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January 2011 www.sname.org/sname/mt (founders and leaders )KELLY: is had never been done before. What did you think when the scope of what the Humble people were proposing started to become clear? GRAY: I thought this was going to be a very interesting subject to get into. The guy who had the idea for this was Stanley Haas. Humble [Oil and Rening Company] was the U.S. branch of Standard Oil in New Jersey at that time, and it was their project because it was going to be American ag- ships that would be used. Stan Haas had been in the headquarters of Standard Oil in the logistics section and had just come back to Houston when this thing happened. Now he had been involved with the people who had been doing the drilling up in Alaska, so theyd been think- ing about this for two or three years. I think most of us in New York were barely aware that oil exploration was going on at the North Slope of Alaska. e news that oil had been found and would be abundant came around April 1968, and it was around mid-summer when the question was put out there: Why dont we make icebreaking tankers? I had been [with Bethlehem Steel] in Quincy, Massachusetts while Manhattan was being built. Two of my guys, Peter Kimon and Harry Johnson, had both been senior to me when I was at Bethlehem, but by the time we were all together in 1968, the two of them were basically working beneath me. KELLY: What made Manhattan the vessel of choice? GRAY: We all thought that Manhattan , for her size, was probably more strongly built, more heavily built, and easily more power- ful than any other tanker in the world. She was a very powerful ship for the amount of cargo she could carry. at made it desir- able?and Manhattan was available. KELLY: What was it about Manhattans new bow design that was dierent, that was innovative at the time? GRAY: All icebreakers up to that time, looked at from the side, they had a slump stem that was a straight line, basically down from the bottom of the ship up to above the waterline, and it went up at an angle of 25 to 30 degrees as a straight line. e mode for icebreaking was, you run into the ice and this slumped bow lets you ride up on the ice and the weight of the ship crushes it down. is designer, Rod White of the Coast Guard, the Humble people had gotten him and he designed that [new bow] before I was even involved with the project. He thought from his experience in icebreaking, that if you had this curved thing up around the waterline, it was almost like there was no draft at all and it would be easier for the ship to ride up on the ice until it came to where it became more of a plumb, or a form, then it would stop and so forth. When we nally looked at the end of the project 21 months later, the people in Finland were impressed with the design that had already been done, and they said Okay, lets try it.? ey thought that was good. KELLY: Lets talk about the people in Finland. Describe Wartsilas contributions and their involvement in the project. GRAY: Well, Wartsila Helsinki Shipyard had the one shipyard there, they subsequently got another one. Up to that time, they had designed and built almost 70% of the real icebreakers in the world. And its still true. Now its Aker Arctic, that descended from it, still in Helsinki. ey still have done two- thirds or more of the designing and building of ships as icebreakers. It was obvious they knew more about it than anybody else in the world. But the people in Houston com- missioned some early design studies of icebreaking tankers with the people that did the main design work for Canada, a rm up there that designed the Canadian icebreak- ers. Houston rst went to them rather than the Finns. It was the Finns who came to us. KELLY: ey came to you and said something to the eect of, We dont want you to foul this project up and give icebreaking a bad name.? GRAY: ats exactly what it was. Icebreakers were a very lucrative product line for them. Editors note: In 1968, when Humble Oil and Refining Company decided it wanted a tanker that could navigate the Northwest Passage, it turned to a team that included Esso Internationals Bill Gray, who was manager of Essos Arctic Project. (mt) Editor Douglas R. Kelly spoke recently with Gray about his experiences in the conversion of Manhattan and what was learned both in the shipyard and in the Arctic. William O. Gray Converting and outtting the rst icebreaking tanker produced its share of challenges Bill Gray was manager of Essos Arctic Project during the conversion and testing of Manhattan in 1969 and 1970.