 For years since 1950, during the short summer months, ships of the Military Sea Transportation Service have been going to the Arctic. They've been delivering supplies to our defense outposts, more than 2,500,000 measurement tons of cargo, and over 19 million barrels of fuel. This seaborn delivery has been the most massive logistic operation in Arctic regions ever undertaken. Pre-supply of the Dew Line in Suneck, Pribilof Island, and the development of a practical Northwest Passage. Dew Line is a string of distant early-warning radar sites ranging across North America from Alaska to Greenland. Suneck is the supply of the Northeast Command, consisting of large Air Force bases such as Tule and Goose Bay in the Labrador-Greenland area. The resupply of the U.S. ceiling industry on the Pribilof Island and the development of a practical deep-draft Northwest Passage through Bellot Strait as an escape route for MSTS ships. The more than 100 ships assigned to Arctic operations in 1957 were divided into two task forces, Task Force 5 in the Pacific, resupplying sites from Cape Lisbon, Alaska to Shepherd Bay and the Pribilof Island, and Task Force 6 in the Atlantic, resupplying the Labrador, Greenland, Baffin Island, and Fox Basin area. Units of both task forces would attempt the development of the Northwest Passage. A combined operation, MSTS, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Canadian, and commercially operated elements under overall command of Vice Admiral John M. Will, USN, Commander of the Navy's Military Sea Transportation Service. Ships were dry docked throughout the country. Ice propellers and extra sheathing on sides and bows were installed for protection against heavy ice. Even small landing craft were specially reinforced for Arctic duty. Task Force commanders conferred with their staff and with commanding officers of ships to work out final details. Loading of ships occurred at various ports throughout the United States. Supplies needed for the continual operation of our Arctic bases made up this precious cargo. P.O.L., or petroleum, oil, and lubricating products, such as aviation gasoline, diesel oil, and lubricating oil, were loaded along the Gulf and California coast. Bulk P.O.L. was either transported in drums or pumped directly into waiting tankers. Caterpillars, cranes, tractors, and trucks needed by the Army stevedores to handle offloading on Arctic beaches were also taken aboard. Pacific ships assembled at Seattle, Washington, the staging area for Task Force V. Personnel of the Army Transportation Corps arrived and were embarked aboard ships. These men would handle the offloading on the beaches. The Hydrographic Survey Unit, the Coast Guard ships, Storus, Bramble, and Spar, departed Seattle on 1 July to conduct advanced surveys. As the final hour approached, wives, children, and sweethearts gathered to say goodbye to their loved ones. Farewell said, preparations were made to get underway. The main convoy sailed on the 16th of July. Various typeships made up the convoy. Experience gained in previous years proved small shallow-draft vessels were necessary to operate east of Point Barrow. Their shallow draft permitted them to take advantage of the narrow shallow-water ice-free leads near the coastline. The LST is used extensively because of its ability to go directly onto the beach for offloading. The Samavi, a small 5,000-ton shallow-draft dry cargo ship, carries the majority of the cargo, plus one or more LCMs for transporting the cargo to the beach. And the AOGs, a small T-1 tanker with capacity of 16,000 barrels. Supporting these ships were Navy and Coast Guard icebreakers to lead the way and assist ships be set in ice. ARSs, the light repair and salvage ships which have proven to be of great value for operational repairs. And the USS El Dorado, the command ship of Task Force 5, which directed operations from Point Barrow, Alaska. In advance of and during the entire operation, aerial ice reconnaissance missions were flown for the success or failure of an Arctic operation may well depend on advanced ice information and forecasting. P2V aircraft flew long-range flights to learn general ice conditions of a large area. Medium-range flights of R4Ds gained tactical ice information ahead of the convoy. The short-range flights were made by ship-based helicopters which operate with the convoy throughout the operation and provide close-range support. Approximately 50 miles from Point Barrow, the first Arctic ice and heavy fog were encountered. But transit was affected and the convoy rounded Point Barrow on July 29. Proceeding