Departed from Chester Harbor, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1969
Returned to New York Harbor, New York, November 12, 1969
In 1968 at Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope of Alaska—located along the Arctic coast—oil fields were discovered by the Humble Oil & Refining Company and the Atlantic Richfield Company. With an estimated yield of 25 billion barrels, the discovery was by far the largest oil strike ever made in North America. Besides the enormous problems involved in drilling for petroleum in the harsh environment, there was also the huge puzzle of how to get the petroleum to refineries and markets thousands of miles away. Because overland transport seemed a costly solution, the possibility of shipping the oil along an Arctic route to the East Coast of the United States was investigated. The route would be through the waterway known for centuries as the Northwest Passage, made famous by fearless navigators who risked their lives attempting to find a northern sailing route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in the Western Hemisphere. (Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen [1872–1928] finally traversed the passage in 1903–06).
It was thought that giant, icebreaking oil tankers might be able to make the transcontinental Arctic voyage.
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