VISIONS OF GOLD HUGE TANKER WILL ATTEMPT FABLED NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32059, 6 August 1969, Page 12

VISIONS OF GOLD HUGE TANKER WILL ATTEMPT FABLED NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

(By

M. J. WILSON,

Newsweek Feature Service)

Less than a month after the Apollo 11 mission fulfilled one of mankind’s oldest and most far-fetched dreams, another voyage of exploration and discovery will begin—less dramatic, perhaps, and less significant in the grand scheme of things, but no less hypnotic to the Renaissance adventurers who first sought to complete it.

On August 11, a huge Icebreaking United States tanker, the Manhattan, will leave Chester, Pennsylvannia, in what will by then have mounted to a SUS39-million attempt to open a year-round route through the fabled North-West Passage to the Pacific Ocean.

Cabot’s Venture America’s existence had been known to Europe for only five years when John and Sebastian Cabot, lured by visions of “barbaric pearl and gold," first tried in 1497 to navigate their tiny ship, Matthew, around the top of the new continent. They failed as did hundreds of their hardy successors who were wrecked or dissuaded by storms, fog and the endless,

crushing ice pack. The passage was finally forced in 1906, and since then several ice-breakers and nuclear submarines have gingerly made their way through the frozen seas and drifting floes. But this reef-infested and most hazardous of all the world’s sea routes has never been opened to commerce. The 9000-mile round tripvoyage is being financed and conducted by two major United States oil companies, Humble Oil and Refining Co. and Atlantic Richfield Co., in league with British Petroleum. The spur was the discovery last year in Alaska of the largest single oil field in North America—with reserves estimated (conservatively) at between 5 billion and 10 billion barrels. Ice Ridges The problem the companies face is how to get the oil out of the remote field to the rich market on the East Coast of the United States. Pipelines are an obvious answer, but they are expensive—an 800mile line from Prudhoe Bay in North-Western Alaska to the Pacific would cost $9OO million —time-consuming to build and possessed of their own inherent risks. How, for instance, do they prevent a freeze-up if a pumping breakdown should occur? A sea route would, clearly, be the quickest and most efficient way to transport the oil. No large tanker, let alone a monster the size of the 151,500-ton Manhattan, had ever made the voyage through largely uncharted waters, where ice ridges sometimes build up 30 or 40 ft in the air and extend more than 100 feet below the surface. But the oil-company exectives saw their own vision of gold in the prospect of opening the sea lanes. For the ySUS39-million investment, they and the rest of the world stand to gain a return in the inestimable billions.

For openers, they would save about SUSI million a day in shipping costs alone. By 1980, 2 million barrels a day could be sailing to the East Coast. And experts are sure that the largest oil resources of the Canadian Arctic have yet to be found. Shipbuilding Boom A boom would occur in the shipbuilding industry as well. The companies would need a fleet of 250,000-ton United States flag-tankers, costing as much as SUSSO million each. The vast mineral resources of the Arctic are nearly untouched. Canada and the United States would not only become self-sufficient in oil once again, but would increase their supplies of vital ores. An all-year-round sea route could do for the Far North what the railroads did for the nineteenth and early twentieth century West. Finally, there is its key position. There is a point to the east of Prudhoe Bay that is almost equidistant from New York, London and Tokyo. World trade patterns may be revolutionised. At the moment, the twinpropellered Manhattan is undergoing final fitting and trials. Her 65ft bow has been replaced by a 125 ft ice-break-ing bow called the M.I.T. bow after its developers, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The ship will operate on the “down-breaker” principle, riding high on to the

ice until its weight smashes the pack. Helicopter Scouts The vessel will carry two helicopters (to check the ice ahead for thickness and strength), the latest in navigatioal and radar devices, a crew of 55 and scores of observers. The United States Coast Guard will be on hand, and a Canadian DC-4 will be used for reconnaissance. Nearly 5000 people have participated in the venture. Still, the companies face huge problems, of weather and of their own design: in open water it takes 5 miles to stop a large tanker and plenty of sea room to turn one. The Manhattan, 1005 ft stem to stern, could be cut in two by moving ice It could not avoid. The captain and staff captains have never handled big ships in heavy ice. Above all, they must determine that tankers in those northern seas can maintain a tight and predictable schedule or they will lose their economic advantage. If the ship arrives safely at Prudhoe Bay, it will continue west and south into the Bering Sea. Then, it may head for the polar ice cap to encounter the heaviest ice of a winter voyage.

Despite the sanguine predictions at Humble (“Our people don’t think there are any risks”), the odds have been running just about even money, 50-50.