View source for Northwest Passage

{{Short description|Sea route north of North America}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}}
[[File:Northwest passage.jpg|thumb|upright=1.75|Northwest Passage routes]]
[[File:2007 Envisat mosaic of Arctic Ocean ESA210015.jpg|thumb|[[Envisat#ASAR|Envisat ASAR]] mosaic of the [[Arctic Ocean]] (September 2007), showing the most direct route of the Northwest Passage closed (yellow line) and the [[Northeast Passage]] partially opened (blue line). The dark grey colour represents the ice-free areas, while green represents areas with [[sea ice]].]]

The '''Northwest Passage'''  ('''NWP''') is the [[sea lane]] between the [[Atlantic]] and [[Pacific]] oceans through the [[Arctic Ocean]], along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the [[Arctic Archipelago]] of Canada.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Northwest%20Passage |work=[[Merriam-Webster]] Online Dictionary |title=Northwest passage |access-date=June 1, 2018 |archive-date=September 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180912204447/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Northwest%20Passage |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.carc.org/whatsnew/writings/amitchell.html |title=The Northwest Passage Thawed |work=[[The Globe and Mail]] |first=Alanna |last=Mitchell |date=February 5, 2000 |page=A9 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070730035434/http://www.carc.org/whatsnew/writings/amitchell.html |archive-date=July 30, 2007 |access-date=July 12, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite report |editor1-first=L. |editor1-last=Brigham |editor2-first=V.M.  |editor2-last=Santos-Pedro |editor3-first=K.  |editor3-last=Juurmaa |last1=Brigham |first1=L. |last2=McCalla |first2=R. |last3=Cunningham |first3=E. |last4=Barr |first4=W. |last5=VanderZwaag |first5=D. |last6=Chircop |first6=A. |last7=Santos-Pedro |first7=V.M. |last8=MacDonald |first8=R. |last9=Harder |first9=S. |last10=Ellis |first10=B. |last11=Snyder |first11=J. |last12=Huntington |first12=H. |last13=Skjoldal  |first13=H. |last14=Gold |first14=M. |last15=Williams |first15=M. |last16=Wojhan |first16=T.  |last17=Williams |first17=M. |last18=Falkingham |first18=J. |display-authors=3 |title=Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment |url= http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/documents/AMSA_2009_Report_2nd_print.pdf  |date=2009 |publisher=[[Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment]] (PAME), [[Arctic Council]] |location=Norway |archive-date=October 16, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111016190754/http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/detect/documents/AMSA_2009_Report_2nd_print.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Østreng |first1=Willy|author-link=Willy Østreng |last2=Eger |first2=Karl Magnus |last3=Fløistad |first3=Brit |last4=Jørgensen-Dahl |first4=Arnfinn |last5=Lothe |first5=Lars |last6=Mejlænder-Larsen |first6=Morten |last7=Wergeland |first7=Tor |display-authors=3 |date=2013 |title=Shipping in Arctic Waters: A Comparison of the Northeast, Northwest and Trans Polar Passages |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |isbn=978-3642167898 |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-16790-4 |s2cid=41481012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=beU_AAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1}}</ref> The eastern route along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Siberia is accordingly called the [[Northeast Passage]] (NEP).
The various islands of the [[archipelago]] are separated from one another and from [[Geography of Canada|Mainland Canada]] by a series of [[Arctic]] waterways collectively known as the '''Northwest Passages''', '''Northwestern Passages'''<ref>{{cite book |url=http://ioc.unesco.org/oceanteacher/OceanTeacher2/06_OcDtaMgtProc/01_DataOps/06_OcDtaForm/01_OcDtaFormFunda/01_Codes/PreviousIHOandOther.htm |title=IHO Codes for Oceans & Seas, and Other Code Systems: IHO 23-3rd: Limits of Oceans and Seas, Special Publication 23 |edition=3rd |date=1953 |publisher=[[International Hydrographic Organization]] |access-date=July 28, 2007 |archive-date=July 3, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060703173651/http://ioc.unesco.org/oceanteacher/OceanTeacher2/06_OcDtaMgtProc/01_DataOps/06_OcDtaForm/01_OcDtaFormFunda/01_Codes/PreviousIHOandOther.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> or the [[Canadian Internal Waters]].

For centuries, European explorers, beginning with [[Christopher Columbus]] in 1492, sought a navigable passage as a possible trade route to Asia, but were blocked by North, Central, and South America, by ice, or by rough waters (e.g. [[Tierra del Fuego]]). An ice-bound northern route was discovered in 1850 by the Irish explorer [[Robert McClure]] whose expedition completed the passage by hauling sledges. Scotsman [[John Rae (explorer)|John Rae]] explored a more southerly area in 1854 through which Norwegian [[Roald Amundsen]] made the first complete passage entirely by ship in 1903–1906. Until 2009, the [[Arctic ice pack|Arctic pack ice]] prevented regular [[marine shipping]] throughout most of the year. [[Arctic sea ice decline]], linked primarily to [[climate change]], has rendered the waterways more navigable for [[ice navigation]].<ref name="esa" /><ref name="Beeb" /><ref name="plain" /><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/11/30/the_top_10_stories_you_missed_in_2009 |title=The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2009: A few ways the world changed while you weren't looking |first=Joshua E. |last=Keating |magazine=[[Foreign Policy]] |date=November 30, 2009 |access-date=March 10, 2017 |archive-date=September 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907221245/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/11/30/the_top_10_stories_you_missed_in_2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The contested [[sovereignty]] claims over the waters may complicate future shipping through the region: the [[Canadian government]] maintains that the Northwestern Passages are part of [[Canadian Internal Waters]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tc.gc.ca/marinesafety%5CTP%5CTP14202%5Cinterpretation.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114090852/http://www.tc.gc.ca/marinesafety/TP/TP14202/interpretation.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 14, 2007 |title=TP 14202 E Interpretation |publisher=[[Transport Canada]]}}</ref> but the United States claims that they are an [[international strait]] and transit passage, allowing free and unencumbered passage.<ref name="paprl1">{{cite report |first1=Matthew |last1=Carnaghan |first2=Allison |last2=Goody |date=January 26, 2006 |title=Canadian Arctic Sovereignty |publisher=[[Library of Parliament]] |url=https://lop.parl.ca/content/lop/researchpublications/prb0561-e.pdf |archive-date=June 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607090818/https://lop.parl.ca/content/lop/researchpublications/prb0561-e.pdf |accessdate=June 1, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="icefreearctic">{{cite web |url=http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/documents/2007IceSymp/FinalArcticReport_2001.pdf |title=Naval Operations in an ice-free Arctic |access-date=March 24, 2011 |archive-date=October 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005090831/http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/documents/2007IceSymp/FinalArcticReport_2001.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> If, as the head of a Canadian mining company claims, parts of the eastern end of the Passage are barely {{convert|15|m|ft}} deep,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.steelguru.com/international_news/No_to_shipping_ore_through_Northwest_Passage_Baffinland_CEO/327008.html |title=No to shipping ore through Northwest Passage – Baffinland CEO |work=Steel Guru |date=October 20, 2013 |access-date=October 21, 2013 |quote=The head of a Canadian mining company developing a massive mineral deposit within the Arctic Circle said the Northwest Passage won't work as a viable shipping route to Europe and Asia. |archive-date=October 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131021133823/http://www.steelguru.com/international_news/No_to_shipping_ore_through_Northwest_Passage_Baffinland_CEO/327008.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> the route's viability as a Euro-Asian shipping route is reduced. In 2016, Chinese shipping line [[COSCO]] expressed a desire to make regular voyages of cargo ships using the passage to the [[Eastern United States]] and Europe, after a successful passage by ''[[Nordic Orion]]'' of 73,500 tonnes [[deadweight tonnage]] in September 2013.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/china-northwest-passage-trade-route-shipping-guide |title=China sets its sights on the Northwest Passage as a potential trade boon |date=April 20, 2016 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=August 8, 2016 |archive-date=June 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230614015900/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/china-northwest-passage-trade-route-shipping-guide |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=China used research mission to test trade route through Canada's Northwest Passage |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/china-used-research-mission-to-test-trade-route-through-canadas-northwest-passage/article36223673/ |work=The Globe and Mail |date=September 10, 2017 |access-date=August 20, 2019 |archive-date=August 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818091256/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/china-used-research-mission-to-test-trade-route-through-canadas-northwest-passage/article36223673/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{update inline|date=May 2019}} Fully laden, ''Nordic Orion'' sat too deep in the water to sail through the [[Panama Canal]].

==Routes==
[[File:Map indicating Lancaster Sound, Nunavut, Canada.png|thumb|[[Parry Channel]]: East end at [[Lancaster Sound]] north of [[Baffin Island]].]]
[[File:Map indicating Prince of Wales Strait, Northwest Territories, Canada.png|thumb|[[Parry Channel]]: West end at [[Prince of Wales Strait]] northwest of [[Victoria Island]].]]
The Northwest Passage has three sections:
* East
** East of Baffin Island: [[Baffin Bay]] between Greenland and [[Baffin Island]] to [[Lancaster Sound]] at the north end of Baffin Island, or
** West of Baffin Island (impractical): Through [[Hudson Strait]] south of Baffin Island, north through the [[Foxe Basin]], west through the [[Fury and Hecla Strait]], north to Lancaster Sound through the [[Gulf of Boothia]] and [[Prince Regent Inlet]]. The Fury and Hecla Strait is usually closed by ice.
* Centre: [[Canadian Arctic Archipelago]]
** North: From Lancaster Sound west through the [[Parry Channel]] to the [[Prince of Wales Strait]] on the northwest side of [[Victoria Island]]. [[M'Clure Strait]] to the northwest is ice-filled; southwest through the Prince of Wales Strait between Victoria Island and [[Banks Island]] might be passable, or
** South: From Lancaster Sound west past [[Prince Regent Inlet]] (basically a cul-de-sac but it may be possible to exit west through the [[Bellot Strait]]), past [[Somerset Island (Nunavut)|Somerset Island]], south through [[Peel Sound]] between Somerset Island and [[Prince of Wales Island (Nunavut)|Prince of Wales Island]], either southwest through [[Victoria Strait]] (ice-choked), or directly south along the coast through [[Rae Strait]] and [[James Ross Strait]] and west through [[Simpson Strait]] south of [[King William Island]] (shallow) into [[Queen Maud Gulf]], then west along the mainland coast south of Victoria Island.
* West: There being no major islands, follow the coast to the [[Bering Strait]].

Many attempts were made to find a salt water exit west from Hudson Bay, but the Fury and Hecla Strait in the far north is blocked by ice. The eastern entrance and main axis of the northwest passage, the Parry Channel, was found in 1819. The approach from the west through Bering Strait is impractical because of the need to sail around ice near [[Point Barrow]]. East of Point Barrow the coast is fairly clear in summer. This area was mapped in pieces from overland in 1821–1839. This leaves the large rectangle north of the coast, south of Parry Channel and west of Baffin Island. This area was mostly mapped in 1848–1854 by ships looking for Franklin's lost expedition. The first crossing was made by [[Roald Amundsen]] in 1903–1906. He used a small ship and hugged the coast.

