Northwest Passage

Ice in the Northwest Passage, the Atlantic–Pacific sea route around the north of Canada.

A map of the Northwest Passage, as determined by the Irish explorer Robert McClure. McClure, who originally set out as part of a rescue attempt for a previous expedition, explored the area in the 1850s. He became stranded in the frozen ocean for two years, until he left his vessel and travelled over the ice to a rescue ship. He was later knighted.

Atlantic–Pacific sea route around the north of Canada. Canada, which owns offshore islands, claims it as an internal waterway; the USA insists that it is an international waterway and sent an icebreaker through without permission in 1985.

Early explorers included Englishmen Martin Frobisher and, later, John Franklin, whose failure to return 1847 led to the organization of 39 expeditions in the next ten years. John Ross reached Lancaster Sound 1818 but mistook a bank of cloud for a range of mountains and turned back. R McClure explored the passage 1850–53 although he did not cover the whole route by sea. The polar explorer Roald Amundsen was the first European to sail through 1903–06. The Northwest Passage Territorial Park on King William Island commemorates the European explorers of the region.