OPENING OF THE ARCTIC OCEAN — STRONG 395 



He managed to travel all the way to Melville Island before being 

 stopped by the pack. Here he wintered and returned home to a 

 hero's rewards the next summer. 



Because the usually unfavorable ice conditions keep ships away, 

 Parry's soundings were all that existed in the main section of the 

 channel. Ships since that historic voyage had traversed sections of 

 the channel inshore in relatively shallow waters where the winds and 

 presence of land frequently left channels through the ice. The many 

 soundings along the coasts clearly revealed that a submerged sub- 

 marine could not pass there. The half dozen or more soundings 

 sparsely spread along the center of the Barrow Strait narrows 

 indicated that the depth here was shallow as compared to the ends 

 of Parry Channel. Five islands exist in the narrows, while 

 another island and several shoals were marked as "existence 

 doubtful" or "position doubtful." The best passage between the 

 islands, or whether a passage even existed, was by no means 

 clear from the chart. "Whether the passage would be deep enough 

 to pass a submerged submarine under the heavily ridged ice that nor- 

 mally was there was clearly uncertain. 



On the morning of August IT, Seadragon submerged at the western 

 end of Lancaster Sound and proceeded into the rapidly shoaling waters 

 of Barrow Strait at slow speed. During the 3 days that followed she 

 was never far from the bottom below or the surface above. The bottom 

 proved to have many shoals that appeared on the fathometer trace 

 with little warning. Grounding or collision with ice above was nar- 

 rowly escaped many times by turning or changing depth rapidly. 

 Although there was some ice on the surface, a lucky wind condition 

 had cleared most of the ice from the Strait, permitting a more 

 thorough survey than expected. Seadragon surfaced six times within 

 the strait for navigational fixing to locate her survey accurately on the 

 area's charts. The fixes revealed that several of the charted islands 

 were 5 miles out of position. On August 19, the task was complete. 

 Islands and shoals were carefully and accurately plotted on the chart. 

 There was a channel there deep enough for any future nuclear sub- 

 marine to follow, winter or summer, favorable ice or not. The survey 

 had proved without reservation that the electronic equipment on 

 Seadragon was capable of leading her through restricted channels 

 between land masses. 



At high speed, Seadragon entered the deep, unsounded waters of 

 Viscount Melville Sound, passed the North Magnetic Pole, passed 

 under the edge of the ice pack pusliing into McClure Strait, and 

 entered the Arctic Basin — all without surfacing once. Proceeding 

 under the pack to the North Pole, the ship was surfaced frequently 

 for scientific studies, tests of military equipments, and sightseeing by 



672-174—63 29 



