A $40 MILLION GAMBLE ON THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE

FOR nearly five centuries, merchants and mariners have dreamed of opening a commercial sea lane across the top of Canada and Alaska. Venetian Explorer John Cabot, in search of a short trade route to the Orient, made the first unsuccessful attempt to sail through the frozen Arctic Ocean in 1498. Dozens of others--French, English and Portuguese--followed in his wake, but it was not until Norwegian Roald Amundsen piloted the small yacht Gjoa through the ice-choked waterway in 1906 that the Northwest Passage was finally discovered. Since then, only six vessels have completed the treacherous voyage, and the passage remains unused by the world's commerce.

Last week a new and mighty expedition set sail in an effort to open the Northwest Passage to shipping. Manned by a 95-member party of sailors, scientists and newsmen, the 1,005-ft.-long tanker S.S. Manhattan eased out of her berth on the Delaware River near Chester, Pa., and set her course northward toward Greenland. From there the 115,000-ton ship, the most powerful in the U.S. merchant fleet, will turn westward into the passage itself, heading for Prudhoe Bay and the oilfields of Alaska's North Slope. Her mission is to test the feasibility of using supertankers to carry Alaskan oil to the markets of the U.S. East Coast. If all goes well, the Manhattan will make the perilous 10,000-mile round trip in about three months.

For Humble Oil & Refining Co., Atlantic Richfield and British Petroleum, the Manhattan's voyage is a rather costly gamble. The companies have spent nearly $40 million readying the ship and crew, and the stakes are even higher. What could be the country's largest oil reserves have been discovered under the snows of the remote North Slope, but the distance and weather conditions raise drilling costs to double those for bringing oil out of the ground in the U.S. In order to sell the Alaska oil at competitive prices, Humble and its partners must find an economical way to bring it down south.

The Northwest Passage could provide the answer. If the Manhattan's journey is a success, the way would be open to haul North Slope crude to the U.S. for 60-c- a barrel less than the cost of piping the oil from Prudhoe Bay to the ice-free southern Alaska port of Valdez for shipment to the Pacific Coast. This would not only make North Slope drilling practical and profitable, but would encourage development of Alaska's huge deposits of iron, sulfur, copper and other minerals. The Manhattan expedition could provide other benefits as well. By opening up the Northwest route for commercial shipping, it would cut the distance between New York and Tokyo by 3,320 miles and save shippers both time and money.

Frigid Vise. On its long voyage the Manhattan must negotiate some of the world's most hazardous waters. Temperatures in the Arctic drop as low as 75DEG below zero. Howling winds and raging seas build up pressure ridges of ice that tower 30 ft. above the surface and reach 100 ft. below. Grinding pack ice can lock an ordinary ship into a frigid vise for months or crush its hull like a beer can.

The Manhattan, however, is no ordinary ship. Unlike the small wooden ships that first attempted the difficult journey, she was specially designed for the trip. Leased by Humble from Sea-train Lines, the Manhattan was broken into four sections to speed up the refitting process, then reassembled early this summer. A steel belt was added to her hull to brace it against the pressure of the pack ice; a specially designed prow was built to help her ride up on top of the ice and smash it with her weight. A laser beam will help the crew measure the thickness of the ice through which the ship must pass; helicopters will scout ahead of the ship in search of a clear channel.

The First Challenge. Despite these precautions, some top-level Government officials are doubtful about the Manhattan's chances of success. They fear that the ship is much too large to negotiate the narrow channels of the Canadian Archipelago, too frail to withstand a certain battering by building-size blocks of ice.

Humble officials are more confident. Stanley Haas, 45, the Humble engineer who heads the Manhattan expedition, says that the ship will face its first major challenge late this month, when its sharply slanted bow encounters the first of the Arctic's pressure ridges. He and the company officials, who have risked so much on the epoch-making voyage, believe that the heavily powered and reinforced ship will be able to overcome all obstacles.

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