“They have to be on guard the same way that ships do that are crossing the north Atlantic. While most cruises won’t come close to areas where ice is problematic, captains still have to be wary, Wellmeier says. The number of passengers bound for Antarctica have ballooned from a few hundred in 1969 to a projected 31,265 visitors for the 2012-2013 season, according to Steve Wellmeier, executive director of the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators.

Many more cruises now head towards the Antarctic. “Typically if you had an accident it would be in the North Atlantic in the shipping routes, that doesn’t happen quite so often now. “People are pushing into these frontiers a little more,” he says. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica and “Iceberg Wranglers”, Legion MagazineĪntarctic areas have experienced a slight increase in collisions, according to Hill. Melting: In 2001, a Russian oil company proposed melting icebergs by covering them with a water-proof coat and injecting hot water.Water cannons: High-pressure hoses blast icebergs away from danger zones.Towing: Ice-management companies “lasso” icebergs with floating rope, and boats pull them clear of oil rigs and shipping routes.Explosives: US Coast Guard attempts to blow up icebergs (pictured) in the 1950s and 60s proved unsuccessful.Titanic tragedy prompted creative methods for iceberg removal, such as:.There are no globally-collated figures for iceberg strikes, but they happen every year.įor the northern hemisphere, from 1980 to 2005, there were 57 incidents involving icebergs giving a rate of 2.3 per year, according to Brian Hill, of the Institute for Ocean Technology, who maintains a database of more than 680 iceberg-ship incidents.Īnd while considered less of a menace, iceberg strikes regularly happen in the southern hemisphere. The 32-person crew threw cargo overboard to lighten the ship while waiting nearly two weeks for rescue. Only last year an iceberg tore a hole in the hull of a Russian fishing boat cruising around the Antarctic. The impact smashed a lifeboat, but the 300 people on board escaped unharmed. Less than two months later another Antarctic cruise ship, the MS Fram, lost engine power and struck a glacier. Everyone survived, but the incident was dubbed the “modern Titanic” in the New York Times. The 154 passengers had to abandon ship, floating on life rafts for several hours in icy waters. With dedicated monitoring teams issuing daily reports, satellites beaming back images and ship radars offering detailed information, the risk of smashing into huge chunks of ice might seem slim.Īll of these advances could not prevent MS Explorer’s encounter with an iceberg on the evening of 23 November 2007. The International Ice Patrol at work circa 1950 In the southern hemisphere captains rely on programmes like the European Space Agency’s Polar View for real-time iceberg detection via satellite imagery. The IIP has been monitoring the area ever since, using aerial patrols and radar to determine the limits of iceberg danger, which they broadcast in a daily bulletin. The conference after the sinking resulted in the International Ice Patrol (IIP), which was assigned to monitor “Iceberg Alley”, the infamous stretch of ocean around Newfoundland. With only visual sightings and a shipboard radio to guide the Titanic safely through iceberg-infested waters, the liner was ill-equipped to detect its nemesis. The tragedy galvanised world leaders to hold the first Safety of Life at Sea convention to address the iceberg threat. Shortly before midnight on 14 April 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank less than three hours later. The disaster spurred maritime nations to start monitoring icebergs, so why are ships still hitting them? Next month marks the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Next month marks the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic

Iceberg that sank titanic size