eastward, the convoy followed a relatively ice-free lead. It had been opened by favorable winds. This permitted unrestricted cargo offloading along the Alaskan coastline. Father Eastward, the advanced survey unit was encountering heavy ice in Amundsen Gulf. The polar pack had closed in and for a week they were beset in the ice. The survey ships were able to work themselves free when a shift in the wind eased pack pressure. The survey unit and main convoy encountered heavy ice conditions from Amundsen Gulf to Shepherd Bay, the terminus point of the western operation. While ice hampered the progress of the ships, it was no obstacle for the polar bear. Before the convoy arrived, all beaches, ice-infested or clear had to be surveyed. This dangerous job was accomplished by the underwater demolition team, better known as the Navy's frogmen, who are a part of the advanced survey unit. Information pertaining to depths of water, beach gradient and type of bottoms had to be obtained before ships could safely approach the beaches. When rocks, pinnacles and ice were encountered underwater, the obstructions were removed. No two beaches were alike. Each had its own unloading problems. Frequently, the LSTs were able to beach with dry ramps and discharge their cargo with little difficulty. Sometimes it was necessary to extend the beach to the LST. And at other times, LCMs and LVTs ferried cargo from ships to the beach. The Simavi is not designed for beaching. They anchored offshore and utilized their LCMs to transport cargo to the beaches. POL, carried in AOGs, was normally pumped through a floated hose directly to beach tanks. POL, in spare tanks of LSTs and Simavis, was either pumped ashore or shuttled in special tanks installed in LCMs and LCUs. The resupply of the Pribilof Islands was a routine affair. One cargo vessel, the USS Merrick, a.k.a. 97, carried supplies to the ceiling colonies on St. George and St. Paul Islands and brought back seal skins and other byproducts. These islands are the home of over 3 million seals. Upon completion of unloading in the west, three LSTs and three AOGs were transferred to the Canadian government. These ships were moored in the Mackenzie River Delta and frozen in for the winter for resupply of radar sites in the central Canadian Arctic in 1958. Operating procedures of Task Force 6 in the east were different in many respects. Task Force convoys were not formed, but ships sailed independently or in small groups for their destinations as ice conditions permitted. This is the land of rugged terrain and glaciers that flow down to the sea, where they break up into icebergs which average 200 feet from the waterline to the top. Seven-eighths of the volume of an iceberg is submerged, and since this portion may extend in any direction, they are an extreme hazard to shipping. Deep draft vessels are used on the Atlantic side. The Victory, a large cargo ship. The T2 tanker for delivery of POL. And the LSD, used to transport LCUs and Army personnel and their equipment from beach to beach. Past experience proved that in early summer, a lead of open water develops along the west coast of Greenland. This permits ships to resupply the Suneck bases without serious ice difficulty, all the way to Tully Air Base on the northwest tip of Greenland, only 770 miles from the north pole. Some major bases, such as Tully, having dock facilities, did not require amphibious-type unloading operations. However, the precipitous rocky, rugged beach terrain along the Baffin Island and Labrador coastline made unloading more difficult than the low beaches of the West. At times, extreme tidal ranges left amphibious boats temporarily stranded, slowing operations. These same tidal conditions increased navigational hazards in the dangerous, shoal and pinnacle-strewn channel into Frobischer Bay. This channel had grounded two tankers in previous years. The Canadian HMCS Labrador, during offloading proceedings, developed and charted a new and more suitable deepwater channel. As ships moved into Fox Basin, they encountered the worst ice conditions experienced in recent years. Led by icebreakers, the ships pounded their way 100 miles through dense ice. Despite damage to some ships, the radar sites in Fox Basin received their needed supplies. Throughout the operation, men from various ships along the resupply route had the opportunity to learn many things about the North and its inhabitants. The construction of the due line has brought Western civilization closer to the Eskimo. This project has afforded employment to many and is affecting their way of life. However, the