The Drift Ice of the Great New-Foundland Bank and its Danger to Navigation

Abstract

THE principal article in Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift of June 9 is devoted to a very interesting contribution by Herr Otto Baschin (Geographical Institute, Berlin) to our present knowledge of this subject and of icebergs generally, to which the Titanic disaster of April 14 has directed attention. It is pointed out that nowhere do the masses of ice from polar regions advance so far in the equatorial direction as those which frequent the vicinity of Newfoundland. The drift of this ice southwards and eastwards is most active between January and July. About the middle of June the ice-limit begins to recede north-westwards, and after August ice is usually only met with (if at all) on the northern edge of the banks and on the east coast of Newfoundland. Icebergs generally appear later than field ice, but the probability of meeting with both differs considerably from month to month and from year to year, and it may be seen from this article and from the valuable monthly charts issued by our own and other meteorological offices that great bergs may be met with in any month. The chart of the North Atlantic for July issued by the Meteorological Committee states: “The first berg of 1912 was passed on January 7... but ice has been present in the North Atlantic since January 28, 1911.”