394 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 196 2 



the distance precisely. At Seadragon's depth, the berg should clear 

 by more than 200 feet. Beyond these prosaic reasons for passing 

 under the berg was the urge to be the first submarine to do so. This 

 magnificent crew had brought their ship 2,500 miles to find this berg. 

 All were eager to conquer it in every way. A few runs were made at 

 the berg to test equipment operation at every angle and speed, then 

 Seadragon headed directly for the berg. 



After many hours of preliminary steps, the long-awaited trip 

 under the berg seem anticlimatic. The upward-beamed fathometer 

 traced out an irregular bottom with a draft of 108 feet. A total of 

 six runs were made under this berg in different directions to produce 

 a complete picture of its shape. The maximum length of the under- 

 water shape proved to be 822 feet compared to the 313-foot measure- 

 ment above water. Wliile proving her ice equipment, Seadragon 

 corrected and proved many of the theories concerning the undersides 

 of icebergs. 



Soon the ship was operated routinely at speeds up to 20 knots with 

 sure knowledge that every berg would be easily seen and avoided. 



During the week that followed, 12 icebergs in all were selected 

 and measured off. Six were passed under a total of 22 times. Six 

 were too deep to be passed under safely. At one time in an area south 

 of Kap York, Greenland, the bergs were so dense that 45 were in 

 sight at the same time and the radar scope showed them to be undi- 

 minished in number beyond the range of visibility. Icebergs were 

 clearly no hazard to a properly equipped nuclear submarine. In 

 proving this fact, invaluable scentific information about the under- 

 sides of icebergs was produced to an extent never before possible. 



Her first task completed, Seadragon turned west. In approximately 

 the same position, 121 years earlier, a young English naval officer 

 named William Edward Parry had directed his ships Hecla and 

 Gripper in the same direction. He had entered a body of water called 

 Lancaster Sound which was shown on his chart as a bay without an 

 exit to the west. He was soon aware that it was not really a bay, but 

 a strait, possibly the Northwest Passage, that he and many before him 

 had sought. 



It was a Northwest Passage and Parry lived to be knighted and have 

 Parry Channel named after him. It took 121 years and nuclear power 

 to see it navigated fully, however. In the winter this channel is com- 

 pletely ice covered. In the summer the eastern end, Lancaster Sound, 

 is usually ice free. The western end, McClure Strait, and narrow 

 center, Barrow Strait, are usually covered with rugged pack ice 

 relentlessly forced there from the Arctic Ocean under pressure gen- 

 erated by the usual Arctic wind circulation. Parry was fortunate to 

 have found the channel in a good year, the mildest ever recorded. 



