Edward Hanson "Iceberg" Smith (29 October 1889 – 29 October 1961) was a United States Coast Guard admiral, oceanographer, and Arctic explorer. He was born 29 October 1889 at Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. He received a Ph.D. in oceanography from Harvard, and commanded the and the . Most famously, he commanded the Greenland Patrol, and led Coast Guard efforts to defend Greenland against the Germans in World War II. After retirement from the Coast Guard, he assumed the directorship of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Early life and career
Smith attended high schools at Vineyard Haven and New Bedford, Massachusetts. After attending one year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Smith was appointed a cadet at the Revenue Cutter Service School of Instruction on 8 May 1910 and after graduation was commissioned as a third lieutenant 7 June 1913. One of his classmates was Coast Guard aviation pioneer Elmer F. Stone. Smith's first assignment was aboard home-ported at Wilmington, North Carolina where he served as the cutter junior engineering officer. In February 1915 he was transferred to USCGC Acushnet and USCGC Apache before be returning to USCGC Seminole. He remained assigned there until 4 August 1917 when he was transferred to USCGC Manning which escorted troop and supply convoys to Europe during World War I. During his tour of duty aboard Manning, Smith was promoted to second lieutenant on 7 June 1918. After short tours aboard and from January to November 1919, Smith was assigned to , which was one of two cutters assigned annually to the International Ice Patrol.
International Ice Patrol
Because the Coast Guard had been tasked with staffing the International Ice Patrol as a result of the sinking of the in 1912, the service had always looked for ways to predict the path of icebergs that entered North Atlantic shipping lanes. President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order on 7 February 1914 requiring the Coast Guard to assign two vessels to derelict destruction and patrol work in the North Atlantic for the remainder of the year, except that "the study and observation of ice conditions shall be effectively maintained, in particular from the beginning of February to the opening of the ice season." Although patrol activities had been suspended during World War I, the resumption of patrol work in 1919 included the Coast Guard hydrographer for the first time so that the Interdepartmental Board on International Service of Ice Observation, Ice Patrol and Ocean Derelict Destruction established by Wilson in 1916 could prepare a systematic program of scientific observations and publish the findings.
Smith was promoted to first lieutenant on 12 January 1923. He became interested in the scientific study of oceanography and the movement of icebergs during his assignment aboard Seneca, and remained assigned as an Ice Patrol hydrographer until August 1924 when he was directed by Coast Guard Headquarters to work with Vilhelm Bjerknes at the Bergen School of Meteorology. Bjerknes was internationally known for his studies of how wind currents interact with ocean currents to produce weather patterns and Smith studied his methods of measuring ocean currents. In August 1925, Smith spent three months at the British Meteorological Institute collecting data for use with the Ice Patrol before returning the United States and Ice Patrol duties. He received permission to study at Harvard University when Seneca wasn't on Ice Patrol duties. In 1925, Smith published A Practical Means for Determining Ocean Currents, which was utilized as a work bulletin throughout the Coast Guard.
Marion expedition
In early 1928, Frederick C. Billard, Commandant of the Coast Guard, directed that Smith outfit for an oceanographic expedition of the Davis Strait to study the formation of icebergs and study their movement as well as take scientific readings of the sea water and depth soundings. Marion left Boston, Massachusetts on 11 July with Smith as commanding officer of a crew of 26 bound for the Strait of Belle Isle off the Labrador coast. At intervals, Smith oversaw the taking of temperature and salinity readings at various depths as well as bottom sample and depth soundings at each observation station. Upon the expedition's completion on 18 September, some 2,000 observations of temperature and salinity had been taken along with numerous bottom samples together with soundings. The soundings were added to existing charts and added to the general knowledge of the 450,000 square miles of the Davis Strait that the expedition encompassed.