Clean Sweep of the Canal

Riding at anchor six miles off Egypt's war-battered Port Said was a strange sight--the 18,300-ton U.S. helicopter carrier Iwo Jima. For nearly two decades, the warships of America's Sixth Fleet have been regarded by Egypt as unfriendly and unwanted. But now the U.S. Navy is playing a major role in helping the Egyptians clear the Suez Canal of the explosives and wreckage that have blocked it since the Six-Day War of 1967. TIME's Cairo Bureau Chief Wilton Wynn visited the Iwo Jima last week. His report:

Even before the carrier anchored, U.S. Navy RH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters had begun the clearing operation. During the first stage of the project, code-named "Nimbus Star," the Sea Stallions will be working with British minesweepers to locate the thousands of shells, rockets and bombs that fell into the canal during the 1967 and 1973 wars and the 1969-70 "war of attrition." Commanding the operation is U.S. Rear Admiral Brian McCauley, 52, who directed the American minesweeping of Haiphong harbor. He explained that helicopters will sweep for magnetic, acoustic and pressure mines and also "fashion a map of the canal's bed to show us where all the junk is. During the second stage, called 'Nimbus Moon,' the map will guide the Egyptian and British divers who will defuse or explode all that stuff." No Americans will take part in the actual defusing of explosives.

Because the canal is so clogged, McCauley estimates that opening it to navigation could take more than a year. The minesweeping will require at least two months; it could take another year to detonate all the explosives in the canal and along its banks and to clear it of wreckage. Throughout its 107-mile length, the canal is littered with the detritus of war. In a segment only one kilometer long, British minesweepers have detected 180 objects. In other parts of the waterway, tanks, trucks, boats and twelve large ships are sunk and await a massive salvage effort. An additional 16 ships, with skeletal crews guarding them, are rusting but still afloat in the Great Bitter Lake, trapped since the 1967 fighting.

The minesweeping will cost the U.S. about $15 million--part of the $250 million aid for Egypt that the White House has requested from Congress. The price is low when measured by the canal's economic value. Not only will the reopening of the canal benefit Egypt (which can anticipate collecting at least $250 million in annual tolls), but also Europe, the Middle East and Asia. A United Nations report estimates that since 1967 the world's economy has lost $10 billion to higher shipping costs and a decline in trade because of the canal's closure. When it is reopened, one-third of the world's tanker tonnage can cut the journey from the petroleum fields of the Persian Gulf to the ports of the Mediterranean by 16 days of sailing time. For U.S. military strategists, however, there is one drawback to clearing the canal. It will reduce from 11,000 miles (via the Cape of Good Hope) to only 2,200 miles the Soviet navy's supply lines from its Black Sea bases to the Straits of Malacca, the doorway to the Pacific and Japan.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.