==Overview==

===Early expeditions===
[[File:Chart of the World showing New Route through Canada between England, China, Japan, Australasia and the East. By J. Johnston. Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, Canada, 1886 CTASC.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Chart of the World showing New Route (the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]) through Canada between England, China, Japan, Australasia and the East (1886)]]
Before the [[Little Ice Age]] (late Middle Ages to the 19th century), [[Norwegian people|Norwegian]] [[Vikings]] sailed as far north and west as [[Ellesmere Island]], [[Skraeling Island]] and [[Ruin Island]] for hunting expeditions and trading with the [[Inuit]] and people of the [[Dorset culture]] who inhabited the region.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schledermann|first1=P.|last2=McCullough|first2=K.M.|editor=James Harold Barrett|title=Contact, Continuity, and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3QFpAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1|year=2003|publisher=Brepols|isbn=978-2-503-51291-4|pages=183–205|chapter=Inuit-Norse Contact in the Smith Sound Region|doi=10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3836}}</ref> Between the end of the 15th century and the 20th century, [[colonial powers]] from [[Europe]] dispatched explorers to discover a commercial sea route north and west around North America. The Northwest Passage represented a new route to the established trading nations of [[Asia]].

England called the hypothetical northern route the "Northwest Passage". The desire to establish such a route motivated much of the European exploration of both coasts of North America, also known as the New World. When it became apparent that there was no route through the heart of the continent, attention turned to the possibility of a passage through northern waters. There was a lack of scientific knowledge about conditions; for instance, some people believed that [[seawater]] was incapable of freezing. (As late as the mid-18th century, Captain [[James Cook]] had reported that [[Antarctica|Antarctic]] [[iceberg]]s had yielded fresh water, seemingly confirming the hypothesis.) Explorers thought that an [[Open Polar Sea]] close to the [[North Pole]] must exist.<ref name="cook" /> The belief that a route lay to the far north persisted for several centuries and led to numerous expeditions into the Arctic. Many ended in disaster, including that by Sir [[John Franklin]] in 1845. While searching for him the [[McClure Arctic Expedition]] discovered the Northwest Passage in 1850.

In 1906, the Norwegian explorer [[Roald Amundsen]] was the first to complete the passage solely by ship, from [[Greenland]] to [[Alaska]] in the [[sloop]] {{ship||Gjøa}}.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mills|first=William James|title=Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYdBH4dOOM4C&pg=PA13|volume=1, A-L|year=2003|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-422-0|page=13}}</ref> Since that date, several fortified ships have made the journey.

From east to west, the direction of most early exploration attempts, expeditions entered the passage from the Atlantic Ocean via the [[Davis Strait]] and through [[Baffin Bay]], both of which are in Canada. Five to seven routes have been taken through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, via the [[McClure Strait]], [[Dease Strait]], and the [[Prince of Wales Strait]], but not all of them are suitable for larger ships.<ref name="paprl1"/><ref name="Charron">{{cite journal |first=Andrea |last=Charron |title=The Northwest Passage Shipping Channel: Is Canada's Sovereignty Really Floating Away? |journal=[[Canadian International Council|International Journal]] |volume=60|issue=3, Canada in the World: Annual John W. Holmes Issue on Canadian Foreign Policy |pages=831–848 |date=Summer 2005 |doi=10.2307/40204066 |url=http://www.cdfai.org/PDF/Charron,%20Andrea-Paper.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413234114/http://cdfai.org/PDF/Charron%2C%20Andrea-Paper.pdf |archive-date=April 13, 2013|jstor=40204066 }}</ref> From there ships passed through westward through the [[Beaufort Sea]] and the [[Chukchi Sea]], and then southwards through the [[Bering Strait]] (separating [[Russia]] and Alaska), into the Pacific Ocean.

===Potential as a shipping lane===
{{multiple image
 |width=200
 |footer=The Northwest Passage is increasingly ice-free.
 |image1=Northwest Passage 09-08-13.jpg
 |alt1=9 August 2013
 |caption1=9 August 2013
 |image2=A Nearly Ice-Free Northwest Passage vir 2016222 lrg.jpg
 |alt2=9 August 2016
 |caption2=9 August 2016
}}
In the 21st century, major changes to the ice pack due to [[climate change]] have stirred speculation that the passage may become clear enough of ice to permit safe commercial shipping for at least part of the year. 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 was the first time the Passage has been clear since they began keeping records in 1972.<ref name="esa"/><ref name="Guardian Newspaper">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/aug/28/climatechange.internationalnews |title=North-West Passage is now plain sailing |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=August 28, 2007 |access-date=April 10, 2010 |first=Gwladys |last=Fouché}}</ref> The Northwest Passage opened again on August 25, 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2008/082508.html |title=Arctic shortcuts open up; decline pace steady |work=Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis |publisher=[[National Snow and Ice Data Center]] |date=August 25, 2008 |access-date=August 27, 2008 |archive-date=September 5, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905235541/http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2008/082508.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> It is usually reported that ocean [[thawing]] will open up the Northwest Passage (and the [[Northern Sea Route]]) for various kind of ships, making it possible to sail around the [[Polar ice cap|Arctic ice cap]]<ref>{{cite news |author-link=Chris Mooney (journalist) |last1=Mooney |first1=Chris |title=The Arctic is melting – but shipping through the Northwest Passage is another story |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/09/10/why-the-northwest-passage-probably-wont-be-ready-for-shipping-any-time-soon/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=September 10, 2015 |access-date=May 30, 2017 |archive-date=May 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170509134408/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/09/10/why-the-northwest-passage-probably-wont-be-ready-for-shipping-any-time-soon/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and possibly cutting thousands of miles off shipping routes. Warning that the [[NASA]] satellite images suggested that the Arctic had entered a "death spiral" caused by climate change, Professor [[Mark Serreze]], a sea ice specialist at the U.S. [[National Snow and Ice Data Center]] (NSIDC) said: "The passages are open. It's a historic event. We are going to see this more and more as the years go by."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/5CE1A814261121C6652574B7001C9047?OpenDocument |work=ptinews.com |title=North Pole becomes an 'island' |access-date=October 16, 2008 }}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/for-the-first-time-in-human-history-the-north-pole-can-be-circumnavigated-913924.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220621/https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/for-the-first-time-in-human-history-the-north-pole-can-be-circumnavigated-913924.html |archive-date=June 21, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=For the first time in human history, the North Pole can be circumnavigated |work=[[The Independent]] |date=August 31, 2008 |access-date=February 19, 2011 |location=London |first=Geoffrey |last=Lean}}</ref><ref name=Cramb>{{cite news |first=Auslan |last=Cramb |title=Arctic becomes an island as ice melts |date=August 31, 2008 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/3350631/Arctic-becomes-an-island-as-ice-melts.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/3350631/Arctic-becomes-an-island-as-ice-melts.html |archive-date=January 11, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

However, some thick sections of ice will remain hard to melt in the shorter term. Drifting and persistence of large chunks of ice, especially in springtime, can be problematic as they can clog entire [[straits]] or severely damage a ship's [[Hull (watercraft)|hull]]. Cargo routes may thus be slow and uncertain, depending on prevailing conditions and the ability to predict them. Because much containerized traffic operates in a [[Just-in-time manufacturing|just-in-time]] mode (which does not tolerate delays well) and because of the relative isolation of the passage (which impedes shipping companies from optimizing their operations by grouping multiple stopovers on the same itinerary), the Northwest Passage and other Arctic routes are not always seen as promising [[shipping lanes]] by industry insiders, at least for the time being.<ref name="Lasserre">{{cite journal |last=Lasserre |first=Frédéric |date=November 2011 |title=The Geopolitics of Arctic Passages and Continental Shelves |url=https://www.ggr.ulaval.ca/sites/default/files/documents/Lasserre/Publications/geopolitics.pdf |journal=Public Sector Digest |access-date=April 15, 2017 |archive-date=April 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416044648/https://www.ggr.ulaval.ca/sites/default/files/documents/Lasserre/Publications/geopolitics.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The uncertainty related to physical damage to ships is also thought to translate into higher [[insurance]] premiums,<ref>{{Cite web |first=Grace M. |last=Lavigne |url=https://www.joc.com/maritime-news/trade-lanes/arctic-shipping-presents-insurance-challenges_20140827.html |title=Arctic shipping presents insurance challenges |date=August 27, 2014 |publisher=[[JOC Group]] |access-date=October 22, 2018 |archive-date=October 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022232703/https://www.joc.com/maritime-news/trade-lanes/arctic-shipping-presents-insurance-challenges_20140827.html |url-status=live }}</ref> especially because of the technical challenges posed by Arctic navigation (as of 2014, only 12 percent of Canada's Arctic waters have been [[Nautical chart|charted]] to modern standards).<ref>{{Cite report |last1=Lackenbauer |first1=Whitney |first2=Adam |last2=Lajeunesse |date=2014 |title=On Uncertain Ice: The Future of Arctic Shipping and the Northwest Passage |page=4 |publisher=[[Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute]] |url=https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/uncertain-ice-lackenbauer-lajeunesse.pdf#page=8 |isbn=978-1-927573-18-1 |access-date=October 22, 2018 |archive-date=April 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412045011/https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/uncertain-ice-lackenbauer-lajeunesse.pdf#page=8 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Map of the Arctic region showing the Northeast Passage, the Northern Sea Route and Northwest Passage, and bathymetry.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of the Arctic region showing the [[Northeast Passage]], the [[Northern Sea Route]] within it, and the Northwest Passage.]]
The Beluga group of [[Bremen]], Germany, sent the first Western commercial vessels through the Northern Sea Route (Northeast Passage) in 2009.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8264345.stm |title=Arctic trail blazers make history |access-date=August 17, 2010 |work=BBC News |date=September 19, 2009 |first=Artyom |last=Liss |archive-date=March 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306093131/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8264345.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Canada's Prime Minister [[Stephen Harper]] announced that "ships entering the North-West passage should first report to his government".<ref name=Cramb/>

The first commercial [[cargo ship]] to have sailed through the Northwest Passage was {{SS|Manhattan|1962|6}} in August 1969.<ref name=Smith1970>{{cite book|last=Smith|first=William D.|title=Northwest Passage, The Historic Voyage of the S.S. Manhattan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f0YFAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1|year=1970|publisher=American Heritage Press|isbn=9780070584600}}</ref><ref name=Keating1970>{{cite journal |first1=Bern |last1=Keating |first2=Tomas |last2=Sennett |title=Through the Northwest Passage for Oil |journal=[[National Geographic]] |volume=137 |issue=3 |date=March 1970}}</ref> SS ''Manhattan'', of 115,000 [[deadweight tonnage]], was the largest commercial vessel ever to navigate the Northwest Passage.

The largest passenger ship to navigate the Northwest Passage was the [[cruise liner]] {{ship||Crystal Serenity}} of [[gross tonnage]] 69,000. Starting on August 10, 2016, the ship sailed from [[Vancouver]] to [[New York City]] with 1,500 passengers and crew, taking 28 days.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-maritime-museum-northwest-passage-1.3709993 |title=Vancouver Maritime Museum joining largest ship to sail Northwest Passage |first=Liam |last=Britten |date=August 5, 2016 |work=[[CBC News]] |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] |access-date=August 8, 2016 |archive-date=August 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809092221/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-maritime-museum-northwest-passage-1.3709993 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2018, two of the freighters leaving [[Baffinland]]'s port in the [[Milne Inlet]], on [[Baffin Island]]'s north shore, were bound for ports in Asia.<ref name=mining2018-11-08>{{cite news |url=http://www.mining.com/baffinland-iron-mines-sets-5-million-tonne-shipping-record/ |title=Baffinland Iron Mines sets 5 million tonne shipping record |work=Mining.com |date=November 7, 2018 |quote=Baffinland also carried out two Northern Sea Route transits to Asia, a first for iron ore bulk carriage. |access-date=November 10, 2018 |archive-date=November 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109011433/http://www.mining.com/baffinland-iron-mines-sets-5-million-tonne-shipping-record/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Those freighters did not sail west through the remainder of the Northwest Passage; they sailed east, rounded the tip of Greenland, and transited Russia's Northern Sea Route.

