One of our readers sent in this image of the Arctic in the Atlantic with embedded comments on the Northwest Passage.

See larger image here.

“The fabled Northwest Passage opened this summer for the second time in history and the second year in a row. The Northeast Passage (also called the Northern Sea Route) over Eurasia first fully opened in 2005; shipping is already extensive within that region particularly in the Barents Sea. Yet both routes, sought by ancient mariners, are likely to be used for only for a few years. By 2025, if not before, most ships in the arctic will likely sail over the pole, avoiding coastal state jurisdictions and shaving still more miles off their journeys. Much of the world’s international shipping will reorient itself as well.”

Dr. Gary Sharp suggested the following historical account that sets the record straight here. It starts: “The Northwest Passage is a sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. For more than three centuries explorers had been trying to find the route before it was finally discovered in 1906 by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872–1928)… When Amundsen successfully navigated the Northwest Passage, he found that it wound around between the mainland of northern Canada and the arctic islands of Canada. The journey aboard his small ship Gjoa took more than three years because he and his crew were forced to camp three winters.  Columbus, European navigators began to seek a western route. Prominent in this search were such names as Jacques Cartier, Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real, Sir Martin Frobisher, John Davis, Henry Hudson, and William Baffin.

The urgency behind the search for the passage was tempered by the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, and later by the Panama Canal, in 1914. Not until 1903-06 did a single ship make the entire trip through the passage. This was accomplished under the leadership of the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. The first successful commercial voyage was made by the ice-breaking tanker SS Manhattan in 1969. This voyage followed the discovery of large oil deposits in Alaska, which influenced the opening of a shorter route to the east coast of the United States.”

Gary then pointed out that there were several non-commercial ventures that made the passage - as per the reference - “Northwest Passage: The Quest for an Arctic Route to the East” by Edward Struzik in 1991 - available via any book sales office. He also recommended this historical account of bad journalism on this subject here and this listing of links here.

See Gary’s site “It’s All About Time and Place” here.