tar
get, over a period of one week.
But the berg was only one
quarter to one-third smaller than
it was at the outset and within
three weeks natural forces had de-
stroyed it as it got into warmer
waters.
The thermite experiment re-
quired the boarding of the ice
berg, a highly dangerous opera
ton. Three Coast Guardsmen,
using a rubber raft, scrambled
onto the bergs and drilled three
holes in each for the thermite
charges. The theory tested was
that thermal shock" would frac-
ture the bergs. But, while loud
cracking noises within the ice
were heard, the thermite had lit
tie effect other than to break off
a few "growlers" (small bergs).
Carbon Block Used
For the third experiment, 25
pounds of carbon black was
spread manually by fiber brooms
over $500 square feet. Five hours
later, the berg underwent major
"calving" or breakup. 1t thus ap-
peared to be the most effective of
the three methods. More carbon
black experiments will be con-
Quoted this year.
Something new in the current
patrol is the use Of three ocean
ographic buoys. These are float
ing electronic laboratories for au-
tomatically recording data useful
to the patrol. They were put in
the Labrador Current, near the
eastern slope of the Grand Banks.
The buoys will record the in
tensity, strength, direction, heat
output and volume of the current;
water temperatures and wind We
locitieS.
The Coast Guard hopes that
when the buoy system is developed
further is will be able to forecast
the approximate severity Of ice
conditions during a coming
season.
The patrol broadcasts "ice bull
letins" twice daily over its Ar
gentia station (NIK). Special bull
letins are also broadcast, preceded
by the international safety sig
nal TIT.
Last year, for the first time, the
patrol broadcast radio facsimile
charts of ice conditions in the
North Atlantic. 1t will repeat and
expand this service during the
current season.
How far south do the big bergs
go? 1t. Comdr. Robertson P.
Dinsmore, veteran Of three pa
trols, says that I'VE expect several
each year to reach latitude Al
degrees North-due east Of New
York City" But in 1859, a berg
weighing an estimated / million
tons, 275 feet high and 1,100 feet
long, got below 40 degrees North
due east of Philadelphia.
There have been even more re-
markable sightings. One was seer
about 80 miles from Bermuda In
. 1907 and another in that same
year, having been picked UP by
the Gulf Stream, was spotted
off the Irish Coast. Icebergs
reached the Azores in 1921 and
1884 and in 1888 one was sighted
between these Portuguese islands
and Gibraltar.
The costs of the Ice Patrol are
shared by the countries whose
shipping transits the area-ac-
cording to tonnage. The total
cost depends largely on how severe
the iceberg season is. Last year
for example, the patrol cost $685.
900, with the United States share
running to $4,000.
In these days of millions for this
and billions for that, $750, 900 may
not seem like much money. But
few would doubt the worth Of the
Patrol, because not a single ship
has been lost to an iceberg in the
area of its responsibility in the
43 years it has been on watch