It was a calm spring day when Canadian photographer Ken Pretty spotted an interestingly shaped 30ft iceberg off Newfoundland’s east coast.
As he flew his drone overhead, Pretty, who hails from the town of Dildo, realized the hulk of ice bore a distinct resemblance to a characteristic part of the male human anatomy.
“Looking from the land, it wasn’t quite clear,” said Pretty. “But once I got the drone out there, it was unreal how much it looked like – well, you know …”
Pretty’s images of the phallic berg prompted an outpouring of hilarity on Facebook, where users speculated that the iceberg would probably soon drift past Dick’s Cove, Newfoundland, or suggesting it could provide ice for the “stiffest drink”.
Another asked: “Is that where baby icebergs come from?”
One woman dubbed it a “dickie berg”. “That name has definitely stuck,” said Pretty.
Pretty said that the resemblance was so marked that many had presumed the image was fake. “People don’t believe it’s real. They think it’s photoshopped and all that,” he said. “I can tell you - it’s real.”
Icebergs have long been a lucrative draw for tourists, who flock to Newfoundland’s east coast during the spring months as the hunks of ice, calved from Greenland’s ice shelf, drift down the Atlantic Ocean.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government runs the Iceberg Finder website and has identified 66 bergs are currently passing by.
Believed by many to be some of the cleanest water on the planet, icebergs are also harvested during the spring.
The water, once bottled, is sold all around the world, including in China, Korea and Saudi Arabia. In 2019, thieves pilfered $9,000 worth of iceberg water.
A day after Pretty photographed the berg, the bulbous top collapsed.
The premature end of the “dickie berg” prompted at least one memorial video, complete the funerary doves. “Gone, but not forgotten. Forever in our hearts,” read the caption.
Pretty admits that the name of his home townhas added to the joke. (The Toronto Star headlined their story on the berg: “Dildo man captures phallic iceberg in Conception Bay”.)
“It’s all in good fun. Everyone worried about the cost of living these days,” he said. “But if this berg can put a smile on people’s faces, it’s all worth it.”