majority still pursue the life of their forefathers. Colorful plants flourished during the short Arctic summer. Approximately 12 miles south of Point Barrow stands a memorial to Will Rogers and Wiley Posts, marking the spot where they crashed. On August 15, the 22nd anniversary of the fatal crash, the United States Navy paid tribute to these two great Americans. At Point Barrow, Alaska, the Polar Pack ice closes an impenetrable door during much of the year. The door opens annually for a brief and unpredictable shipping season. This year, as in the past, ships of the Western Task Force were fortunate in making their escape around Point Barrow before the ice encroached the land. This swinging door has been a vital concern to mariners sailing these waters and particularly to the commander of the military sea transportation service. This trap, which almost claimed the MSTS convoys in previous years, emphasized the need for a practicable deep-water escape route to the east. MSTS ships had penetrated from both east and west, surveying the previously uncharted waters as far as Shepherd Bay to the eastward and Lancaster Sound to the westward. Bellot Strait was singled out as the probable key link to the passage, after a detailed study of the area between points of ship penetration. From a reconnaissance flight made in 1956, while the Strait was relatively ice-free, the commander MSTS and his party observed no visible navigational hazards, and he decided to include a survey of this area during the 1957 operation. Bellot Strait, a narrow waterway dividing Somerset Island and Boothia Peninsula, the northernmost point of the mainland of continental North America, had previously been traversed. Small shallow draft ships had transcended the Strait, but actual survey and water depth were never recorded in sufficient detail. If depth proved sufficient, a practical deep-water northwest passage would be completed. The Hydrographic Survey Unit, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storus and the Bowie Tenders Bramble and Spa, was assigned to survey from Shepherd Bay through James Ross and Franklin Straits to the western approaches of Bellot. Approaching from the east would be the task of the HMCS Labrador, operating as a task unit under Commander Task Force 6. The Labrador arrived at the eastern approaches on the evening of August 21, and work began the following day with an aerial survey. Except for Magpie Rock, a submerged pinnacle just inside the eastern entrance to the Strait, no other hazard to navigation was noted. Supplies were taken ashore to Fort Ross, an abandoned Hudson's Bay Company trading post. It was used during the survey as a support base for small craft and helicopters from the Labrador. Special markers were erected as aids in triangulation, necessary for accurate surveying. Tide gauging poles were placed at each end of the Strait to record rise and fall of the tide. As the survey proceeded, shore parties erected permanent radar navigation reflectors to assist future navigators when transiting the channel. The Labrador sound boat, Pogo, made several transits of Bellot Strait, recording depths at spaced intervals by means of automatic depth recorders. On August 24, preliminary survey work completed, HMCS Labrador drawing 28.5 feet of water with Pogo in the lead, entered Bellot Strait for the historical passage, the first deep draft ship ever to attempt the transit. Two hours later, the message was flashed. Passage of Bellot Strait accomplished, minimum depth, 50 feet. The three Coast Guard ships, having completed their surveys of Simpson, Ray, James Ross, and Franklin Straits, despite heavy ice and fog conditions, rendezvoused with the Labrador in Franklin Strait at the western approach to Bellot. Behind them stretched some 2,500 miles of charted waterways with supporting oceanographic data. Here, the commanding officer of the Labrador invited the Coast Guard skippers on board to discuss the west-east transit of Bellot Strait. And on September 6, the four ships formed into a column and steamed through the strait. On the eastern side, the ship stopped briefly to visit Fort Ross. A message recording events of the historic passage was placed in a box and left behind for future travelers to read. With the successful development of a practical deep draft northwest passage through Bellot Strait, the resupply of Suneck bases and the U.S. ceiling stations on the Pribilof Islands as well as the sites of the due line, ships of the MSTS Arctic operation turned south and headed home, leaving the Arctic frontier equipped for another year.