==Extent==

The [[International Hydrographic Organization]] defines the limits of the Northwestern Passages as follows:<ref>{{cite web |url=https://iho.int/uploads/user/pubs/standards/s-23/S-23_Ed3_1953_EN.pdf |title=Limits of Oceans and Seas |edition=3rd |date=1953 |publisher=International Hydrographic Organization |access-date=28 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008191433/http://www.iho.int/iho_pubs/standard/S-23/S-23_Ed3_1953_EN.pdf |archive-date=October 8, 2011 }}</ref>

{{Blockquote|''On the West.'' The Eastern limit of [[Beaufort Sea]] from Lands End through the Southwest coast of [[Prince Patrick Island]] to Griffiths Point, thence a line to Cape Prince Alfred, the Northwestern extreme of [[Banks Island]], through its West coast to Cape Kellet, the Southwestern point, and thence a line to [[Cape Bathurst]] on the mainland ({{coord|70|36|N|127|32|W}}).

''On the Northwest.'' The [[Arctic Ocean]] between Lands End, Prince Patrick Island, and [[Cape Columbia]], [[Ellesmere Island]].

''On the Northeast.'' The Coast of Ellesmere Island between C. Columbia and [[Cape Sheridan|C. Sheridan]] the Northern limit of [[Baffin Bay]].

''On the East.'' The East Coast of Ellesmere Island between C. Sheridan and Cape Norton Shaw ({{coord|76|29|N|78|30|W}}), thence across to Phillips Point ([[Coburg Island]]) through this Island to Marina Peninsula ({{coord|75|55|N|79|10|W}}) and across to Cape Fitz Roy ([[Devon Island]]) down the East Coast to Cape Sherard (Cape Osborn) ({{coord|74|35|N|80|30|W}}) and across to Cape Liverpool, [[Bylot Island]] ({{coord|73|44|N|77|50|W}}); down the East coast of this island to Cape Graham Moore, its southeastern point, and thence across to Cape Macculloch ({{coord|72|29|N|75|08|W}}) and down the East coast of [[Baffin Island]] to East Bluff, its Southeastern extremity, and thence the Eastern limit of [[Hudson Strait]].

''On the South.'' The mainland coast of Hudson Strait; the Northern limits of [[Hudson Bay]]; the mainland coast from Beach Point to [[Cape Bathurst]].}}

==Historical expeditions==
[[File:Straße von Anian.png|thumb|upright=1.4|Assumed route of the [[Strait of Anián]]]]
As a result of their westward explorations and their settlement of Greenland, the [[Viking]]s [[Norse colonization of North America|sailed as far north and west]] as [[Ellesmere Island]], [[Skraeling Island]] for hunting expeditions and trading with Inuit groups. The subsequent arrival of the Little Ice Age is thought to have been one of the reasons that European seafaring into the Northwest Passage ceased until the late 15th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peterson|first=Gary Dean|title=Vikings and Goths: A History of Ancient and Medieval Sweden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=joawDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA128|year=2016|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-2434-1|page=128}}</ref>

===Strait of Anián===
{{Main|Strait of Anián}}
In 1539, [[Hernán Cortés]] commissioned [[Francisco de Ulloa]] to sail along the [[Baja California Peninsula]] on the western coast of North America. Ulloa concluded that the [[Gulf of California]] was the southernmost section of a strait supposedly linking the Pacific with the [[Gulf of Saint Lawrence]]. His voyage perpetuated the notion of the [[Island of California]] and saw the beginning of a search for the Strait of Anián.

The strait probably took its name from Ania, a Chinese province mentioned in a 1559 edition of [[Marco Polo]]'s book; it first appears on a map issued by [[Italy|Italian]] [[cartographer]] [[Giacomo Gastaldi]] about 1562. Five years later Bolognino Zaltieri issued a map showing a narrow and crooked Strait of Anian separating Asia from the [[Americas]]. The strait grew in European imagination as an easy sea lane linking Europe with the residence of [[Khagan]] (the Great Khan) in [[Cathay]] (northern [[China]]).

Cartographers and seamen tried to demonstrate its reality. Sir [[Francis Drake]] sought the western entrance in 1579. The [[Greeks|Greek]] pilot [[Juan de Fuca]], sailing from Acapulco (in Mexico) under the flag of the Spanish crown, claimed he had sailed the strait from the Pacific to the [[North Sea]] and back in 1592. The Spaniard [[Bartholomew de Fonte]] claimed to have sailed from [[Hudson Bay]] to the Pacific via the strait in 1640.

===Northern Atlantic===
[[File:John White – The skirmish at Bloody Point, Frobisher Bay (British Museum) (cropped).png|thumb|Skirmish between [[Martin Frobisher]]'s men and [[Inuit]], {{circa|1577–78}}.]]
The first recorded attempt to discover the Northwest Passage was the east–west voyage of [[John Cabot]] in 1497, sent by [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] in search of a direct route to the [[Orient]].<ref name="cook">{{cite book|last=Collingridge|first=Vanessa|title=Captain Cook: The Life, Death and Legacy of History's Greatest Explorer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1C_ZKQnqmD0C&pg=PP1|year=2011|publisher=Ebury|isbn=978-1-4481-1716-1}}</ref> In 1524, [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] sent [[Estêvão Gomes]] to find a northern Atlantic passage to the [[Spice Islands]]. An English expedition was launched in 1576 by [[Martin Frobisher]], who took three trips west to what is now the [[Canadian Arctic]] in order to find the passage. [[Frobisher Bay]], which he first charted, is named after him.

As part of another expedition, in July 1583 Sir [[Humphrey Gilbert]], who had written a treatise on the discovery of the passage and was a backer of Frobisher, claimed the territory of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] for the English crown. On August 8, 1585, the [[English people|English]] explorer [[John Davis (English explorer)|John Davis]] entered [[Cumberland Sound]], Baffin Island.<ref name=Morison>{{cite book|last=Morison|first=Samuel Eliot|title=The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages|url=https://archive.org/details/europeandiscover00moririch|url-access=registration|year=1971|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

The major rivers on the east coast were also explored in case they could lead to a transcontinental passage. [[Jacques Cartier]]'s explorations of the [[Saint Lawrence River]] in 1535 were initiated in hope of finding a way through the continent. Cartier became persuaded that the St. Lawrence was the Passage; when he found the way blocked by rapids at what is now [[Montreal]], he was so certain that these rapids were all that was keeping him from China (in French, ''la Chine''), that he named the rapids for China. [[Samuel de Champlain]] renamed them Sault Saint-Louis in 1611, but the name was changed to [[Lachine Rapids]] in the mid-19th century.

In 1602, [[George Weymouth]] became the first European to explore what would later be called [[Hudson Strait]] when he sailed {{ship||Discovery|1602 ship|2}} {{convert|300|nmi|km}} into the Strait. Weymouth's expedition to find the Northwest Passage was funded jointly by the British [[East India Company]] and the [[Muscovy Company]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Glyn|title=Arctic Labyrinth: The Quest for the Northwest Passage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H6kwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|year=2010|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-26995-8|page=45}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hunter|first=Douglas|title=God's Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal, and the Dream of Discovery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzoSiqV--t8C&pg=PP1|year=2007|publisher=Doubleday Canada|isbn=978-0-385-67268-9|pages=13, 41}}</ref> ''Discovery'' was the same ship used by [[Henry Hudson]] on his final voyage.

[[John Knight (seafarer)|John Knight]], employed by the British East India Company and the Muscovy Company, set out in 1606 to follow up on Weymouth's discoveries and find the Northwest Passage. After his ship ran aground and was nearly crushed by ice, Knight disappeared while searching for a better anchorage.{{sfnp|Hunter|2007|pp=71–73}}

In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed up what is now called the [[Hudson River]] in search of the Passage; encouraged by the saltiness of the water in the estuary,<!--[salt water is detectable no further than 50 miles upriver under the lowest rainfall/runoff conditions.life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/fc.1.estuaries.html]--> he reached present-day [[Albany, New York]], before giving up.  On September 14, 1609, Hudson entered the [[Tappan Zee]] while sailing upstream from [[New York Harbor]]. At first, Hudson believed the widening of the river indicated that he had found the Northwest Passage. He proceeded upstream as far as present-day [[Troy, New York|Troy]] before concluding that no such [[strait]] existed there. He later explored the Arctic and Hudson Bay.

In 1611, while in [[James Bay]], Hudson's crew mutinied. They set Hudson and his teenage son John, along with seven sick, infirm, or loyal crewmen, adrift in a small open boat. He was never seen again.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/hell/anthology/travel/Travel1625Pricket.htm |title=Excerpt from A Larger Discourse of the Same Voyage |first=Abacuk |last=Pricket |date=1625 |publisher=Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto |work=Computing in the Humanities and Social Sciences |access-date=February 19, 2011 |archive-date=August 24, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824090707/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/hell/anthology/travel/Travel1625Pricket.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite DCB |title=Hudson, Henry |first=L.H. |last=Neatby |volume=1 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hudson_henry_1E.html}}</ref>

A mission was sent out in 1612, again in ''Discovery'', commanded by Sir [[Thomas Button]] to find Henry Hudson and continue through the Northwest Passage. After failing to find Hudson, and exploring the west coast of Hudson Bay, Button returned home due to illness in the crew. In 1614, William Gibbons attempted to find the Passage, but was turned back by ice. The next year, 1615, [[Robert Bylot]], a survivor of Hudson's crew, returned to Hudson Strait in ''Discovery'', but was turned back by ice.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Wilson|first=John|title=Bylot, Robert|editor=Mark Nuttall|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Arctic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Swr9BTI_2FEC&pg=PA295|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-78680-8|pages=295–296}}</ref> Bylot tried again in 1616 with [[William Baffin]]. They sailed as far as [[Lancaster Sound]] and reached 77°45′ North latitude, a record which stood for 236 years, before being blocked by ice.

On May 9, 1619, under the auspices of [[King Christian IV]] of [[Denmark–Norway]], [[Jens Munk]] set out with 65 men and the king's two ships, ''Einhörningen'' (Unicorn), a small [[frigate]], and ''Lamprenen'' (Lamprey), a sloop, which were outfitted under his own supervision. His mission was to discover the Northwest Passage to the Indies and China. Munk penetrated Davis Strait as far north as 69°, found Frobisher Bay, and then spent almost a month fighting his way through Hudson Strait. In September 1619, he found the entrance to Hudson Bay and spent the winter near the mouth of the Churchill River. Cold, [[famine]], and [[scurvy]] destroyed so many of his men that only he and two other men survived. With these men, he sailed for home with ''Lamprey'' on July 16, 1620, reaching [[Bergen]], Norway, on September 20, 1620.

