New London — Every time they do their job, members of the International Ice Patrol remember: On April 15, 1912, the British ocean liner Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg, killing nearly 1,500 passengers and crew members.

The U.S. Coast Guard International Ice Patrol held a brief ceremony Wednesday morning, as it has done annually since its formation, commemorating the 103rd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and reflecting on the importance of its mission — to monitor the iceberg danger in the North Atlantic Ocean and to provide warnings to the maritime community.

The ice patrol was formed after the Titanic sank. No vessel that has heeded the patrol's warnings has hit an iceberg since, said Cmdr. Gabrielle McGrath, who leads the patrol.

Five members of the patrol were departing Wednesday for St. John's, Newfoundland. They are being joined in Groton by a team from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City in North Carolina. The entire team will comprise 12 members.

"That information that they collect will be sent back to our office here in New London and we'll incorporate that into our iceberg warning products that we send out daily to vessels," McGrath said. "That product is basically the means we use to warn ships where icebergs are to stop an event like the Titanic from happening again."

The team also dropped wreaths, dedicated by Chaplain John Dickens during Wednesday's ceremony, from the aircraft over the Titanic's final resting place.

While many people at this time of year are relishing the warmer weather, the ice patrol is approaching the height of its season. The average season runs from February through late July, and sometimes into August. From about May to June is when there is the "most significant threat of iceberg danger on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland," McGrath said.

That has to do with how long it takes icebergs to come down the Labrador Current from the glaciers, she said, adding that icebergs from Greenland take one to three years to make that journey down into the shipping lanes.

"There's sea ice that actually forms in that region that extends until about St. Patrick's Day and once that starts to melt off, the icebergs are really set free to drift off into the shipping lanes," McGrath said. 

This deployment is the fifth of the 2015 ice season, which is shaping up to be severe with 124 icebergs already drifting into the transatlantic shipping lanes, according to a news release from the ice patrol. Its work is crucial to ensuring that tragedies like the Titanic are not repeated.

"We're very proud of our long safety record," McGrath said.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: @JuliaSBergman