The lure of a Northwest Passage drew many expeditions into the icy waters of the Arctic where temperatures could quickly drop to -45º Celsius or lower, and the sun never rose during winter’s “polar night.” The Bering Sea of the northern Pacific and the Arctic Ocean were destinations with a limited window of seasonal opportunity and a glittering landscape of ice crystals and howling winds.
Martin Frobisher set sail for the Arctic from Elizabethan England in 1576. He mistakenly believed that he had found the Passage when he reached the mouth of Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island. During his expedition, he was able to engage in trade and communications with the indigenous Inuit people. Henry Hudson perished following a mutiny in Hudson Bay in 1611. Hudson had sailed the North Atlantic in a succession of expeditions that began in 1607, searching for an Arctic route.
Many ships were stranded, their crews left to perish in the freezing Arctic as winter descended, before their expeditions were successful. Vitus Bering sailed from Russia in 1740 and froze to death after running aground on Bering Island, leaving Captain Chirikov to continue on. Expeditions continued in force, including the Pacific voyages of Captain Cook in 1778; Bodega y Quadra, who reached the Gulf of Alaska in 1779; Alexander Mackenzie, who reached the Arctic Ocean by land and river in 1789; and Malaspina, who headed up an expedition in 1791 and was assisted by Captains Galiano and Valdés in 1792.
Nineteenth century expeditions included that of Sir John Franklin, 1845-48, who died with a crew of 139 after their ships were iced in off King William Island. Roald Amundsen of Norway successfully navigated a narrow Passage in his small vessel in 1903-06, and the RCMP vessel the St. Roch made a successful west to east crossing in 1940-42.