[[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]] built the [[sailing ship]], {{ship||Le Griffon}}, in his quest to find the Northwest Passage via the upper [[Great Lakes]]. He made his way across [[Lake Erie]] and [[Lake Huron]], making port on [[Mackinac Island]] before landing at Washington Island at the mouth of [[Green Bay (Lake Michigan)|Green Bay]] to trade for furs with [[Pottawatomie]] Indians. La Salle stayed behind while the ship sailed back to Mackinac with the furs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sailfarlivefree.com/2011/12/ghosts-of-great-lakes.html|title=Ghosts of the Great Lakes|access-date=December 12, 2021|archive-date=December 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212005803/http://www.sailfarlivefree.com/2011/12/ghosts-of-great-lakes.html|url-status=live}}</ref>  ''Le Griffon'' disappeared in 1679 on the return trip of her maiden voyage.<ref name="History of the Great Lakes">
{{cite book |chapter=CHapter VII: Story of La Salle and The Griffon |title=History of the Great Lakes |volume=I |date=1899 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgreatla01mans/page/78 |publisher=J.H. Beers & Co |location=Chicago |editor-first=J. B. |editor-last=Mansfield |pages=78–90}}</ref> In the spring of 1682, La Salle made his famous voyage down the [[Mississippi River]] to the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. La Salle led an expedition from France in 1684 to establish a [[List of French possessions and colonies|French colony]] on the Gulf of Mexico. He was murdered by his followers in 1687.<ref>{{cite DCB |title=Cavelier de La Salle, Rene-Robert |first=Céline |last=Dupré |volume=1 |url= http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cavelier_de_la_salle_rene_robert_1E.html}}</ref>

[[File:Voyage à la baye de Hudson, fait en 1746 et 1747.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|Ellis expedition: Voyage to Hudson Bay, in 1746 and 1747]]
[[Henry Ellis (governor)|Henry Ellis]], born in Ireland, was part of a company aiming to discover the Northwest Passage in May 1746. After the difficult extinction of a fire on board the ship, he sailed to [[Greenland]], where he traded goods with the [[Inuit]] peoples on July 8, 1746. He crossed to the town of Fort Nelson and spent the summer on the [[Hayes River]]. He renewed his efforts in June 1747, without success, before returning to England.

In 1772, the English fur trader [[Samuel Hearne]] travelled overland northwest from Hudson Bay to the Arctic Ocean, thereby proving that there was no strait connecting Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean.

===Northern Pacific===
[[File:North america 1765globe.jpg|upright=1.3|1765 globe by [[Guillaume Delisle]], showing a fictional Northwest Passage.|thumbnail]] Most Northwest Passage expeditions originated in Europe or on the east coast of North America, seeking to traverse the Passage in the westbound direction. Some progress was made in exploring the western reaches of the imagined passage.

In 1728 [[Vitus Bering]], a Danish-born Russian navy officer, used the strait first discovered by [[Semyon Dezhnyov]] in 1648 but later accredited to and named after Bering (the [[Bering Strait]]). He concluded that North America and Russia were separate land masses by sailing between them. In 1741 with Lieutenant [[Aleksei Chirikov]], he explored seeking further lands beyond [[Siberia]]. While they were separated, Chirikov discovered several of the [[Aleutian Islands]] while Bering charted the Alaskan region. His ship was wrecked off the [[Kamchatka Peninsula]], as many of his crew were disabled by scurvy.

The Spanish made several voyages to the northwest coast of North America during the late 18th century. Determining whether a Northwest Passage existed was one of the motives for their efforts. Among the voyages that involved careful searches for a Passage included the 1775 and 1779 voyages of [[Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra]]. The journal of [[Francisco Antonio Mourelle]], who served as Quadra's second in command in 1775, fell into English hands. It was translated and published in [[London]], stimulating exploration.

Captain [[James Cook]] made use of the journal during his explorations of the region. In 1791 [[Alessandro Malaspina]] sailed to [[Yakutat Bay]], Alaska, which was rumoured to be a Passage. In 1790 and 1791 [[Francisco de Eliza]] led several exploring voyages into the [[Strait of Juan de Fuca]], searching for a possible Northwest Passage and finding the [[Strait of Georgia]]. To fully explore this new inland sea, an expedition under [[Dionisio Alcalá Galiano]] was sent in 1792. He was explicitly ordered to explore all channels that might turn out to be a Northwest Passage.

===Cook and Vancouver{{anchor|Discovery of Northern Passage Act 1776}}===
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Discovery of Northern Passage Act 1776
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of Great Britain
| long_title            = An Act for giving a publick Reward unto such Person or Persons, being His Majesty's Subject or Subjects, as shall discover a Northern Passage for Vessels by Sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; and also unto such as shall first approach, by Sea, within One Degree of the Northern Pole.
| year                  = 1776
| citation              = [[16 Geo. 3]]. c. 6
| introduced_commons    =
| introduced_lords      =
| territorial_extent    =
| royal_assent          = 22 December 1775
| commencement          =
| expiry_date           =
| repeal_date           =
| amends                =
| replaces              =
| amendments            =
| repealing_legislation = [[Discovery of Longitude at Sea, etc. Act 1818]]
| related_legislation   =
| status                = repealed
| legislation_history   =
| theyworkforyou        =
| millbankhansard       =
| original_text         =
| revised_text          =
| use_new_UK-LEG        =
| UK-LEG_title          =
| collapsed             = yes
}}
In 1776, Captain James Cook was dispatched by the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] on an expedition to explore the Passage. A 1745 act, when extended in 1775, promised a £20,000 prize for whoever discovered the passage. Initially the Admiralty had wanted [[Charles Clerke]] to lead the expedition, with Cook (in retirement following his exploits in the Pacific) acting as a consultant. However, Cook had researched Bering's expeditions, and the Admiralty ultimately placed their faith in the veteran explorer to lead, with Clerke accompanying him.

After journeying through the Pacific, to make an attempt from the west, Cook began at [[Nootka Sound]] in April 1778. He headed north along the coastline, charting the lands and searching for the regions sailed by the Russians 40 years previously. The Admiralty's orders had commanded the expedition to ignore all inlets and rivers until they reached a [[latitude]] of [[65th parallel north|65°N]]. Cook, however, failed to make any progress in sighting a Northwestern Passage.

Various officers on the expedition, including [[William Bligh]], [[George Vancouver]], and [[John Gore (seaman)|John Gore]], thought the existence of a route was 'improbable'. Before reaching 65°N they found the coastline pushing them further south, but Gore convinced Cook to sail on into the [[Cook Inlet]] in the hope of finding the route. They continued to the limits of the Alaskan peninsula and the start of the {{convert|1200|mi|abbr=on}} chain of Aleutian Islands. Despite reaching [[70th parallel north|70°N]], they encountered nothing but icebergs.<ref name="cook" />

From 1792 to 1794, the [[Vancouver Expedition]] (led by George Vancouver who had previously accompanied Cook) surveyed in detail all the passages from the [[British Columbia Coast|Northwest Coast]]. He confirmed that there was no such passage south of the Bering Strait.<ref>{{cite book|last=Meany|first=Edmond S.|author-link=Edmond S. Meany|title=Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound: Portraits and Biographies of the Men Honored in the Naming of Geographic Features of Northwestern America|url=https://archive.org/details/vancouversdiscov0000mean|year=1907|publisher=The Macmillan Company|location=New York}}</ref> This conclusion was supported by the evidence of [[Alexander Mackenzie (explorer)|Alexander MacKenzie]], who explored the Arctic and Pacific Oceans in 1793.

===19th century===
[[File:Caspar David Friedrich - Das Eismeer - Hamburger Kunsthalle - 02.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|''Das Eismeer'' (''[[The Sea of Ice]]''), 1823–1824, a painting by [[Caspar David Friedrich]] showing a shipwreck at right. It was inspired by [[William Edward Parry]]'s account from his 1819–1820 expedition. [[Kunsthalle Hamburg]], Germany.]]
In the first half of the 19th century, some parts of the Northwest Passage (north of the Bering Strait) were explored separately by many expeditions, including those by [[John Ross (Arctic explorer)|John Ross]], [[Elisha Kent Kane]], [[William Edward Parry]], and [[James Clark Ross]]; overland expeditions were also led by [[John Franklin]], [[George Back]], [[Peter Warren Dease]], [[Thomas Simpson (explorer)|Thomas Simpson]], and [[John Rae (explorer)|John Rae]]. In 1826 [[Frederick William Beechey]] explored the north coast of Alaska, discovering Point Barrow.<ref name=Beechey>{{cite book |last=Beechey |first=Frederick William |title=Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait: to co-operate with the Polar expeditions : performed in His Majesty's Ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F.W. Beechey, R.N. ... in the years 1825, 26, 27, 28. |publisher=Carey & Lea |date=1832 |location=Philadelphia |url= https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_7YcBAAAAYAAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_7YcBAAAAYAAJ/page/n496 484]}}</ref>

Sir [[Robert McClure]] was credited with the discovery of the Northwest Passage in 1851 when he looked across [[McClure Strait]] from [[Banks Island]] and viewed [[Melville Island (Northwest Territories and Nunavut)|Melville Island]]. However, this strait was not navigable to ships at that time. The only usable route linking the entrances of Lancaster Sound and [[Dolphin and Union Strait]] was discovered by [[John Rae (explorer)|John Rae]] in 1854.

===Franklin expedition===
{{Main|Franklin's lost expedition}}
[[File:John Franklin 1845.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|[[John Franklin|Sir John Franklin]], the leader of the lost 1845 expedition.]]
In 1845, a lavishly equipped two-ship expedition led by Sir [[John Franklin]] sailed to the Canadian Arctic to chart the last unknown swaths of the Northwest Passage. Confidence was high, as they estimated there was less than {{convert|500|km|abbr=on}} remaining of unexplored Arctic mainland coast. When the ships failed to return, relief expeditions and search parties explored the Canadian Arctic, which resulted in a thorough charting of the region, along with a possible passage. Many artifacts from the expedition were found over the next century and a half, including notes that the ships were ice-locked in 1846 near [[King William Island]], about halfway through the passage, and unable to break free. Records showed Franklin died in 1847 and Captain [[Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier]] took over command. In 1848 the expedition abandoned the two ships and its members tried to escape south across the [[tundra]] by [[sled]]ge. Although some of the crew may have survived into the early 1850s, no evidence has ever been found of any survivors. In 1853, explorer [[John Rae (explorer)|John Rae]] was told by local Inuit about the disastrous fate of Franklin's expedition, but his reports were not welcomed in Britain on account of his reports of [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] amongst the surviving crews.

[[Starvation]], exposure and scurvy all contributed to the men's deaths. In 1981 [[Owen Beattie]], an anthropologist from the [[University of Alberta]], examined remains from sites associated with the expedition.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Notman |first1=Derek N.H. |last2=Anderson |first2=Lawrence |last3=Beattie |first3=Owen B. |last4=Amy |first4=Roger |title=Arctic paleoradiology: portable radiographic examination of two frozen sailors from the Franklin Expedition (1845–1845) |journal=[[American Journal of Roentgenology]] |date=August 1987 |volume=149|issue=2|pages=347–350|pmid=3300222 |doi=10.2214/ajr.149.2.347|s2cid=1380915 |doi-access= }}</ref> This led to further investigations and the examination of tissue and bone from the frozen bodies of three seamen, [[John Torrington]], [[William Braine]] and [[John Hartnell]], exhumed from the [[permafrost]] of [[Beechey Island]]. Laboratory tests revealed [[Lead poisoning|high concentrations of lead]] in all three (the expedition carried 8,000 tins of food sealed with a lead-based [[solder]]).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bayliss |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Bayliss
|title=Sir John Franklin's last arctic expedition: a medical disaster  |journal=[[Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine]] |date=March 2002 |volume=95 |issue=3 |pages=151–153 |pmid=11872772|pmc=1279489 |doi=10.1177/014107680209500315 }}</ref> Another researcher has suggested [[botulism]] caused deaths among crew members.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Horowitz|first=B.Z. |title=Polar poisons: Did Botulism doom the Franklin expedition? |journal=[[Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology]] |date=2003|volume=41|issue=6|pages=841–847 |pmid=14677794|doi=10.1081/CLT-120025349 |s2cid=10473423 }}</ref> Evidence from 1996, that confirms reports first made by John Rae in 1854 based on Inuit accounts, suggests that the last of the crew may have resorted to [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]] of deceased members in an effort to survive.<ref>{{cite web |last=Keenleyside |first=Anne |title=The final days of the Franklin Expedition: new skeletal evidence |work=[[Arctic (journal)|Arctic]] |volume=50 |issue=1 |page=36 |date=1997 |url=http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic50-1-36.pdf |access-date=January 26, 2008 |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic50-1-36.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===McClure expedition===
{{Main|McClure Arctic Expedition}}
[[File:The North-West Passage, by John Everett Millais.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''[[The North-West Passage]]'' (1874) by [[John Everett Millais]], representing British frustration at the failure to conquer the passage. [[Tate Britain]]]]
During the search for Franklin, Commander [[Robert McClure]] and his crew in {{HMS|Investigator|1848|6}} traversed the Northwest Passage from west to east in the years 1850 to 1854, partly by ship and partly by sledge. McClure started out from England in December 1849, sailed the Atlantic Ocean south to [[Cape Horn]] and entered the Pacific Ocean. He sailed the Pacific north and passed through the Bering Strait, turning east at that point and reaching Banks Island.

