THE MANHATTAN
This is a photograph of the American Flag tanker MANHATTAN. Built in 1962, it was,
at the time, the biggest ship under American registry - 105,000 deadweight tons.
It would now be dwarfed by many suezmax and vlcc/ulcc tankers. The MANHATTAN was
chartered by a major oil company and extensively modified to be an ice-breaking
tanker for possible use transporting Alaskan North Slope oil through the Northwest
Passage. Rather than cutting through the ice, the MANHATTAN's bow was reinforced
so that it could ride up on the ice and break through it with its enormous weight.
The MANHATTAN completed one transit of the Northwest Passage, carrying a single
symbolic barrel of North Slope crude. Subsequently, the Trans Alaska Pipeline was
built to Valdez, through which all Alaskan oil moves. The MANHATTAN was scrapped
in 1987.
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