# Capturing an iceberg **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 19, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capturing-an-iceberg/722947 "2015-06-19T14:28:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capturing-an-iceberg/722947/21 "2015-06-22T14:33:14Z")
> [@kapntoad](#): > > The big bag of water is in water though. Heck, with salinity, it’s probably lighter than the surrounding medium. The bag isn’t carrying the water, just holding it separate from the saltwater. Inertia. The berg or water or whatever form it is in doesn’t want to move, so the back end of that sack or kiddie pool or whatever is going to have to be really strong. > [@SuperSteve](#): > > Just tow it to the mouth of a freeflowing river (one without dams or waterfalls) and arrive when the tide is coming in, so that it gets pushed upstream Remember that thing where 90% of the iceberg is below the water? Really deep shipping channels for the biggest ocean-going ships are 45 feet deep. So you’d have to wait for your giant berg to get down to where it sticks less than 5 feet above the water before it will fit. And the smaller it is, the faster it melts (because it has more surface area proportional to its volume). I think some problems could be … reduced by sculpting the berg quite a bit before travel, and if folks can figure out a reasonable way to turn the berg into useful water at the end of its journey, there would probably be purpose-built berg-tugs with the engines from aircraft carriers. But I think the pipeline idea might be the most practical: harvest the bergs close to their point of origin, shipping water is a much more easily tackled problem. That tech was solid when Rome was built. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capturing-an-iceberg/722947/22 "2015-06-22T18:29:51Z")
Interestingly, transporting ice from frostier regions use to be a very, very big business. [Frederic Tudor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Tudor) made a fortune shipping ice in ships from Boston to the American South, Europe, and even to India. Ice was packed tightly together and insulated with wood shavings. It was stored in ice houses at the various locals. Tutor also imported fruit cooled with ice from the Southern climates into Europe and the American North. Okay, Boston isn’t the Arctic, and blocks of ice aren’t an iceberg, but it’s still pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capturing-an-iceberg/722947/23 "2015-06-22T23:18:38Z")
My wife volunteers at Fosterfields, a 19th-century gentleman’s farm in New Jersey. One of the many businesses the farm was in was cutting ice off the pond. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capturing-an-iceberg/722947/24 "2015-06-22T23:30:56Z")
> [@kapntoad](#): > > The big bag of water is in water though. Heck, with salinity, it’s probably lighter than the surrounding medium. The bag isn’t carrying the water, just holding it separate from the saltwater. I’m talking about the weight of the material, not the weight of the water it’s holding. Dragging around several tons of teflon is no easy feat. Powers &8^] ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capturing-an-iceberg/722947/25 "2015-06-22T23:43:02Z")
> [@SpyOne](#): > > …there would probably be purpose-built berg-tugs with the engines from aircraft carriers… People who don’t work in shipping tend to think of aircraft carriers as the gold standard for big ship engines. Actually aircraft carriers are showponies compared to large tankers or bulk carriers. Yes, the engines of an aircraft carrier (which are often turbines) are powerful but they are aimed at light weight and speed. If you just want to output a lot of power economically over a long period of time, a medium or low speed diesel out of a large tanker or bulker is a much better bet. ---
**Author:** ![vd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b19c9b/32.png) [@vd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vd)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capturing-an-iceberg/722947/26 "2015-06-23T01:37:16Z")
Andy Griffith proved that you need to use rocket engines [http://www.tv.com/shows/salvage-1/hard-water-1-153837/](http://www.tv.com/shows/salvage-1/hard-water-1-153837/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/capturing-an-iceberg/722947.md?page=1)