McClure's ship was trapped in the ice for three winters near Banks Island, at the western end of [[Viscount Melville Sound]]. Finally McClure and his crew—who were by that time dying of starvation—were found by searchers who had travelled by sledge over the ice from a ship of Sir [[Edward Belcher]]'s expedition. They rescued McClure and his crew, returning with them to Belcher's ships, which had entered the Sound from the east. McClure and his crew returned to England in 1854 on one of Belcher's ships. They were the first people known to circumnavigate the Americas and to discover and transit the Northwest Passage, albeit by ship and by sledge over the ice. (Both McClure and his ship were found by a party from [[HMS Resolute (1850)|HMS ''Resolute'']], one of Belcher's ships, so his sledge journey was relatively short.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Karpoff|first=Jonathan M.|title=McClure, Robert|editor=Mark Nuttall|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Arctic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Swr9BTI_2FEC&pg=PA1265|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-78680-8|pages=1265–1266}} HMS ''Resolute'' had to be abandoned in the ice on that journey. It was later found again and became quite famous.</ref>)

This was an astonishing feat for that day and age, and McClure was knighted and promoted in rank. (He was made [[rear-admiral]] in 1867.) Both he and his crew also shared £10,000 awarded them by the [[British Parliament]]. In July 2010 Canadian archaeologists found his ship, HMS ''Investigator,'' fairly intact but sunk about {{convert|8|m|abbr=on}} below the surface.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128830294 |title=Canadian Team Finds Abandoned 19th Century Ship |publisher=[[NPR]] |date=July 28, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731143021/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128830294 |archive-date=July 31, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Canadian team finds 19th Century HMS Investigator wreck |date=July 28, 2010 |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-10793639 |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-date=December 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209152330/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-10793639 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===John Rae===
{{Main|Rae–Richardson Arctic Expedition}}

The expeditions by Franklin and McClure were in the tradition of British exploration: well-funded ship expeditions using modern technology, and usually including [[Royal Navy|British Naval]] personnel. By contrast, [[John Rae (explorer)|John Rae]] was an employee of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]], which operated a far-flung trade network and drove exploration of the Canadian North. They adopted a pragmatic approach and tended to be land-based. While Franklin and McClure tried to explore the passage by sea, Rae explored by land. He used [[dog sled]]s and techniques of surviving in the environment which he had learned from the native Inuit. The Franklin and McClure expeditions each employed hundreds of personnel and multiple ships. John Rae's expeditions included fewer than ten people and succeeded. Rae was also the explorer with the best safety record, having lost only one man in years of traversing Arctic lands. In 1854,<ref>{{cite DCB |first=R.L. |last=Richards |title=Rae, John (1813–93) |volume=12 |url= http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/rae_john_1813_93_12E.html}}</ref> Rae returned to the cities with information from the Inuit about the disastrous fate of the Franklin expedition.

===Amundsen expedition===
[[File:Nlc amundsen.jpg|thumb|upright=1.09|Norwegian polar explorer [[Roald Amundsen]] was the first to sail through the Northwest Passage in 1903–1906.]]
[[File:Gjøa.jpg|thumb|upright=1.07|Amundsen's {{ship||Gjøa}} was the first vessel to transit the passage.]]
The first explorer to conquer the Northwest Passage solely by ship was the [[Norway|Norwegian]] explorer [[Roald Amundsen]]. In a three-year journey between 1903 and 1906, Amundsen explored the passage with a crew of six. Amundsen, who had sailed to escape creditors seeking to stop the expedition, completed the voyage in the converted 45 [[net register tonnage]] ({{convert|4500|cuft|disp=or|abbr=on}}) herring boat ''[[Gjøa]]''. ''Gjøa'' was much smaller than vessels used by other Arctic expeditions and had a shallow draft. Amundsen intended to hug the shore, live off the limited resources of the land and sea through which he was to travel, and had determined that he needed to have a tiny crew to make this work. (Trying to support much larger crews had contributed to the catastrophic failure of John Franklin's expedition fifty years previously, losing two ships and their crews). The ship's shallow draft was intended to help her traverse the shoals of the Arctic straits.

Amundsen set out from [[Kristiania]] (Oslo) in June 1903 and was west of the [[Boothia Peninsula]] by late September. ''Gjøa'' was put into a natural harbour on the south shore of King William Island; by October 3 she was iced in. There the expedition remained for nearly two years, with the expedition members learning from the local Inuit and undertaking measurements to determine the location of the [[North Magnetic Pole]]. The harbour, now known as [[Gjoa Haven]], later developed as the only permanent settlement on the island.

After completing the Northwest Passage portion of this trip and having anchored near [[Herschel Island]], Amundsen skied {{convert|800|km}} to the city of [[Eagle, Alaska]]. He sent a telegram announcing his success and skied the return {{convert|800|km|mi}} to rejoin his companions.<ref>{{cite book|last=Huntford|first=Roland|title=Two Planks and a Passion: The Dramatic History of Skiing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=awNTDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA272|year=2008|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-0-8264-2338-2|page=272}}</ref> Although his chosen east–west route, via the [[Rae Strait]], contained young ice and thus was navigable, some of the waterways were extremely shallow ({{convert|3|ft|abbr=on}} deep), making the route commercially impractical.
[[File:The Arctic Regions, showing the North-West Passage as determined by Cap. R. McClure and other Arctic Voyagers. 1856. CTASC.jpg|thumb|Two maps of arctic regions published in 1856 on a single sheet as part of ''The Royal Illustrated Atlas of Modern Geography'']]

===Later expeditions===
The first traversal of the Northwest Passage via [[dog sled]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/rasmussen_knud.html |title=Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen |first=Sam |last=Alley |publisher=[[Minnesota State University, Mankato]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101012111624/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/rasmussen_knud.html |archive-date=October 12, 2010 |access-date=March 27, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> was accomplished by Greenlander [[Knud Rasmussen]] while on the Fifth Thule Expedition (1921–1924). Rasmussen and two [[Kalaallit|Greenland Inuit]] travelled from the Atlantic to the Pacific over the course of 16 months via dog sled.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rasmussen|first=Knud|author-link=Knud Rasmussen|title=Across Arctic America : Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition|url=https://archive.org/details/acrossarcticamer006641mbp|year=1927|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons}}</ref>

Canadian [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] officer [[Henry Larsen (explorer)|Henry Larsen]] was the second to sail the passage, crossing west to east, leaving Vancouver on June 23, 1940, and arriving at [[Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax]] on October 11, 1942. More than once on this trip, he was uncertain whether {{ship||St. Roch|ship|2}}, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police "ice-fortified" [[schooner]], would survive the pressures of the sea ice. At one point, Larsen wondered "if we had come this far only to be crushed like a nut on a shoal and then buried by the ice." The ship and all but one of her crew survived the winter on [[Boothia Peninsula]]. Each of the men on the trip was awarded a medal by Canada's sovereign, [[King George VI]], in recognition of this feat of Arctic navigation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Larsen |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Larsen (explorer) |title=The North-West Passage |date=1948 |publisher=Edmond Cloutier, Queen's Printer and Controller of Stationery |pages=7–24}}</ref>

Later in 1944, Larsen's return trip was far more swift than his first. He made the trip in 86 days to sail back from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver, British Columbia.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801448,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214222706/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801448,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 14, 2008 |title=Canada at War: The Arctic: Northwest Passage, 1944 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=October 30, 1944 |access-date=June 13, 2010 }}</ref> He set a record for traversing the route in a single season. The ship, after extensive upgrades,  followed a more northerly, partially uncharted route.

In 1954, {{HMCS|Labrador}}<ref name="Ship details">{{Cite web |url=http://www.nauticapedia.ca/dbase/Query/Shiplist4.php?&name=Labrador%20(H.M.C.S.)&id=31694&Page=1&input=labrador |title=Ship details: Labrador (H.M.C.S.) |website=The Nauticapedia |access-date=December 27, 2017 |archive-date=December 27, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227235654/http://www.nauticapedia.ca/dbase/Query/Shiplist4.php?&name=Labrador%20(H.M.C.S.)&id=31694&Page=1&input=labrador |url-status=live }}</ref> completed the east-to-west transit, under the command of Captain O.C.S. Robertson, conducting hydrographic soundings along the route. She was the first [[warship]] (and the first [[deep draft]] ship) to transit the Northwest Passage and the first warship to [[circumnavigate]] North America. In 1956, HMCS ''Labrador'' again completed the east-to-west transit, this time under the command of Captain T.C. Pullen.

On July 1, 1957, the [[United States Coast Guard Cutter]] {{USCGC|Storis|WMEC-38|2}} departed in company with {{USCGC|Bramble|WLB-392|6}} and {{USCGC|Spar|WLB-403|6}} to search for a deep-draft channel through the Arctic Ocean and to collect [[Hydrography|hydrographic]] information. The US Coast Guard Squadron was escorted through Bellot Strait and the Eastern Arctic by HMCS ''Labrador''.<ref name="Ship details"/> Upon her return to Greenland waters, ''Storis'' became the first U.S.-registered vessel to circumnavigate North America. Shortly after her return in late 1957, she was reassigned to her new home port of [[Kodiak, Alaska]].

In 1960, {{USS|Seadragon|SSN-584|6}} completed the first submarine transit of the Northwest Passage, heading east-to-west.<ref>{{cite book|last=Steele|first=George P.|title=Seadragon: Northwest Under the Ice|url=https://archive.org/details/seadragonnorthwe0000stee|url-access=registration|year=1962|publisher=Dutton}}</ref>

In 1969, SS ''Manhattan'' made the passage, accompanied by the Canadian icebreakers {{ship|CCGS|John A. Macdonald}} and {{ship|CCGS|Louis S. St-Laurent}}. The U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers {{USCGC|Northwind|WAGB-282|2}} and {{USCGC|Staten Island|WAGB-278|2}} also sailed in support of the expedition.<ref name=Smith1970/><ref name=Keating1970/>

''Manhattan'' was a [[Ice class|specially reinforced]] [[Oil tanker|supertanker]] sent to test the viability of the passage for the transport of oil. While ''Manhattan'' succeeded, the route was deemed not to be cost-effective. The United States built the [[Alaska Pipeline]] instead.

