The Detection of Icebergs

Abstract

THOUGH navigation in iceberg-infested waters has been recognised from early times to be fraught owith special dangers, it is only comparatively recently that attempts have been made to apply scientific methods to the detection of these floating odangers to navigation. Early whalers and explorers in Arctic and Antarctic waters met and surmounted these dangers without such assistance, but the present circumstances of sea travel in waters occasionally subject to invasion by icebergs are so different as to render special precautions necessary. Some of these circumstances are the increasing size and speed of passenger vessels, the replacement of wooden hulls by steel, and the need, in the face of competition from rival steamship companies, to complete the voyages within scheduled times. The small ice ‘growler,’ floating almost submerged, is not only the most difficult to detect, but is also almost as dangerous an obstruction to modern steel ships as the iceberg of large dimensions, which is likely to be more readily perceived even in a fog.