39 A Right of Passage 1905

Everyone thought it would be the most important find for commerce in the world. Britain promised a money prize to whoever found it. Thousands of men set off to look for it and hundreds died trying. It took more than 300 years before the Northwest Passage was discovered. By then, no one was interested in using it any longer.

The British explorer, Sir Martin Frobisher, was the first to go looking for a passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic. He explored some of the eastern parts of the passage in 1576. At that time, British ships that wanted to travel to India or China had to either go west around the tip of South America or sail east and go around the bottom of Africa. Finding a passage through Canadian waters in the north would shorten the time these trips took.

Other explorers followed Frobisher. Amongst them was Henry Hudson who was exploring for the Dutch. Henry visited Hudson Bay while trying to find a shorter way to Asia. Later, the settlers who went to live there named the bay for Henry. While Henry was looking for a western route he explored areas around New York. This later brought Dutch settlers to the USA to farm in the area. Henry and his ship spent the winter of 1610 in the New York area. When spring came, Henry wanted to continue west to look for the passage. The men on his ship did not want to explore anymore. When Henry told the sailors they must continue, they refused. Sailors took control of the ship and put Henry, his son, and the seven sailors who still liked Henry, off the ship in a small lifeboat. The lifeboat and everyone inside was never seen again.

Not long afterwards, William Baffin, an English explorer, visited Baffin Bay. He too was looking for the Northwest Passage. He proved that there was no route through Hudson Bay, and he started looking around Baffin Bay in 1616. William was looking in the right place. Hundreds of years later, the Northwest Passage route would be found through Baffin Bay.

More explorers came from England and some from other countries as well. Spain, the USA and Russia all wanted to find a fast route to Asia. In the 1800's, they each sent a number of explorers in ships to look for it.

Captain John Franklin left England in 1845 with two ships. He and his crew of 129 men sailed to Canada to look for the Northwest Passage. They were never heard from again. John's wife Jane would not believe that he was dead. She sent a ship to go look for him. When that ship came back to England saying that they had not found John or his sailors, Jane sent another one. More than 13 ships went looking for John, but it took 10 years to find the first clues.

In 1854, one of the search parties met an Inuit man wearing a sailor's button. The Inuit said he had found it on one of a group of Europeans who had died from hunger. The graves of three sailors from John's ship were found that year. Then in 1859, another search party sent by Jane, found a note written by some of the sailors. It said John Franklin had died, and the rest of the sailors had left the ship when it got stuck in ice.

Over the next 150 years, those who went looking for John's ship would find the answer piece by piece. John and his men stayed the winter on Beechey Island. This is where the three sailors died and were buried. When John's two ships got stuck in the ice, the sailors started walking. They hoped to find a settlement, but they were hundreds of miles from the closest one. All of the sailors died along the way.

Even so, the loss of two ships and 129 men did not stop others from looking for the passage. In fact, the search for John Franklin had helped to discover more of the route.

EXPLORERS LOOKED FOR A WAY TO GET TO CHINA THROUGH THE NORTHERN WATERS OF CANADA

In 1849, when Robert McClure went looking for John, he eventually proved there was a North-west passage to Asia. Robert started in the west and sailed east. His ship also got stuck in the ice. He and his sailors spent three years in the Arctic before they were finally found and taken back home to Britain. During those three years, Robert walked on the ice, mapping the route. His map showed how difficult it was going to be for anyone to sail The Northwest Passage route. Although Robert found the route, he was not said to be the first to discover The Northwest Passage because he did not do it while sailing in a ship.

The honour of discovering The Northwest Passage was given to Roald Amundsen in 1905. He was a Norwegian explorer who took three years in a fishing boat to find a way through the Arctic. By the time Roald proved it could be done, the Panama Canal was being built. All commercial shipping companies had lost interest in travelling through the dangerous Canadian waters on their way to Asia. It wasn't until 1969 that the first commercial ship, the SS Manhattan, actually did sail through it.

Although The Northwest Passage was never used as a shipping route, the hunt for it proved to be very important to Canada. A huge part of the Arctic area of Canada was discovered and mapped over the 300-year search. Some Europeans settled in the area. The trading they did with the Inuit helped grow the Canadian economy.

Canada says The Northwest Passage belongs to them. It winds its way through 886,000 sq km of Canadian waters, and past 36,500 tiny, Canadian islands. Global warming has melted much of the ice in the waters there and made it easier for ships to travel in the Arctic. Now that oil and other natural resources have been found in the Arctic, The Northwest Passage area may be used as a shipping route yet, but from north to south, instead of what everyone once thought — east to west.