In June 1977, sailor Willy de Roos left [[Belgium]] to attempt the Northwest Passage in his {{convert|13.8|m|abbr=on}} steel [[yacht]] ''Williwaw''. He reached the Bering Strait in September and after a stopover in [[Victoria, British Columbia]], went on to round Cape Horn and sail back to Belgium, thus being the first sailor to circumnavigate the Americas entirely by ship.<ref>{{cite AV media |first=John |last=Harvard |url=https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/willy-de-roos-big-journey |title=Willy de Roos' big journey |work=[[90 Minutes Live]] |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |via=CBC Archives |date=November 3, 1977 |medium=Television |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-date=April 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426190556/http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/willy-de-roos-big-journey |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1981 as part of the [[Transglobe Expedition]], [[Ranulph Fiennes]] and [[Charles R. Burton]] completed the Northwest Passage. They left [[Tuktoyaktuk]] on July 26, 1981, in the {{convert|18|ft|adj=on}} open [[Boston Whaler]] and reached [[Tanquary Fiord]] on August 31, 1981. Their journey was the first open-boat transit from west to east and covered around {{convert|3000|mi|km nmi}}, taking a route through Dolphin and Union Strait following the south coast of Victoria and King William islands, north to Resolute Bay via Franklin Strait and Peel Sound, around the south and east coasts of Devon Island, through Hell Gate and across Norwegian Bay to Eureka, Greely Bay and the head of Tanquary Fiord. Once they reached Tanquary Fiord, they had to trek {{convert|150|mi}} via Lake Hazen to Alert before setting up their winter base camp.

In 1984, the commercial passenger vessel {{MV|Explorer|1969|6}} (which sank in the [[Antarctic Ocean]] in 2007) became the first [[cruise ship]] to navigate the Northwest Passage.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7108835.stm#graphic |title=Stricken Antarctic ship evacuated |work=[[BBC News]] |date=November 24, 2007 |access-date=November 28, 2007 |archive-date=May 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530141528/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7108835.stm#graphic |url-status=live }}</ref>

In July 1986, Jeff MacInnis and Mike Beedell set out on an {{convert|18|ft|adj=on}} [[catamaran]] called ''Perception'' on a 100-day sail, west to east, through the Northwest Passage.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/sailing-the-northwest-passage-by-catamaran |title=Sailing the Northwest Passage by catamaran |work=[[Front Page Challenge]] |author-link=Fred Davis (broadcaster) |first=Fred |last=Davis |date=November 2, 1988 |medium=Television |via=CBC Archive |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-date=May 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180521073235/http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/sailing-the-northwest-passage-by-catamaran |url-status=live }}</ref> This pair was the first to sail the passage, although they had the benefit of doing so over a couple of summers.<ref name="Jeff">{{cite book|last1=MacInnis|first1=Jeff|last2=Rowland|first2=Wade|author-link2=Wade Rowland|title=Polar passage: the historic first sail through the Northwest Passage|url=https://archive.org/details/polarpassagehist00maci|url-access=registration|year=1990|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-8041-0650-4}}</ref>

In July 1986, [[David Scott Cowper]] set out from England in a {{convert|12.8|m|adj=on}} [[Lifeboat (rescue)|lifeboat]] named ''Mabel El Holland'', and survived three Arctic winters in the Northwest Passage before reaching the Bering Strait in August 1989. He continued around the world via the [[Cape of Good Hope]] to return to England on September 24, 1990. His was the first vessel to circumnavigate the world via the Northwest Passage.<ref>''Cruising,'' London, Summer 1992, p. 35</ref>

On July 1, 2000, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police patrol vessel {{ship|RCMP vessel|Nadon||2}}, having assumed the name ''St Roch II'', departed Vancouver on a "Voyage of Rediscovery." ''Nadon''{{'}}s mission was to circumnavigate North America via the Northwest Passage and the Panama Canal, recreating the epic voyage of her predecessor, ''St. Roch.'' The {{convert|22000|mi|adj=on}} Voyage of Rediscovery was intended to raise awareness concerning ''St. Roch'' and kick off the fund-raising efforts necessary to ensure the continued preservation of ''St. Roch''. The voyage was organized by the [[Vancouver Maritime Museum]] and supported by a variety of corporate sponsors and agencies of the Canadian government.
''Nadon'' is an aluminum, catamaran-hulled, high-speed patrol vessel. To make the voyage possible, she was escorted and supported by the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker {{ship|CCGS|Simon Fraser||2}}. The Coast Guard vessel was chartered by the Voyage of Rediscovery and crewed by volunteers. Throughout the voyage, she provided a variety of necessary services, including provisions and spares, fuel and water, helicopter facilities, and ice escort; she also conducted oceanographic research during the voyage. The Voyage of Rediscovery was completed in five and a half months, with ''Nadon'' reaching Vancouver on December 16, 2000.

On September 1, 2001, ''Northabout'', an {{convert|14.3|m|adj=on}} aluminium [[sailboat]] with diesel engine,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.northabout.com/nwp/theboat.htm |title=The Boat |work=Northabout.com |publisher=Irish Northwest Passage Expedition |first=Jarlath |last=Cunnane |date=2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823024559/http://www.northabout.com/nwp/theboat.htm |archive-date=August 23, 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=February 19, 2011  }}</ref> built and captained by Jarlath Cunnane, completed the Northwest Passage east-to-west from [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] to the Bering Strait. The voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was completed in 24 days. Cunnane cruised in ''Northabout'' in Canada for two years before returning to Ireland in 2005 via the Northeast Passage; he completed the first east-to-west circumnavigation of the pole by a single sailboat. The Northeast Passage return along the coast of Russia was slower, starting in 2004, requiring an ice stop and winter over in [[Khatanga (village)|Khatanga]], Siberia. He returned to Ireland via the Norwegian coast in October 2005. On January 18, 2006, the [[Cruising Club of America]] awarded Jarlath Cunnane their Blue Water Medal, an award for "meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea displayed by amateur sailors of all nationalities."{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

On July 18, 2003, a father-and-son team, Richard and Andrew Wood, with Zoe Birchenough, sailed the yacht ''Norwegian Blue'' into the Bering Strait. Two months later she sailed into the Davis Strait to become the first British yacht to transit the Northwest Passage from west to east. She also became the only British vessel to complete the Northwest Passage in one season, as well as the only British sailing yacht to return from there to British waters.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.norwegianblue.co.uk |title=The Northwest Passage |work=Norwegianblue.co.uk |date=2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181016103647/http://www.norwegianblue.co.uk/northwest_passage.htm |archive-date=October 16, 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=February 19, 2011  }}</ref>

In 2006, a scheduled cruise liner ({{ship|MS|Bremen}}) successfully ran the Northwest Passage,<ref name="hl-cruises1">{{cite web |first=Mark |last=Behrend |website=Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten |url=http://www.hl-cruises.com/redwork/do.php?layoutid=100&node=275236&language=2 |title=Logbook of the Northwest Passage |access-date=February 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711172235/http://www.hl-cruises.com/redwork/do.php?layoutid=100&node=275236&language=2 |archive-date=July 11, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> helped by [[satellite image]]s telling the location of sea ice.

On May 19, 2007, a French sailor, Sébastien Roubinet, and one other crew member left [[Anchorage, Alaska]], in ''Babouche'', a {{convert|7.5|m|adj=on}} ice catamaran designed to sail on water and slide over ice. The goal was to navigate west to east through the Northwest Passage by sail only. Following a journey of more than {{convert|7200|km|0|abbr=on}}, Roubinet reached Greenland on September 9, 2007, thereby completing the first Northwest Passage voyage made in one season without engine.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.babouche-expe.eu/home.html |publisher=Sébastien Roubinet |title=The North-West Passage by Sailboat |access-date=September 9, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928075440/http://www.babouche-expe.eu/home.html |archive-date=September 28, 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

[[File:NWPDX.tif|thumb|upright=1.95|Northwest Passage Drive Expedition (NWPDX) (2009–2011)]]
In April 2009, planetary scientist [[Pascal Lee]] and a team of four on the [[Northwest Passage Drive Expedition]] drove the [[Haughton–Mars Project|HMP]] ''Okarian'' [[Humvee]] rover a record-setting {{convert|496|km|abbr=on}} on sea-ice from [[Kugluktuk]] to [[Cambridge Bay]], [[Nunavut]], the longest distance driven on sea-ice in a road vehicle. The HMP ''Okarian'' was being ferried from the North American mainland to the [[Haughton–Mars Project]] (HMP) Research Station on [[Devon Island]], where it would be used as a simulator of future pressurized rovers for astronauts on the [[Moon]] and [[Mars]]. The HMP ''Okarian'' was eventually flown from Cambridge Bay to [[Resolute Bay]] in May 2009, and then driven again on sea-ice by Lee and a team of five from [[Resolute, Nunavut|Resolute]] to the West coast of Devon Island in May 2010.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Lee |first=P. |title=Northwest Passage Drive: Preparing for Mars |magazine=Above & Beyond – Canada's Arctic Journal |date=September–October 2010 |pages=35–39}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Alan |last=Dowd |title=Scientists plan to drive the icy Northwest Passage |work=[[Reuters]] |date=March 13, 2009 |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-passage/scientists-plan-to-drive-the-icy-northwest-passage-idUSTRE52C5GD20090314 |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-date=December 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209123830/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-passage/scientists-plan-to-drive-the-icy-northwest-passage-idUSTRE52C5GD20090314 |url-status=live }}</ref> The HMP ''Okarian'' reached the HMP Research Station in July 2011. The Northwest Passage Drive Expedition is captured in the motion picture documentary film ''Passage To Mars'' (2016).<ref>{{IMDb title |qid=Q129677675|title=Passage to Mars |description=(2016)}}</ref>

In 2009, sea ice conditions were such that at least nine small vessels and two cruise ships completed the transit of the Northwest Passage. These trips included one by Eric Forsyth<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.yachtfiona.com/ |title= The Adventures of Eric Forsyth |website= YachtFiona.com |access-date= September 30, 2010 |archive-date= September 23, 2010 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100923083631/http://www.yachtfiona.com/ |url-status= live }}</ref> on board the {{convert|42|ft|adj=on}} Westsail sailboat ''Fiona'', a boat he built in the 1980s. Self-financed, Forsyth, a retired engineer from the [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]], and winner of the Cruising Club of America's Blue Water Medal, sailed the Canadian Archipelago with sailor Joey Waits, airline captain Russ Roberts and carpenter David Wilson.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fiona2009northwestpassage.blogspot.com |title=Fiona Sails the Northwest Passage in 2009 |date=2011 |work=fiona2009northwestpassage.blogspot.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825215818/http://fiona2009northwestpassage.blogspot.com/ |archive-date=August 25, 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=November 20, 2018  }}</ref> After successfully sailing the Passage, the 77-year-old Forsyth completed the circumnavigation of North America, returning to his home port on [[Long Island, New York]].

