Bi-Polar Northwest Passage Story

by Julie Walsh on September 18, 2007 · 3 comments

A September 18, 2007 article by Troy Lennon in the Daily Telegraph, Sydney about the Northwest Passage, the “trip that caused the toughest to tremble,” completely missed the point.

The author says in the third paragraph, “If global warming continues, it may just achieve what thousands of people tried and failed to do — open up a northwest passage from the Atlantic through to the Pacific.”

Then at the end of the article he (the author) details those explorers that did transverse it, albeit not for commerce.

In the 20th Century someone actually sailed along the route. In 1906 Norwegian Roald Amundsen braved the course aboard the Gjoa, a converted herring boat.

In 1940-42 Canadian Mounted Police officer Henry Larsen sailed the St Roch — a diesel-powered schooner clad in Australian ironbark timber — from Vancouver to Halifax. It was the first to sail the passage from west to east. In 1944 he sailed from Halifax to Vancouver, setting a record of 86 days — the first vessel to sail the passage in a single season. But cost has stopped commerce from following the adventurers.

The Northwest Passage has been traveled many times before: in 1906, 1942, 1944, 1957, 1969, 1977, and 1984. And the Vikings may have even succeeded earlier. Don’t believe the alarmists who say that the opening of this route portends the end of the world.

{ 3 comments }

John June 27, 2008 at 4:57 am: The Northwest Passage was NOT traveled in 1906 by Amundsen – it took him 3 YEARS, 1903-1906, during which time they were marooned in the ice for two winters! Plus, he did it in a 47-ton steel-hulled ship; due to water as shallow as 3 feet (0.91 m), a larger ship could never have used the route.
Likewise, the 1942 trip was actually 1940-1942, taking more than two years IN A FORTIFIED ICEBREAKER. The 1944 return trip was the first known to have occurred in less than a year (and even that took 86 days!), and that was in the same fortified icebreaker, with the Northwest Passage still not suitable for commercial navigation.
That hardly qualifies as "opening of this route".
However, from wiki: "On August 21, 2007, the Northwest Passage became open to ships without the need of an icebreaker. According to Nalan Koc of the Norwegian Polar Institute this is the first time it has been clear since they began keeping records in 1972."
So, the meaning stands… In 2007 this route was open for the first time for ships, without an icebreaker, in all of recorded history.
That IS significant.
Shawn July 18, 2008 at 10:42 am: That is baloney. More than a hundred boats have gone through the passage. The St. Roch went from Halifax to Vancouver in 86 days in 1944 and it was a little underpowered boat, by no means a fortified icebreaker. The St. Roch 2 breezed through in 2000, sailboats have gone through the passage. Wiki is biased crap.
Qwerty August 18, 2008 at 5:05 am: The St Roch's hull was designed to be ice-resistant, but it certainly couldn't be classed as an icebreaker.
However, the majority of the 100+ ships to have successfully navigated the Northwest Passage have been icebreakers and reinforced tankers and survey ships.
The St Roch 2 encountered sea ice but not enough to impede it significantly. The general pattern is that since Amundsen's time the Northwest Passage has become progessively easier to navigate. The great majority of sailboats to have made the trip have done so only in the last decade.