In Brigus, a sleepy fishing community, I saw an iceberg (technically a вЂњgrowlerвЂќ because it was fewer than two meters long) stored in a garage freezer. Locals across the Canadian island of Newfoundland regularly head out in motorboats to catch ice for their own use. вЂњVelvety smooth,вЂќ read my motherвЂ™s tasting notes.ДЇor most iceberg consumers, though, the resource is not an epicurean product, and certainly not one for which they are willing to pay. SvalbarГ°i, after all, is meant to be consumed like a fine wine on special occasions. For the sake of research, I bought a bottle and drank it with my mother, a trained sommelier. SvalbarГ°i proudly names itself the third-most-expensive water in the world at $166 a liter, a small price to pay for вЂњpre-industrialвЂќ purity. Like his competitors, Qureshi travels the globe selling his product. Aboard the icebreaker Ulla Rinman, Qureshi and his crew harvest icebergs along the islandsвЂ™ rocky coasts and process them in Longyearbyen, Norway, the northernmost human settlement in the world. Jamal Qureshi, a former Wall Street analyst with Norwegian roots, launched SvalbarГ°i in 2015 after a trip to the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard. One of those is a handsome glass vessel with a bespoke wooden cap and sparkling sea-foam-green band, sold by SvalbarГ°i. At times, though, this вЂњ cold rushвЂќ already seems like a free-for-all, which could spell trouble in the future.ДЄt present, the best profits in iceberg water may be found in high-end bottles. As the world warms, the polar seas are set to fill with more and more bergs. These entrepreneurs may be right to see an opportunity. A world away, the UAE Iceberg Project has announced ( and delayed) plans to drag icebergs about 7,500 miles from the South Indian Ocean to parched customers in the Emirates. Over the past five years, a global roster of speculators has caught on, arriving to exploit icebergs off the coasts of Canada, Greenland, and Norway as a luxury good. Arctic inhabitants have long made use of this resource: The Greenlandic Inuit, for instance, traditionally cut pieces from icebergs to melt in water pots during the winter and for fresh water on long summer kayak trips. For my martini, the waiter told me, a cook plucked a piece of ice from the Labrador Sea while out on his Jet Ski.Д¬alved from ancient glaciers formed from fallen snow that compressed over centuries, icebergs contain some of the purest fresh water on Earth, with almost no minerality or pollutants. Auk Island Winery blends iceberg water with wild berries to make specialty wines, and the Canadian Iceberg Vodka Corporation makes exactly what its name advertises. JohnвЂ™s, uses 20,000-year-old iceberg water for its Iceberg, a light lager that comes in a striking cobalt bottle. The restaurant where I sipped my cocktail is one of several businesses in Newfoundland and Labrador that trade on the novelty of icebergs to sell their wares. It was good fun, like drinking natureвЂ™s Pop Rocks. The jagged pieces of ice swirling around the glass crackled as the millennia-old air inside escaped. I had ordered a martini on the rocks from the only bar in town, and it arrived at my table gently fizzing. (Photo credit: Library of Congress / British Archives).I tasted my first iceberg in LвЂ™anse aux Meadows, Canada, overlooking the windswept grassland that clings to the northern tip of Newfoundland. Still today this region is the most important origin of icebergs in the northern hemisphere, thousands of junks of ice per year drop from the front of the glaciers, and if large enough will one or three years later reach the North Atlantic. The icebergs from the North Atlantic originate mainly from the western coasts of Greenland, where ice streams deliver large quantities of ice in the fjord-systems which leads to the Baffin sea.

This iceberg has in fact some remarkable similarities to the iceberg as described by survivors of the disaster. Photography taken from board of the ship вЂњBirmaвЂќ of the same iceberg as seen by the passengers of the вЂњCarpathiaвЂќ вЂ“ the first ship to approach the scene of the disaster and save the surviving passengers of the Titanic.

He also noticed the red scar along the base вЂ“ a clear sign it was the culprit for the TitanicвЂ™s end. According to MiniaвЂ™s records, it was the only iceberg in the area. This photo was taken by Captain De Carteret of the Minia. The crew found debris and bodies floating in the vicinity of the depicted iceberg and the captain assured that this was the only iceberg near the scene of the collision. Photography of an iceberg from the cable ship вЂњMiniaвЂќ.ДЄnother iceberg was photographed by the cable ship вЂњMiniaвЂќ, one of the first ships to reach the area in search of debris and bodies.

Iceberg picture