Cameron Dueck and his crew aboard the {{convert|40|ft|adj=on}} sailing yacht ''Silent Sound'' also transited in the summer of 2009. Their voyage began in Victoria, BC, on June 6, and they arrived in Halifax on October 10.<ref>{{cite news |title=Arctic sailor sees melting sea ice first-hand |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/arctic-sailor-sees-melting-sea-ice-first-hand-1.828849 |access-date=October 22, 2018 |work=CBC News |date=September 18, 2009 |archive-date=October 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024041116/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/arctic-sailor-sees-melting-sea-ice-first-hand-1.828849 |url-status=live }}</ref> Dueck wrote a book about the voyage called ''The New Northwest Passage''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dueck|first=Cameron|title=The New Northwest Passage: A Voyage to the Front Line of Climate Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxsxMgEACAAJ&pg=PP1|year=2013|publisher=Sandstone Press|isbn=978-1-908737-15-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bertulli |first1=Margaret |title=Review: Cameron Dueck, The New Northwest Passage: A Voyage to the Front Line of Climate Change |url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/72/newnorthwestpassage.shtml |journal=Manitoba History |publisher=[[Manitoba Historical Society]] |volume=72 |date=Spring–Summer 2013 |access-date=October 22, 2018 |archive-date=October 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022232607/http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/72/newnorthwestpassage.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

In August–September 2010, Graeme Kendall (New Zealand) sailed the {{convert|41|ft|adj=on}} ''Astral Express'' through the Northwest Passage. He was the first person to sail solo non-stop through the passage. He began in Lancaster Sound on August 27 and ended 12 days later at Point Barrow, Alaska, on September 9. The trip covered {{convert|2,300|NM|km}}. It was part of a circumnavigation that started and ended in New Zealand.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oceannavigator.com/kendall-completes-first-solo-of-northwest-passage/ |title=Kendall completes first solo of Northwest Passage |work=Ocean Navigator |author=John Snyder |date=December 22, 2010 |accessdate=August 8, 2021 |archive-date=August 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808170205/https://www.oceannavigator.com/kendall-completes-first-solo-of-northwest-passage/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/yachting-arctic-sailor-finishes-journey/GSSGGBKDMD4OGGIG5ACRE3QDAI/ |title=Yachting: Arctic sailor finishes journey |work=NZ Herald |author=Amelia Wade |date=October 27, 2010 |accessdate=August 8, 2021 |archive-date=August 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808170204/https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/yachting-arctic-sailor-finishes-journey/GSSGGBKDMD4OGGIG5ACRE3QDAI/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

On September 9, 2010, [[Bear Grylls]] and a team of five completed a point-to-point navigation between [[Pond Inlet]] and Tuktoyaktuk in the [[Northwest Territories]] on a [[rigid inflatable boat]] (RIB). The expedition drew attention to how the effects of [[global warming]] made this journey possible and raised funds for the Global Angels charity.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Maritime Journal {{!}} Bear Grylls' RIB completes North West Passage|url=https://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/industry-news/bear-grylls-rib-completes-north-west-passage|access-date=2020-06-13|website=www.maritimejournal.com|archive-date=June 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613091336/https://www.maritimejournal.com/news101/industry-news/bear-grylls-rib-completes-north-west-passage|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-10-28|title=Our journey {{!}} Future Capital Partners and Bear Grylls – Northwest Passage|url=http://fcpnorthwestpassage.com/journey|access-date=2020-06-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101028074434/http://fcpnorthwestpassage.com/journey|archive-date=October 28, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On August 30, 2012 [[Sailing yacht]] {{ship||Billy Budd}},<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.billybudd.info/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516034114/http://www.billybudd.info/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 16, 2008 |title=BillyBudd – Official Site |website=www.billybudd.info |access-date=July 13, 2016 }}</ref> {{convert|110|ft}}, an English SY, successfully completed the Northwest Passage in [[Nome, Alaska]], while sailing a northern route never sailed by a sailing pleasure vessel before. After six cruising seasons in the [[Arctic]] (Greenland, Baffin Bay, Devon Island, [[Kane Basin]], Lancaster Sound, [[Peel Sound]], Regent Sound) and four seasons in the South ([[Antarctic Peninsula]], [[Patagonia]], [[Falkland Islands]], [[South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands|South Georgia]]), SY ''Billy Budd'', owned by and under the command of an Italian sporting enthusiast, Mariacristina Rapisardi.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2012-08-22/maria-cristina-rapisardi-signora-152152.shtml?uuid=AbOkq4RG |title=Maria Cristina Rapisardi signora dei ghiacci |access-date=July 13, 2016 |archive-date=August 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822054311/http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2012-08-22/maria-cristina-rapisardi-signora-152152.shtml?uuid=AbOkq4RG |url-status=live }}</ref> Crewed by Marco Bonzanigo, five Italian friends, one Australian, one Dutch, one South African, and one New Zealander, it sailed through the Northwest Passage. The northernmost route was chosen. ''Billy Budd'' sailed through the [[Parry Channel]], Viscount Melville Sound and Prince of Wales Strait, a channel {{convert|160|NM}} long and {{convert|15|NM}} wide which flows south into the [[Amundsen Gulf]]. During the passage ''Billy Budd'' – likely a first for a pleasure vessel – anchored in Winter Harbour in Melville Island, the very same site where almost 200 years ago [[Sir William Parry]] was blocked by ice and forced to winter.

On August 29, 2012, the Swedish yacht ''Belzebub II,'' a {{convert|31|ft|adj=on}} fibreglass cutter captained by Canadian Nicolas Peissel, Swede Edvin Buregren and Morgan Peissel, became the first sailboat in history to sail through McClure Strait, part of a journey of achieving the most northerly Northwest Passage.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://belzebub2.com/home?lang=en |title= Home « A Passage through Ice |website= belzebub2.com |access-date= February 14, 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052801/http://belzebub2.com/home?lang=en |archive-date= March 4, 2016 |url-status= dead |df= mdy-all }}</ref> ''Belzebub II'' departed Newfoundland following the coast of Greenland to [[Qaanaaq]] before tracking the sea ice to [[Grise Fiord]], Canada's most northern community. From there the team continued through Parry Channel into McClure Strait and the Beaufort Sea, tracking the highest latitudes of 2012's record sea ice depletion before completing their Northwest Passage September 14, 2012. The expedition received extensive media coverage, including recognition by former U.S. Vice President [[Al Gore]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Rebecca J. |last=Rosen |date=September 25, 2012 |title=Climate Change Adventure: The Arctic's Melting, So These Guys Sailed Across It |work=[[The Atlantic]] |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/climate-change-adventure-the-arctics-melting-so-these-guys-sailed-across-it/261930/ |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-date=December 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209123514/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/climate-change-adventure-the-arctics-melting-so-these-guys-sailed-across-it/261930/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Gore |first=Al |type=Blog |website=AlGore.com |url= http://blog.algore.com/2012/10/ |title=Just a Sailboat |date=October 4, 2012 |access-date=February 5, 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150220050651/http://blog.algore.com/2012/10/ |archive-date=February 20, 2015}}</ref> The accomplishment is recorded in the Polar Scott Institute's record of Northwest Passage Transits and recognized by the Explorers Club<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.explorers.org/index.php/events/detail/nyc_lecture_series_w_nicolas_peissel |title=A Passage Through Ice |date=March 11, 2013 |publisher=[[The Explorers Club]] |access-date=February 14, 2014 |archive-date=February 21, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221185226/http://www.explorers.org/index.php/events/detail/nyc_lecture_series_w_nicolas_peissel |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/rcgs-funded-explorers-sail-northwest-passage |title=RCGS-funded explorers sail the Northwest Passage |first=Bruce |last=Kirkby |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |magazine=[[Canadian Geographic]] |date=April 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305013554/http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/apr13/northwest_passage.asp |accessdate=December 7, 2018 }}</ref>

At 18:45 GMT on September 18, 2012, ''Best Explorer'', a steel cutter {{convert|15.17|m}}, skipper Nanni Acquarone, passing between the two Diomedes, was the first Italian sailboat to complete the Northwest Passage along the classical Amundsen route. Twenty-two Italian amateur sailors took part of the trip, in eight legs from [[Tromsø]], Norway, to [[King Cove]], Alaska, totalling {{convert|8200|nmi|lk=in}}. Later in 2019 ''Best Explorer'' skippered again by Nanni Acquarone became the first Italian sailboat to circumnavigate the Arctic sailing north of Siberia from [[Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky]] to [[Tromsø]] and the second ever to do it clockwise.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.nordovestitalia.org/ |title= Arctic Sail Expeditions – Italia  |access-date= January 25, 2013 |archive-date= April 1, 2013 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130401075819/http://www.nordovestitalia.org/ |url-status= live }}</ref>

Setting sail from Nome, Alaska, on August 18, 2012, and reaching [[Nuuk]], Greenland, on September 12, 2012, {{MS|The World||2}} became the largest passenger vessel to transit the Northwest Passage.<ref name="Nunatsiaq1">{{cite news |url=http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674the_world_gets_the_green_light_to_transit_the_northwest_passage/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014175410/http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674the_world_gets_the_green_light_to_transit_the_northwest_passage/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 14, 2013 |title=The World gets green light to transit Northwest Passage |date=August 31, 2012 |access-date=October 2, 2012 |work=[[Nunatsiaq News]] |publisher=Nortext Publishing }}</ref><ref name="Nunatsiaq2">{{cite news |url= http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674less_ice_makes_Nunavut_accessible_but_money_stays_at_home/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131014174139/http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674less_ice_makes_Nunavut_accessible_but_money_stays_at_home/ |url-status= dead |archive-date= October 14, 2013 |title= Shrinking ice makes Nunavut more accessible to cruise ships, but money stays on board |date= September 4, 2012 |access-date= October 2, 2012 |work= Nunatsiaq News |publisher= Nortext Publishing }}</ref> The ship, carrying 481 passengers, for 26 days and {{convert|4800|nmi|abbr=on}} at sea, followed in the path of Captain Roald Amundsen. ''The World''{{'s}} transit of the Northwest Passage was documented by ''[[National Geographic]]'' photographer Raul Touzon.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGt4k8CWvy4 | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211031/tGt4k8CWvy4| archive-date=2021-10-31 | url-status=live|title=Northwest Passage with Raul Touzon |publisher=Raul Touzon |date=September 30, 2012 |via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In September 2013, {{ship|MS|Nordic Orion}} became the first commercial [[bulk carrier]] to transit the Northwest Passage.<ref name=reuters>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shipping-coal-arctic-idUSBRE98Q0K720130927 |first1=John |last1=McGarrity |first2=Henning |last2=Gloystein |title=Big freighter traverses Northwest Passage for 1st time |work=Reuters |date=September 27, 2013 |access-date=July 10, 2021 |archive-date=May 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516062002/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-shipping-coal-arctic-idUSBRE98Q0K720130927 |url-status=live }}</ref> She was carrying a cargo of {{convert|73,500|ST}} of [[coking coal]] from [[Port Metro Vancouver]], Canada, to the [[Finland|Finnish]] [[Port of Pori]], {{convert|15,000|ST}} more than would have been possible via the traditional Panama Canal route.<ref name=reuters/><ref name=safety>{{cite web |url=https://safety4sea.com/nordic-bulk-vessel-plans-historic-northwest-passage-transit/ |title=Nordic Orion first to transit the Northwest Passage |work=Safety4Sea.com |date=September 20, 2013  |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151016014656/http://www.safety4sea.com/nordic-bulk-vessel-plans-historic-northwest-passage-transit-17577 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Northwest Passage shortened the distance by {{convert|1,000|nmi}} compared to traditional route via the Panama Canal.<ref name="safety"/><ref>{{cite news |title=Northwest Passage crossed by first cargo ship, the Nordic Orion, heralding new era of Arctic commercial activity |work=[[National Post]] |date=September 27, 2013 |agency=Reuters |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/northwest-passage-crossed-by-first-cargo-ship-the-nordic-orion-heralding-new-era-of-arctic-commercial-activity}}</ref>

