Northwest Passage

a ship route along the Arctic coast of Canada and Alaska, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

[1545-55]

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Sea passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans along the northern coast of North America.

The search for a commercial sea route around the American land barrier dates from the end of the 15th century and attracted explorers such as Jacques Cartier, Francis Drake, Martin Frobisher, and Capt. James Cook. The passage was finally navigated successfully in 1906 by Roald Amundsen. As a modern trade route, it has been only marginally useful, because of the difficulties in navigating around the polar ice cap and the giant icebergs in the Atlantic between Greenland and Baffin Island and in the Pacific in the Bering Strait. The U.S. and Canadian governments have tried to encourage international commerce in the passage, and it would significantly shorten many international shipping distances, though the cost of strengthening ships against ice and the probable high insurance rates for vessels used in Arctic service could continue to inhibit use of the Northwest Passage as a trade route.

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▪ trade route, North America

      historical sea passage of the North American continent, representing centuries of effort to find a route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic archipelago of what became Canada. One of the world's severest maritime challenges, the route is located 500 miles (800 km) north of the Arctic Circle and less than 1,200 miles (1,930 km) from the North Pole. It consists of a series of deep channels through Canada's Arctic Islands, extending about 900 miles (1,450 km) east to west, from north of Baffin Island to the Beaufort Sea, above Alaska. To reach the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic requires a hazardous voyage through a stream of about 50,000 giant icebergs (iceberg), up to 300 feet (90 m) in height, constantly drifting south between Greenland and Baffin Island. The exit to the Pacific is equally formidable, because the polar ice cap presses down on Alaska's shallow north coast much of the year and funnels masses of ice into the Bering Strait, between Alaska and Siberia.

 Since the end of the 15th century, Western explorers (European exploration) have attempted to establish a commercial (international trade) sea route north and west around the American land barrier encountered by Christopher Columbus. Such an accomplishment would realize an objective that has eluded man since King Henry VII of England sent John Cabot in search of a northwest route to the Orient in 1497. Five years earlier, Columbus had set out in search of a westward route after conquest of the Middle East by the Ottoman Turks in the mid-15th century disrupted Europe's overland routes to the East. Vasco da Gama sailed south around Africa to India in 1498; Ferdinand Magellan sailed southwest around South America to the East Indies in 1521; and Dutch explorers vainly sought a northeast passage around Russia. But it was the Northwest Passage that captured the imagination of many of the world's famed explorers, including Jacques Cartier, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Martin Frobisher, and Captain James Cook. All met with failure, and many with disaster. Sir Humphrey Gilbert (Gilbert, Sir Humphrey), whose treatise on the passage inspired many voyages by others, drowned on his own attempt in 1583. Henry Hudson (Hudson, Henry), his young son, and seven others were cast adrift by a mutinous crew in 1611, when his discovery of Hudson Bay proved to be an icy trap instead of the passage he sought. Knowledge of an Arctic passage came slowly, over hundreds of years, from information gathered during voyages by such explorers as John Davis, William Baffin, Sir John Ross, Sir William Parry, Frederick William Beechey, and Sir George Back, augmented by overland expeditions by Henry Kelsey, Samuel Hearne, and Sir Alexander Mackenzie. The worst tragedy came when Sir John Franklin (Franklin, Sir John) and 128 men aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror vanished in 1845. One searcher for the lost expedition, Robert McClure (McClure, Sir Robert John Le Mesurier), entered the passage from the west, became locked in the ice for two winters, then sledged overland to another rescue ship coming from the east to complete the first Northwest Passage in 1854. Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld led a Swedish-Russian voyage through the Northeast Passage over the top of Eurasia in 1878–79, and Soviet polar icebreakers have opened this route to limited use in modern times. But the Northwest Passage was not finally conquered by sea until 1906, when the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (Amundsen, Roald), who had sailed secretly to escape creditors seeking to stop the expedition, completed an arduous three-year voyage in the converted 47-ton herring boat Gjöa. The first single-season transit was achieved in 1944, when Sergeant Henry A. Larsen, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, made it through in a schooner.

      Opening the Northwest Passage to regular commercial ocean traffic would have worldwide economic significance in natural resources, transportation, and trade relations among nations. The greatest impact would be on the United States and Canada, but effects could be felt from the Persian Gulf to Panama, and from Chile to Scandinavia. But competitive developments, governmental policies, and many complex economical issues are likely to determine how soon, and how much, such a route would be used. The cost of strengthening ships against ice and the probable high insurance rates for vessels used in Arctic service, however, could inhibit use of the Northwest Passage as a trade route. But it would cut the distance between London and Tokyo, for example, to less than 8,000 miles (12,870 km) from the 14,670-mile (23,600-kilometre) route around Africa made necessary when the Suez Canal was shut down (1967–75). The Northwest Passage would permit use of far larger vessels than allowed by dimensions of the Panama and Suez canals. Icebreaking techniques learned in the Northwest Passage could be applied in other ice-locked waters from the Great Lakes to the Baltic Sea, including Russia's Northeast Passage with its vast Siberian oil fields. Canada has held sovereignty over the Arctic Islands since 1880, but some countries, including the United States, contend that much of the Northwest Passage is in international waters. Canada has indicated that it would welcome international commerce over the route, subject to pollution-control regulations.

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