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.
In 1576, the English sailor Frobisher sailed farther north in what was later named the Davis Strait west of Greenland than anyone had up until that time. He may have hoped that the long passage that he found was the Northwest Passage, but unfortunately, it was a long bay in Baffin Island, and when he reached the end of the bay, he was forced to return home in disappointment.
John Davis was able to follow up on the information from Frobisher's journey in 1587. He knew about the deceptively long bays in Baffin Island and therefore sailed about half way up the east coast of Baffin Island, hoping to find a way around the island, before he turned back.
In 1610, Henry Hudson sailed a more southerly route and found a way into what was later named Hudson Bay. But his crew mutinied during the winter, setting Hudson adrift in a small boat, and he died.
John Ross found Lancaster Sound in 1818, but because he thought that it was a bay rather than a strait, he did not continue. His second in command, Lieutenant William Edward Parry, traveled through Lancaster Sound the following year, and then spent 1821 and 1822 exploring and mapping the Igloolik area.
In 1845, John Franklin, commanding a large expedition in search of the passage, sailed through Lancaster Sound and never returned. His disappearance ushered in a new era of Arctic exploration: the Franklin searches. The searchers eventually discovered that Franklin and his men had started trekking across the ice after their ship became trapped, but although they came within 90 miles of the open channel to the west, they all perished before they could reach it.
Robert McClure, a Franklin searcher, sailed around the north coast of Alaska in 1850 and from there found his way into the west end of one Northwest Passage route at what was named McClure Strait. In the three years that his ship was frozen in the ice, he and his crew crossed Viscount Melville Sound on foot to complete the final link in one of the Northwest Passage routes.
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.