Now and then an historical map or collection of maps appear,that reveal something historically important, that deserves further investigation.

• The Arctic Sea Ice Maps discovered and made available by the Danish Meteorological Institute, were drawn over a period of seventy years, when keeping shipping safe from bad weather and sea ice was difficult to accomplish.
• The loss of the Titanic in 1912, certainly taught us that sea ice was an ever present problem for shipping and the increasing number of ships coursing across the Atlantic meant keeping an eye on the extent of the ice sheets in the Arctic was an important job.
• WWI and WWII made the requirement for sea ice conditions to be monitored, all the more important

Maps were drawn showing the fluctuation in sea ice over the last seventy years or so.

The maps, from the Danish Meteorological Institute are historically and scientifically important, especially given the present concerns about global warming and the loss of sea ice.

Ice caused problems for our sea faring ancestors for hundreds of years.

By 1922 regular ice patrols were taking place in the Atlantic to alert shipping to the dangers of icebergs, made all the more important in the wake of the sinking of the  Titantic

Besides the Titantic, other ships collided with icebergs causing loss of life including the Albatross in 1903. In the fifty years prior to and including the Titanic disaster, a dozen ships were sunk by icebergs with a total loss of life of 1802.

See the full set of brilliantly scanned Arctic maps and explore other historically important scientific data maps.