J. W. Shackford

“ Every one who has sailed for any number of passages on the western route via 43° latitude and 50° longitude—the track usually followed in ice-months—must have often experienced the sudden change from a dense fog to fine, clear weather, and sometimes to an almost cloudless sky. This change occurs most frequently to the westward of the Grand Bank, and with the wind to the south of west; the clearing which follows a northerly wind taking place more slowly. This sudden lifting of the fog is nearly always due to a change in the temperature of the surface-water. ”

“ The immense proportions that the traffic between Europe and the United States is bound to assume within the next fifty years appear to make it almost a necessity that the ocean between the two countries should be as well known as the country between New York and San Francisco, or between Liverpool and London. ”

“ With the limited number of observations, taken only on one ship, it would no doubt be premature to give an opinion as to the fixed locality of this tongue of the Arctic current; but I can nevertheless confidently affirm that between 40° and 60° longitude, the tables below, with the observations of the temperature of the surface water, show, beyond dispute, that by an additional hundred miles of distance, the chances of meeting fog in the spring and summer months are almost, if not entirely, avoided. ”

“ DURING the season of 1882 the ice and fog in the track of steamers running between Europe and North America appear to have attracted much more attention than heretofore, not only in consequence of the unusual quantities of field-ice and bergs reported, but also because of the increase in the traffic, and in the number of passengers transported. ”

“ Surely, a few thousands would be well expended in the survey of this ocean highway on which thousands of lives are constantly afloat; and certainly government ships might be worse employed than in an attempt to give greater security to life and property on its treacherous surface. ”

“ CURRENT ON WESTERN PASSAGES,
via latitude 43°, longitude 59°. {Track No. 1.)
CURRENT ON WESTERN PASSAGES,
via Southern Route. (Tracks Nos. 4. and 5.)
As long as our navigation laws of the last century continue unrepealed, probably the facts contained in the above tables will be of little interest to steamship-owners in the United States; but underwriters and shippers are certainly concerned, as to the proportion of steamers in the North Atlantic trade that escape from or meet with detention, accident, or loss. ”

“ If the publication of these two articles [9] should be the means of causing one ship-master to try the southern route, or deter one steamer from ramming into an ice-field on the eastern edge of the Grand Bank, in the spring of the year, the writer will be amply repaid for any time and trouble they may have cost him.
↑ In longitude 65° west, between tracks No. 2 and No. 3. ↑ West of 70 longitude. ↑ Between 23° and 33° west. ↑ One passage, southern route (track No. 4) . ↑ Two passages, southern route (track No. 4) . ↑ One passage, southern route (track No. 4) . ”