REVIEW: 'BREAKING ARCTIC ICE' - Icebreaker SS MANHATTAN sails Arctic NW Passage 1969

http://community.adn.com/node/161747

Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil: The Epic Voyage of the SS Manhattan through the Northwest Passage, by Ross Coen, 2012, University of Alaska Press, 215 pps, U.S. $24.95

Reviewed by JOE E. LaROCCA

A University of Alaska scholar at Fairbanks has plucked a rare gem from the dust bin of Alaska’s relatively brief but colorful petroleum history and endowed it with a fresh voice that speaks to a new generation of adherents largely unaware of its historic genesis.

In his new book, Ross Coen, a university professor, revisits the legendary ice-breaking supership’s remarkable experimental journey more than 40 years ago from New York Harbor through the ice-choked waters of the Canadian arctic archipelago’s mythic Northwest Passage: Its destination, Prudhoe Bay in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska’s then-newly discovered North Slope oilfields.

(Full disclosure: As one of the few survivors who sailed aboard the Manhattan during part of her spectacular trip in 1969 through the dazzling labryrinth of arctic ice, Professor Coen interviewed me online during research on his book and has favorably cited some of my Alaska writings).

The story of the SS Manhattan has been told in various contexts over the years, most notably in a book published in 1970 by New York Times Reporter William D. Smith, “Northwest Passage: The Historic Voyage of the SS Manhattan.” Smith, flaunting the Times’ prestigious clout, was the only reporter allowed to cover the ship’s entire voyage round trip. I was there covering for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.



THE REST OF THE STORY.... (http://sunshiporg.homestead.com/manhattan.html)





THE SS MANHATTAN WAS POWERED BY 43,000 HORSEPOWER BUT WAS NO MATCH FOR 16-20 FOOT THICK SEA ICE IN MCCLURE STRAIT AND HAD TO TURN AROUND (NO SMALL TASK FOR A 1005' LOA X 148' WIDE BEAM SHIP IN NEAR 16' SEA ICE) AND CHANGE THE NAVIGATION ROUTE TO USE THE NARROW AND CONSTRAINED PRINCE OF WALES STRAIT ON THE EAST SIDE OF BANKS ISLAND.

THE ORIGINAL NORTHWEST PASSAGE "OVER-THE-TOP" OF BANKS ISLAND WAS DISCOVERED BY CAPTAIN ROBERT MCCLURE ABOARD HMS INVESTIGATOR IN 1851. SINCE DISCOVERY, 161 YEARS AGO, NO OTHER SHIP HAS NAVIGATED THE ROUTE (WITH THE RUMORED AND UNCONFIRMED EXCEPTION OF A RUSSIAN NUCLEAR ICEBREAKER.)

WILL 2012 BECOME AN EPIC YEAR IN HISTORY THAT A PRIVATE VESSEL SAILS THE ORIGINAL NORTHWEST PASSAGE "OVER-THE-TOP"?

STANDBY...