The Background

Norwegian, Roald Amundsen, making the first complete voyage of the passage in a little forty seven ton herring sloop, the Gjoa (from the Gary MacMahon collection).

The Search for a Northwest Passage

Since the fifteenth century, starting with John Cabot and continuing with Martin Frobisher, navigators have searched for a route to the Pacific from Atlantic. A shorter route that also avoided rounding Cape Horn was sought. Subsequent explorers whose names adorn the maps of North America and Canada also search in vain for the elusive passage.

Men like John Davis, Henry Hudson, William Buffin and Samuel Hearne explored the Canadian Arctic but found no route. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the Admiralty, in an attempt to secure its naval superiority and seek commercial advantage, began what became a half-century of tireless endeavour to discover the Northwest Passage.

• Expeditions in Chronological Order
• Major Expeditions - In search of Franklin                                    Background continued
• First Complete Northwest Passage
• Major Figures of the Past

Relevant Websites

South Arís

http://www.arved-fuchs.de/

http://www.greenland-guide.gl/default.htm

Metal Boat Construction

                                                                                              Background continued