A Richard Rohmer Omnibus. Richard Rohmer
been under a terrible strain today, sir. Are you going to be able to get some sleep tonight?”
“I’ll try, but it will have to be here in this office. I want to be near the hot line and close at hand in case I’m needed.”
The Prime Minister glanced at his watch. “Good Lord, I’m five minutes late for the meeting with the premiers. They’re a sensitive bunch at the best of times, so I’d better get going. Remember to come and get me, Tom, if the meeting hasn’t broken up by seven.”
Air Force One / 1:14 p.m., CDT
After leaving Churchill, Air Force One climbed back up to 40,000 feet. The President levelled it off and turned the controls over to the pilot, then went down to the office to be briefed on events as they were happening in Ottawa. He scanned the summary of the Prime Minister’s remarks made in response to his own, snorted a couple of times, and said to Wolf and Johnston, “Well, you’ve got to give that young fellow credit. He’s certainly trying hard.”
They had reached the south end of the Boothia Peninsula and were starting down. The cloud cover below had disappeared and they were able to see the vast reaches of the Canadian Arctic eastward to Baffin Island and westward towards Victoria and Banks Island. Stretching out in front of them was the great channel which separated the mainland from the Arctic Islands — the historic Northwest Passage.
The President pointed out the channel and said, “I came up here to see the Manhattan sail past Resolute Bay in September ’69 with a group of people from Montreal who were making the trip at the invitation of Nordair.
“We found her to the west of Resolute Bay, steaming through a great pan of ice. She was a pretty sight, looked right at home in that setting, but the Canadians weren’t very happy that she was here. She represented a threat to their claim that the waters of the Northwest Passage belonged to them. They’ve passed all sorts of legislation since, claiming sovereignty, which they can’t possibly enforce, but the voyage gave notice that we intend to back up our position that the Passage is high seas.”
Soon Air Force One came in for a landing on the new 10,000-foot runway at Resolute Bay. In the years since his last trip, only the centre core of Resolute had changed appreciably. The single-storey, red-coloured prefabricated buildings that had been brought in by ship to serve as offices, hotel, and administrative buildings were still there, but there was now also a high-rise building like the one in Frobisher. And there were several new hangars lying to the west of the runway, and a great many more fuel-storage tanks.
Resolute Bay had become, in fact, an Arctic boom town. Though it was a poor airport because of uncertain weather conditions, it made an excellent naval base, and had developed into the major regional centre serving the growing gas and oil developments in the Sverdrup Islands. The recent discovery of a massive pool of oil on Melville Island had added to the already enormous discoveries of gas on the Sabine Peninsula and on King Christian, Ellef Ringnes, Thor, Axel Heiberg, and Ellesmere Islands. The number of rigs drilling in the area had increased from thirteen to fifty within a ten-year period. Resolute was for the President just a transfer point, however, the last possible landing space for the giant 747 in that part of the world. With no more than a quick look around to survey the changes which had come about since he was there before, the President went aboard the Hercules transport that was ready and waiting for him. Wolf and Johnston and the rest of the staff would remain on Air Force One to provide the link between the President and the outside world.
The Canadian fighter planes, the fifth pair to join them, scrambled to refuel and took off shortly after the President. It was by then four o’clock in the afternoon local time, but the sun was still high in the sky. The weather was “ceiling and visibility unlimited.” The Here flew low at 2,000 feet so that the President could clearly see the geological formations, especially the huge salt domes which dotted the islands from Melville to Ellesmere. It was at the edge of these domes that the oil and gas finds were occurring with such remarkable frequency.
They had taken off in a northerly direction, but at Bathurst Island they turned left to swing over the Magnetic North Pole and then due west toward Melville Island. The President wanted to take a look at the main base of Panarctic at Rea Point and at the work going on at Drake Point and Hecla, where development wells were now being drilled.
When they reached Drake Point the President said, “Circle around, Captain. I want to have another look. It was right about here that the first big gas discovery was made in January ’70. It came up under such enormous pressure that it blew. It took several months before they could bring it under control. The same sort of thing happened elsewhere in the Arctic, too. No one had the know-how or the technology then to cope with high-pressure finds like that.
“Well, I guess I’ve seen all I need. We can head south now.”
As the captain lined up for the final approach to the Polar Gas base, the President said, “Are you going to land on the ice?”
The captain nodded, “Yes, sir. I checked it out when we were on our way across from Fairbanks earlier today. The strip is serviceable, the ice moves and opens up a bit here and there in August and September, but with freeze-up on it’s real solid and no problem.”
When they had landed and had taxied up to the cluster of four shacks which served the airstrip, the captain said, “You could probably communicate directly with Air Force One using the base camp radio, sir, but we should really be the master ground net because of the extra communications we have on board. They give us more flexibility.”
“Fine,” said the President. “Bear in mind that I may want to get the hell out of here fast if something big comes up.” He unstrapped his seat-belt and with the help of the navigator, put on his army parka. He hoisted himself down a ladder to the cargo deck and moved quickly toward the passenger door on the port side of the aircraft. The crew chief had put down the steps by the time he reached the door.
As the President stepped out of the aircraft he was hit by a blast of freezing air whipped up by the propellers, which were still turning. He ran quickly to get out of the propwash toward a tall figure, dressed in muskrat parka and mitts, caribou mukluks and heavy dark trousers, waiting to meet him.
“Welcome to Polar Gas, Mr. President,” the man said. “I’m Harold Magnusson. I’m with Tenneco out of Houston, assigned to Polar Gas Study as Chief Engineer, trying to pick up the pieces here.”
“Mighty proud to meet you, son. Glad to find a fellow Texan, even in these parts.”
They walked toward the Polar Gas helicopter, which started up as they approached. When they had climbed in, Magnusson said, “What I’d like to do, sir, is take you to the base camp, show you a model of the under-water pipeline we’ve been working on, explain the system, and brief you on the test we’re running tomorrow morning.”
The President said, “That sounds fine, Harold. I’d like to hear and see as much as I can while Fm here.” He turned to look at Magnusson and smiled. “I bet you could even find a big Texas steak in the freezer if you looked.”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised, Mr. President. We’re real proud to have you here as our guest. This is a big event for us at Polar Gas. We have a visit from the President, and we’ve finally got the line installed under the ice in a new system that I’ve put together in the last year and a half. We were going to run the first test this morning, but when we got word that you were coming, we put it off until early tomorrow morning so you could see it.”
The President turned to Magnusson and said, “Son, let me tell you something. For the last four years I’ve been watching the work at this station with an eagle eye. I’ve heard about every failure and every disaster. I’ve also heard a lot about you since you got here, and they tell me if anybody can make this thing work you can. I knew you were going to be running the experiment, and that’s what helped me make the decision to come up here. The success or failure of this test is of tremendous importance to us. If it fails, I don’t think we’ve a hope in hell of licking this energy crisis. If it succeeds, we’ve got a real fighting chance. So I’m mighty pleased, Harold, that you waited until I got here.”
Ottawa