Search for the Northwest Passage

Some of the earliest arctic explorers were looking for a shipping route called the Northwest Passage. The search for the passage started in the 16th century, and was fueled by the fact that getting to the Pacific by ship at that time meant sailing around Cape Horn at the tip of South America -- a long and dangerous trip. The dream of an open route through the ice of the Arctic Ocean was very appealing to the nations and merchants of Europe because of the perceived economic benefits of a safer and quicker route to the Pacific Ocean.

The early explorers sometimes collected meteorological measurements. These helped later explorers and scientists trying to reconstruct the meteorological record. For instance, William Scoresby compiled a valuable summary of meteorology and ice observations off the Svalbard Archipelago from his whaling expeditions in northern waters. Similarly, British naval expeditions seeking the Northwest Passage collected meteorological data in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In addition, all of the expeditions sent to search for Franklin's party after its disappearance in 1845 kept records of local conditions. (The party had disappeared while searching for the Northwest Passage.)

Of the many explorers who ventured into the Arctic looking for the Northwest Passage beginning in the 16th century, the following took part in some of the best-known expeditions. Each advanced our knowledge of the Arctic. All of these expeditions were financed and conducted by the British.

It was 1906 before Norwegian Roald Amundson sailed all the way through the passage. He set out in 1905 from the west coast of Greenland in the ship Gjöa, but the ship became frozen into the ice and he was forced to wait until the following spring to work it free and push through to the Bering Sea and the Pacific. Finally, in 1944 a Canadian ship made it through in one season. By then airplanes were in general use for getting around the Arctic. In the end, the Northwest Passage does not exist in any practical sense, because (in marked contrast to Russia's Northeast Passage) it is not an economically viable transportation route. The search, marked by hardships and tragedies, added to the base of meteorological and geographical knowledge of the region.