Word: manhattans
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Manhattan and its escort cut gingerly from Resolute into the Barrow Strait, radar operators spotted a blip on their screens. The interloper, probably a rubbernecking Soviet submarine, remained faithful through the passage. Beyond the strait, the Manhattan faced the most dangerous leg of the journey -Viscount Melville Sound and, finally, ice-choked McClure Strait. An elaborate scouting system went into action. A Canadian DC-4 survey plane, with a special ice-scanning dome, surveyed the 1,100-mile passage. Photographs were taken of the route just ahead and dropped to the Manhattan for study. Two helicopters, based on the ship...
Nibbling on Ice. At Cape Providence, the Manhattan slowed to wait for its U.S. Coast Guard escort, the Northwind, which was hobbling on five of its six engines. Within seconds, the tanker was surrounded by ice hummocks blown into its wake by high winds. Captain Steward reversed the engines, then charged the Arctic ice, which, because of its age, had lost its salt content and become rock-hard. When the 10-to 15-ft.-thick ice would not give after twelve hours, the stubby Canadian icebreaker John A. Macdonald was called to the rescue...
...Like the Manhattan, the Macdonald has a rolling system that shifts the vessel's balance from side to side, freeing it from imprisoning ice. The Canadian ship can also do a heel-and-toe roll, which the tanker-three times its size -cannot. This was the Macdonald's twelfth excursion into the Arctic, and it has never been stuck. Each time ice closed in around the Manhattan, the Macdonald cleared a channel beside the tanker, leaving the Manhattan room to maneuver into the clear...
Once free, the Manhattan set off to make history by attempting to plow through McClure Strait, the unpenetrated gateway to the relatively open water of the Beaufort Sea. The ship churned through 120 miles of ice before encountering a series of polar ridges and a field of thickly compressed ice. Again the call went out to the Macdonald: "Would you please come along our flanks and nibble some...
Fear of Conseouences. The captain finally decided to abandon the McClure challenge, and the ships turned around and headed for the less hazardous Prince of Wales Strait. As the Manhattan cleared the last patch of ice, the crew and guests poured champagne to celebrate. From there, it was only 500 miles of open water to the oilfields at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska...