Soal dan Pembahasan TBI (Reading Comprehension) Bagian 41

        In 1958, the Navy’s nuclear – powered submarine Nautilus  surfaced in  the  Greenland Sea after a 1.830 – mile journey, under the polar ice park, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. A Number of surface ships had sailed between those  oceans, either via the Northwest Passage, close to the island of the Canadian Arctic, or via the   Northeast   Passage,   along   the   northern coasts   of   Europe   and   Asia;   the   Nautilus, however, was the first ship to go from ocean to ocean via the North Pole.

        The Nautilus ; 96 hours, sailed an almost direct course under the ice, travelling a greater part of  the way at a  depth of  400 feet and a speed of 20 knots. The submarine was bellow the ice, which in general is only from 7 to 14 feet thick, though stalactites sometimes reach depths of 125 feet.

        This  voyage  effectively brought  to  the  world’s attention the potensial role of nuclear – powered submarines,  capable  of  prowling  beneath  the polar pack and launching missiles from any of the  countless  lagoons  and  channels  of  open water that divide it.

        The  submarines   also  seems  to  have been designed to offset the effect of the Soviet sputniks on word opinion. Although the Nautilus did  not  come back  empty  –  handed from  the scientific point of view, the voyage was as much a demonstration of potensial as if was a potential expedition.   Undoubtedly,    much   more   was learned about the polar pack by those aboard the two   American   and   two   Soviet   ice   borne, scientific, stations then adrift in the Arctic ocean than by the group that manned the Nautilus.