. Coast Guard history. United States. Coast Guard. Huntmg down icebergs is a chilly job In 1912, the British liner Titanic, built at a cost of $7,500,000, left Southampton for New York on her maiden crossing of the Atlantic. Her passengers and crew numbered 2,207. Only 690 ever set foot safely on shore again. The remaining 1,517 went down with the ship when she struck an iceberg as she neared New- foundland. It was after this tragedy that a confer- ence of the principal maritime nations, meeting in London in 1914, decided to inaugurate an International Ice Patrol, the cost to be defrayed in fi
. Coast Guard history. United States. Coast Guard. Huntmg down icebergs is a chilly job In 1912, the British liner Titanic, built at a cost of $7,500,000, left Southampton for New York on her maiden crossing of the Atlantic. Her passengers and crew numbered 2,207. Only 690 ever set foot safely on shore again. The remaining 1,517 went down with the ship when she struck an iceberg as she neared New- foundland. It was after this tragedy that a confer- ence of the principal maritime nations, meeting in London in 1914, decided to inaugurate an International Ice Patrol, the cost to be defrayed in fixed proportions by the nations benefited. The Coast Guard, however, had actually started ice patrols in 1913. Icebergs in the fog The area patrolled is 45,000 square miles or about the size of the State of Penn- sylvania. During the ice season, which runs from February to August, the area is heavily blanketed with fog and every year an average of 400 bergs drift southward toward the busiest steamer lanes in the world. Considering the vastness of the area, the generally poor visibility, and the great number of bergs, it is not inconceiv- able that one may occasionally get into the shipping lanes unobserved, despite the most up-to-date scientific developments and detection equipment used by Ice Patrol cutters and planes. Yet, in all the time the Coast Guard has performed this duty, no ship has been lost through col- lision with an iceberg. In both World Wars, however, when' submarines were more of a menace than icebergs. Ice Patrol was suspended so that cutters could perform more important escort duty. There was but one major mis- hap—in the second war. The British ship Sreud Foyne hit a berg in March 1943. Before she sank, 145 persons aboard her were rescued by Coast Guard and other craft. During most of World War II, a de- tachment of Coast Guardsmen experi- enced in Ice Patrol was based at Argen- tia, Newfoundland, to serve as a clearing- house for ice formation. The movemen
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