Californian Field Ice: What was It Like?

[Harland Duzen]

A bit of a silly question, but what was the ice surrounding the Californian like?

Was it just small chunks / slabs of loose ice floating around ("growlers"), cracked slabs surrounding the ship or something else?

Example photo above taken from Google.

 

[Aaron_2016]

I believe it looked like this: Photos taken aboard the Carpathia and other ships in the vicinity of the ice field as they approached.

Each year as the ice fields drifted south there were reports of bears and seals stranded on the ice as they drifted helplessly passed the shipping lanes. I recall a newspaper report around 1914 which detailed the capture of a bear on the ice field and the trouble they had getting it aboard the ship. Here is a small vessel steaming through an ice field in circa 1930. You might be able to spot a few bears and seals.

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