Читать книгу The Radio Boys with the Iceberg Patrol; Or, Making safe the ocean lanes онлайн

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“No doubt of it,” assented the captain. “The records of the sea are full of stories of vessels that have never reached port and of which no traces have ever been found. Many of these, no doubt, met the same fate as the Titanic, but as all on board were lost, the tale could never be told.

“You see,” he went on, as he settled himself deeper in his chair, “it used to be supposed that a captain could know of the presence of an iceberg in fog or at night by a sudden damp and vault-like chill that came into the air. But experiments have proved that this has very little basis in fact. It may have helped sometimes, but it is wholly unreliable.

“And if a ship ever strikes an iceberg, I suppose it’s good-night for the ship,” ventured Herb.

“It always is if it hits it full,” replied the captain. “The ship has no more chance than if it struck the Rock of Gibraltar. Why, do you know that some of those monster bergs are ten times the size of the Woolworth Building in New York City?”

“Gee!” exclaimed Jimmy. “The Woolworth Building is seven hundred and ninety-two feet high. Do you mean that the iceberg is ten times as high as that?”