Page 21 - Sphere No.21 (Mar 2008)

FOR NEARLY 100 YEARS , the International
Ice Patrol (IIP) has hunted, tracked and chart-
ed icebergs drifting through the transatlantic
shipping lanes of the Atlantic Ocean. The in-
ternationally funded patrols were established
after the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912. More than 1,500
people died when the world’s largest passenger ship sank after
hitting an iceberg during her maiden voyage.
Ice patrols started the same year with a pair of US navy ships
patrolling the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, the eastern-
most province of Canada. And those patrols continue today
with Hercules C-130 airplanes flown by members of the US
Coast Guard, which took over ice duties in 1914. “Our roots are
in the sinking of the Titanic,” said the IIP’s Commander Scott
Rogerson. “The sole purpose of our job is to keep something
like that from happening again.” The Titanic struck the iceberg
about 500 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, and ever
since the ice patrol has commemorated the loss of the ship and
her passengers with a memorial service, during which wreaths
and bouquets of flowers are dropped into the ocean.
The IIP’s mission is to map the “limit of all known ice,”
effectively drawing boundaries around a huge patch of ocean
where ships are likely to encounter icebergs. Coast guard
planes patrol 500,000 square miles of water between the
northerly latitudes of 48 degrees and 40 degrees – roughly
between the northeast coast of Newfoundland and the city of
Philadelphia on the US eastern seaboard.
Iceberg hunting season typically begins in mid-February and
runs until July or early August. Coast guard planes, outfitted with
both side-looking and forward-looking radars, fly in gridpatterns
between 6,000 feet and 8,000 feet above the North Atlantic.
Once an iceberg crosses
the 48th parallel, the
ice patrol takes notice.
“That’s where we start to
be concerned about their
threat to maritime ship-
ping,” said Commander
Rogerson. “We feel con-
fident that if there’s ice
SPHERE 19

Saving lives in the shipping lanes
of the North Atlantic
By Moira Baird
Coast guard planes patrol
500,000 square miles of
water between the northerly
latitudes of 48 degrees and
40 degrees – roughly between
the northeast coast of
Newfoundland and the city
of Philadelphia on the US
eastern seaboard.