Introduction
Stationed aboard USS Burton Island, Phillip Haff records that the frogmen of leaped over the side and started surfboard riding on icebergs at the Cape Prince of Wales, the westernmost point on the mainland of the Americas
It is highly improbable that the frogmen actually rode waves, or even swells, but rather they paddled the icebergs "like a surfboard."
With the temperature at 32 below zero, this was an extreme test of their exposure suits.

Cape Prince of Wales was named, presumably for the current Prince, in 1778 by Captain James Cook following his discovery of the Hawaiian Islands.

Wikipedia: Cape Prince of Wales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Prince_of_Wales

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Page 2 Icebreakers Answer 'Call of the North' Up north of the Arctic Circle, where the thermometer usually hovers south of the zero mark, living under even the best conditions is no snap. But if it weren’t for a certain breed of ship known as the icebreaker, living would be downright intolerable. Even Eskimos, hardened to the climate, look forward to the yearly visit of an icebreaker. ...

Research expeditions are another concern of icebreakers.
In the case of land-based expeditions, icebreakers are often charged with getting provisions to or near an expedition base.
On other occasions, icebreakers form a mobile base of their own.
In this case most of the work done is of an operational or testing nature.
For example, during the 1952 winter cruise of USS Burton Island (AGE 1) both foul weather clothing and cold weather clothing underwent realistic tests, being worn by crewmen in their day-to—day work.
...
In all more than 50 separate scientific objectives were undertaken during the cruise.
Details of most of them haven’t been released, but they ranged from testing a special ice repellent paint to gathering meteoro-
logical and oceanographic data.
...
West Coast resupply expeditions usually depart from Seattle, Wash, in June or July.
The usual route takes them across the Northern Pacific to the Aleutian Islands, through Unimak Pass to the Bering Sea, and then north through Bering Strait to the Chuck Chee Sea.

Page 5

The following paragraphs are taken from a first-hand account of life aboard Burton Island written by a member of her crew, Philip Haff, JOSN, USN.
His narrative was set down while the ship was plowing northward during this year’s winter cruise.

Page 6 “Every so often, however, the ship will be unable either to back downor go ahead sufficiently to make a charge. This calls for one of two methods of shaking loose. The first depends on a series of interior heeling tanks, those on one side filled with water, while those on the other side remain empty. Then the procedure is quickly reversed. This process makes the ship roll from side to side. “The second method brings the frogmen into the picture. They drop over the side and rig explosives a few yards from the ship. Then it’s ‘blast away’! A tricky but vital operation, this calls for an intimate knowledge of the damaging power of explosives both on ice and on a ship’s hull, and extreme accuracy in placing the high-explosive charges.

‘BLASTING OFF‘ is sometimes the best way to get an ice-bound vessel free when her engines and heeling tanks won't budge her. UDT men do the iob.

“Frogmen who made this cruise have had quite a time for themselves up here.
Swimming at 32 below zero is the last thing most sane people would try, yet in the icy waters of Cape Prince of Wales, these fellows leaped over the side and started surfboard riding on icebergs.
They were testing exposure suits.
The natives were aghast.
As long as the Eskimo has lived there no one had ever dared go swimming in summer, much less in the dead of winter.

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All Hands. The Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin Editor: LCDR C. J. Nash, USN United States Navy, Washington D.C. Number 426, August 1952. Hathi Trust https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015081928999

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