By MARTIN ARNOLD

uddenly, in the moment it takes an oxygen tank to spring a leak, the flight of Apollo 13 was no longer something everybody took for granted and was even slightly bored with.

For all around the world yesterday, during the Apollo 13 emergency, there was a surge of interest in the flight and there were prayers, and anguish also, for the three men who were fighting to get their crippled spaceship home.





Gary Settle/The New York Times Astronaut Anthony England demonstrates the make-shift lithium hydroxide canister as devised on the ground for the Apollo 13 crew to make so they may eliminate the carbon dioxide from their spacecraft. Photo Essay (11 photos)

Before the bad news broke, Milan's Il Giorno commented in a headline: "Too Perfect; the Public Is Getting Bored."

Yesterday morning, in Paris, Le Monde said: "The whole human race is participating with them in the agony of their return."

In the United States there was an outpouring of prayer, and here and there some expression of bitterness, too, that man was reaching toward space without having first solved the problems on earth.

Both the Senate and House passed resolutions yesterday asking all Americans to pray, at 9 o'clock Eastern standard time last night, for the safe return of their countrymen. And they urged businesses and communications media to pause briefly, if they could, for the prayers at that hour.

Special services and masses were called for in thousands of churches and synagogues around the country -- at St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. Thomas Episcopal Church and Temple Emanu-el in New York City, for example.

Rabbi Abraham Gross, president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, called on all clergymen to pray for the safe return of Apollo 13, and, in Baltimore, Frank Gunter Jr., Maryland chairman of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, asked all residents of the state to observe a minute of silent prayer at 4 P.M. yesterday.

In Montgomery, Ala., T. R. Hennessey, a retired Air Force officer, said that "my interest had been rather casual."

"Now, of course," he said, "I am very much concerned for those fellows' safety."

Across town, W. Barnes Tatum, a young housewife with two small children, said that now she was "much more involved. I guess their wives are the first ones you think about," she said. "I really feel sorry for them and worry about them."

In New York City, an attractive girl with long brown hair, standing outside of Tiffany's at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue, said, "It all seemed fairly routine."

"I wasn't all that excited when they walked on the moon" she said. "Now, of course, I just want them back."

Had Been 'Bored'

Five blocks downtown, standing under an awning to get out of the rain, Dale Wasserman, author of the hit musical "Man of La Mancha," said he had "been bored by the shot, but now I'm apprehensive about the danger." But I'm not totally surprised," he said. "It had to happen sooner or later."

And much farther downtown, Ronald Mintzer and Harold Cohen, both working in a stationery show, admitted that they were "sweating out the trouble," but said they had little use for space shots.

"I think the whole thing is silly," Mr. Cohen said. "Kids are being bitten by rats, and look at the money we are spending to go to the moon."

Mr. Mintzer agreed: "The allocation of money for such foolishness is criminal when the home front needs shaping up."

At West Point, N.Y., where the Empire National Bank was holding its stockholders meeting in the Hotel Thayer, the session was closed with a prayer for the astronauts, reflecting the concern of people here and abroad.

"Oh, God, I hope they return safely," a woman in the streets of Budapest said.

"How could it happen?" asked a Japanese businessman in Tokyo. "Why, they almost shuttled to the moon as safely as we ride commuter trains."

Governments -- Britain, France, Spain and Japan -- offered help in recovery operations.

At the United Nations, Anatoly A. Blagonravov, the Soviet Union delegate to a meeting on peaceful uses of outer space, said that the people of the world were hoping for the safe return of the "courageous astronauts."

Everywhere, people prayed.

In the Vatican, Pope Paul offered prayers for the safe return of the three men.

Thousands of people of all faiths flocked to churches in Georgetown, Guyana, to pray, and even that country's superstitious folk had their say. They milled about the streets, listening to the news, and commenting that the United States should never have named the space craft Apollo 13. They argued, instead, that the flight should have been named "Apollo 12B" or even Apollo 14, skipping the number 13 entirely.

All over the world newspapers increased their daily circulation runs to feed people hungry for news, and radio and television stations kept pace.

And in Cheshire County, N. H., in the southwest corner of the state, at noon yesterday, all the church bells pealed.

