“Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, His wondrous works in the deep.” (Psalm 107:23-24)
Many ships’ operators and crew are seeing God’s mighty works this year as they painstakingly navigate treacherous seas. In the waters near the Titanic’s 1912 sinking, icebergs are forcing ships to take precautions. Vessels slowed to a crawl or took detours of hundreds of miles.
More than 400 icebergs drifted into North Atlantic shipping lanes in mid-April. That’s an unusually large swarm for so early in the season. The average at that time of year is about 80, with the number rising from May into June. Strong counter-clockwise winds have drawn the icebergs south from the Greenland ice sheet, where they break off and float away. This breakage is called “calving.”
A shipping lane (also called a sea lane or sea road) is a route through the ocean normally used by large vessels. The routes were set based on lack of obstruction—such as large icebergs, islands, archipelagos, and reefs—prevailing winds, and currents.
Navigators studied these “paths of the seas.” (Psalm 8:8) They plotted routes to minimize sailing time between destinations. The shipping lanes are essential to expedient trade.
The North Atlantic lane was first proposed in 1855. The year before, two vessels coming from opposite directions were trying to use the same clear path. They collided, proving the need for some sea traffic control.
The largest steamship companies held several conferences to determine the precise latitudes of the lanes each would use.
But this year, instead of cutting straight across the ocean, trans-Atlantic vessels were forced to detour around icebergs in the shipping lanes. Those detours added as much as 400 extra miles to each trip. That’s a day and a half of travel time for many large cargo ships.
Close to the Newfoundland coast, cargo ships owned by Oceanex throttled back to only three or four knots as they made their way to St. John’s. One ship was pulled out of service after hitting a chunk of ice.
“It makes everything more expensive,” Oceanex Chairman, Captain Sid Hynes, says. “You’re burning more fuel, it’s taking a longer time, and it’s hard on the equipment.”
The International Ice Patrol was formed after Titanic sank. It monitors iceberg danger in the North Atlantic and sends warnings and detour instructions to shipping companies.
In 104 years, no ship heeding the warnings has struck an iceberg, according to the ice patrol.
