Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/293

 by the Gulf Stream, are enormous eminences in the bottom of the sea, like huge mountain plateaus rising in a vast valley. These banks rise upward to within two hundred feet of the ocean’s surface, while the bed of the sea around them is thousands of feet deep. Naturally these great banks of sand deflect the sea currents. The Gulf Stream itself bends farther to the east. There are currents and cross currents, and wind and sea are often terrible beyond description.

Icebergs float with seven-eighths of their bulk submerged, so no large bergs can ever cross the Grand Banks; they are too deep for the shallow waters there. But in the deeper parts of the sea they stream southward from the polar ice fields in droves, scattering in every direction with wind and current. Some go with the Labrador current. Coming. south, some swing up again and go northeast. Others continue straight on down to the shipping lanes. Some get into the Gulf Stream and are further deflected from their courses. And all these companies of icebergs, scattered over vast areas, one little cutter is supposed to watch and guard. Of course she cannot herd them together and drive them away from the shipping lanes, but she can and does drive ships away from the icebergs. She does this by wireless.

Day after day the Iroquois cruised among the