International Ice Patrol

 Late on the evening of April 14, 1912, the ocean liner RMS Titanic rammed an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean near the Grand Banks.  The ship sank in the early hours of April 15, with a loss of 1,500 of its 2,224 passengers and crew.  This was not the first ship to be lost to icebergs in the North Atlantic, but a public outcry demanded that it be the last.  President Taft ordered two US Navy cruisers to patrol the waters and report any observed icebergs to passing ships.  In 1913, the US Revenue Cutter Service (USRCS) assumed responsibility for the patrol.  The International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, 1913, was convened in response to the Titanic disaster and formalized many maritime safety concepts, including the minimum number of lifeboats on ships.  A particular section established the International Ice Patrol.  The United States was invited to undertake the effort.  The US Government accepted the invitation, which has continued to be performed by the US Coast Guard following the 1915 merger of the USRCS and the Life-Saving Service.  The Patrol was suspended during World War II, but reinstituted when the war ended.  In 1946, aircraft staged out of Newfoundland were used to augment patrol vessels.  Eventually, aircraft have totally replaced surface vessels for the International Ice Patrol.  Tests are underway to determine whether identification and location of icebergs can be effectively performed by satellites.  Costs of the operation of the International Ice Patrol (about $6 million annually) are underwritten by seventeen major maritime nations involved in trade through these waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.  The International Ice Patrol has been eminently successful.  No commercial vessel has been lost to an iceberg in Patrol waters since the service was established, although one ship was lost during World War II when the patrols were halted.