Northwest Passage
NORTHWEST PASSAGE
NORTHWEST PASSAGE. First navigated during a voyage from 1903 to 1906 by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in his ship, the Gjoa, the Northwest Passage is the sea route that links the North Atlantic Ocean with the North Pacific Ocean. It extends from Baffin Bay, which lies between West Greenland and Baffin Island, to the Bering Strait, which lies between Alaska and Siberia, through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Sixteenth-and seventeenth-century explorers hoped to find a shortcut around America to eastern Asia through a passage north of the American continent. However, the passage eluded discovery for centuries because of the intricate geography of the archipelago, along with the obstacle of constant polar ice in the sea.
By the mid-nineteenth century, it had been proven that a Northwest Passage existed, but that it would be very difficult to navigate. After his successful navigation, Amundsen graciously credited British seamen with making his accomplishment possible with their centuries of attempts to locate and navigate the passage, as well as their subsequent maps of the intricate Arctic geography. William Baffin discovered the eastern approach in 1616 in Baffin Bay, and Robert J. Le M. McClure located the passage from the west during a voyage from 1850 to 1854.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Savours, Ann. The Search for the North West Passage. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
Mary AnneHansen
See alsoPolar Exploration .