In August and September 2016 a cruise ship was sailed through the Northwest Passage.<ref>{{Cite news |first1=Katie |last1=Orlinsky |first2=Eva |last2=Holland |date=September 8, 2016 |title=Apocalypse Tourism? Cruising the Melting Arctic Ocean |work=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]] |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-crystal-serenity-northwest-passage-cruise/ |access-date=September 13, 2016 |archive-date=September 13, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913060905/https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-crystal-serenity-northwest-passage-cruise/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The ship ''[[Crystal Serenity]]'', (with 1,000 passengers, and 600 crew) left Seward, Alaska, used Amundsen's route and reached New York on September 17. Tickets for the 32-day trip started at $22,000 and were quickly sold out.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Brady |last1=Dennis |author-link=Chris Mooney (journalist) |first2=Chris |last2=Mooney |title=A luxury cruise ship sets sail for the Arctic, thanks to climate change |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 16, 2016 |page=A3 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/16/a-luxury-cruise-ship-sets-sail-for-the-arctic-thanks-to-climate-change/ |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-date=January 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110025959/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/16/a-luxury-cruise-ship-sets-sail-for-the-arctic-thanks-to-climate-change/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The trip was repeated in 2017. In 2017 33 vessels made a complete transit, breaking the prior record of 20 in 2012.<ref>{{cite news|author-link=Chris Mooney (journalist)|last=Mooney|first=Chris|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=December 22, 2017|title=The Arctic Dilemma|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P4-1979419050.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209165211/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P4-1979419050.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 9, 2018|access-date=December 7, 2018}}</ref>

In September 2018, sailing yacht ''Infinity'' (a 36.6&nbsp;m ketch) and her 22-person crew successfully sailed through the Northwest Passage.<ref>{{cite news |title=Transits of the Northwest Passage to End of the 2018 Navigation Season Atlantic ↔ Arctic Ocean ↔ Pacific Ocean  |url=https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/resources/infosheets/northwestpassage.pdf |access-date=February 19, 2019 |agency=University of Cambridge |publisher=Scott Polar Research Institute |date=December 1, 2018 |archive-date=April 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200406174008/https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/resources/infosheets/northwestpassage.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> This was part of their mission to plant the flag of Earth on the remaining Arctic ice. Supported by the EarthToday initiative, this voyage was a symbol for future global collaboration against climate change. The flag of Planet Earth was planted on September 21, 2018, the International Day of Peace.<ref>{{cite news |title=Official video release the Planting of the Flag of Planet Earth |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ase8oB_vVmA | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211031/ase8oB_vVmA| archive-date=2021-10-31 | url-status=live|access-date=February 19, 2019 |date=October 1, 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

From July to October 2023, the Arctic Cowboys,<ref>{{cite news |title=northwest passage kayakers finish epic journey |url=https://explorersweb.com/northwest-passage-kayakers-finish-epic-journey/ | agency=Explorer's Web}}{{cbignore}}</ref> became the first people to kayak the central portion of the Northwest Passage from Pond Inlet to Cape Bathurst, marking them as the first to navigate the Canadian Archipelago completely self-propelled, meaning no motors or sails were used. Additionally, the team completed the {{cvt|1600|mi|order=flip}} expedition in a single season.<ref>{{cite news |title=Arctic Cowboys Complete Northwest Passage |url=https://paddlingmag.com/stories/news-events/arctic-cowboys-complete-northwest-passage/ | agency=Paddler Magazine}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The expedition was led and organised by West Hansen,<ref>{{cite news |title=West Hansen|url=https://westhansen.com// | agency=West Hansen}}{{cbignore}}</ref> along with Jeff Wueste, [[Mark Agnew]], and Eileen Visser.<ref>{{cite news |title=Potsdam woman is part of the first team in the world to kayak the Northwest Passage |url=https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/48720/20231102/potsdam-woman-is-part-of-the-first-team-in-the-world-to-kayak-the-northwest-passage | agency=NCPR}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The four travelled in two tandem kayaks.

Agnew was awarded European Adventurer of the Year as a result.<ref>{{cite news |title=Scot Wins European Adventurer of the Year   |url=https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/outdoors/scot-wins-european-adventurer-of-the-year/ | agency=Scottish Field}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==International waters dispute==
The Canadian government classifies the waters of the Northwest Passage in the [[Canadian Arctic Archipelago]], as [[internal waters]] of Canada as per the [[United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]] and by the precedent in the drawing of [[baseline (sea)|baselines]] for other archipelagos, giving Canada the right to bar transit through these waters.<ref name="icefreearctic" /> Some [[maritime nation]]s, notably the United States, claim these waters to be an [[international strait]], where foreign vessels have the right of "[[transit passage]]." In such a regime, Canada would have the right to enact fishing and environmental regulation, and fiscal and smuggling laws, as well as laws intended for the safety of shipping, but not the right to close the passage.<ref name="paprl1" /><ref name="UNCLOS">{{cite web |first=Todd P. |last=Kenyon |url=http://www.admiraltylawguide.com/conven/unclospart3.html |title=UNCLOS, Part III: Straits Used for International Navigation |work=Admiralty and Maritime Law Guide: International Conventions |publisher=Betancourt, Van Hemmen, Greco & Kenyon |location=New York |date=2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107010502/http://www.admiraltylawguide.com/conven/unclospart3.html |archive-date=November 7, 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=November 20, 2011  }}</ref> While Canada is a party to the 1982 convention, the United States has not ratified it.

The dispute between Canada and the United States arose in 1969 with the trip of the U.S. oil tanker {{SS|Manhattan|1962|6}} through the [[Arctic Archipelago]]. The prospect of more American traffic headed to the [[Prudhoe Bay Oil Field]] made the Canadian government realize that political action was required.<ref name="Lasserre" /> If the passage's deep waters become completely ice-free in summer months, they will be particularly enticing for [[supertankers]] that are too big to pass through the Panama Canal and must otherwise navigate around the tip of South America.<ref name="washingtonpost.com">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/05/AR2006110500286.html |title=Dispute Over NW Passage Revived |first=Doug |last=Struck |date=November 6, 2006 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=September 6, 2017 |archive-date=December 3, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171203145334/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/05/AR2006110500286.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1985, the [[U.S. Coast Guard]] icebreaker {{USCGC|Polar Sea|WAGB-11|2}} passed through from Greenland to Alaska; the ship submitted to inspection by the [[Canadian Coast Guard]] before passing through, but the event infuriated the Canadian public and resulted in [[1985 Polar Sea controversy|a diplomatic incident]]. The United States government, when asked by a Canadian reporter, indicated that they did not ask for permission as they insist that the waters were an international strait. The Canadian government issued a declaration in 1986 reaffirming Canadian rights to the waters. The United States refused to recognize the Canadian claim. In 1988 the governments of Canada and the United States signed an agreement, "Arctic Cooperation," that resolved the practical issue without solving the sovereignty questions. Under the law of the sea, ships engaged in transit passage are not permitted to engage in research. The agreement states that all U.S. Coast Guard and Navy vessels are engaged in research, and so would require permission from the Government of Canada to pass through.<ref name="RUS">{{cite web |url=http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0561-e.htm#BRelations |title=Relations With the United States from the Library of Parliament—Canadian Arctic Sovereignty |publisher=Political and Social Affairs Division, Canada Library of Parliament |date=January 26, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209140412/http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0561-e.htm#BRelations |archive-date=February 9, 2010 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 19, 2011}}</ref>

However, in late 2005, it was reported that U.S. [[nuclear submarine]]s had travelled unannounced through Canadian Arctic waters, breaking the "Arctic Cooperation" agreement and sparking outrage in Canada. In his first news conference after the [[2006 Canadian federal election|2006 federal election]], Prime Minister-designate [[Stephen Harper]] contested an earlier statement made by the U.S. ambassador that Arctic waters were international, stating the Canadian government's intention to enforce its sovereignty there. The allegations arose after the [[U.S. Navy]] released photographs of {{USS|Charlotte|SSN-766|6}} surfaced at the North Pole.<ref name="Charlotte North Pole">{{cite news |url=http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=21223 |work=Navy News Service |id=NNS051201-11 |title=USS Charlotte Achieves Milestone During Under-Ice Transit |access-date=October 25, 2007 |first=Dave |last=Ozeck |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070913030600/https://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=21223 |archive-date=September 13, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Most of the activities involving American submarines (including their current and past positions and courses) are [[Classified information|classified]], so therefore under that policy the U.S. Navy has declined to reveal which route(s) the ''Charlotte'' took to reach and return from the Pole.</ref>

On April 9, 2006, Canada's [[Joint Task Force (North)]] declared that the [[Canadian Forces]] will no longer refer to the region as the Northwest Passage, but as the Canadian Internal Waters.<ref name="Edmonton Journal">{{cite web |url= http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=6d4815ac-4fdb-4cf3-a8a6-4225a8bd08df&k=73925 |title=Northwest Passage Gets Political Name Change |access-date=February 1, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070310214749/http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=6d4815ac-4fdb-4cf3-a8a6-4225a8bd08df&k=73925 |archive-date=March 10, 2007}}</ref> The declaration came after the successful completion of Operation Nunalivut ([[Inuktitut]] for "the land is ours"), which was an expedition into the region by five military patrols.<ref name="ArcticNet">{{cite web |url=http://www.arcticnet-ulaval.ca/index.php?fa=News.showNews&home=4&menu=55&sub=1&id=128 |title=Arctic Trek Shows Canada's Sovereignty |access-date=February 1, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071007225111/http://www.arcticnet-ulaval.ca/index.php?fa=News.showNews |archive-date=October 7, 2007 }}</ref>

In 2006 a report prepared by the staff of the Parliamentary Information and Research Service of Canada suggested that because of the [[September 11 attacks]], the United States might be less interested in pursuing the international waterways claim in the interests of having a more secure North American perimeter.<ref name="RUS" /> This report was based on an earlier paper, ''The Northwest Passage Shipping Channel: Is Canada's Sovereignty Really Floating Away?'' by Andrea Charron, given to the 2004 [[Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute]] Symposium.<ref name="Charron"/> Later in 2006 former [[United States Ambassador to Canada]], [[Paul Cellucci]] agreed with this position; however, the succeeding ambassador, [[David H. Wilkins|David Wilkins]], stated that the Northwest Passage was in [[international waters]].<ref name="washingtonpost.com"/>

On July 9, 2007, Prime Minister Harper announced the establishment of a deep-water port in the far North. In the press release Harper said, "Canada has a choice when it comes to defending our sovereignty over the Arctic. We either use it or lose it. And make no mistake, this Government intends to use it. Because Canada's Arctic is central to our national identity as a northern nation. It is part of our history. And it represents the tremendous potential of our future."<ref name="Canadian Government Press Release">{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0929956620070709 |title=Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces new Arctic offshore patrol ships |access-date=July 9, 2007 |work=Reuters |date=July 9, 2007 |archive-date=October 13, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013151317/http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0929956620070709 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On July 10, 2007, [[Rear Admiral]] [[Timothy McGee (USN)|Timothy McGee]] of the U.S. Navy and Rear Admiral Brian Salerno of the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the United States would be increasing its ability to patrol the Arctic.<ref name=Bloomberg20070710>{{cite news |date=July 10, 2007 |work=[[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg.com]] |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aK9JSBhBiJMg&refer=canada |title=U.S. Bolsters Arctic Presence to Aid Commercial Ships (Update 1) |first=Hugo |last=Miller |access-date=March 10, 2017 |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930074303/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aK9JSBhBiJMg&refer=canada |url-status=live }}</ref>

In June 2019, the U.S. State Department spokesperson [[Morgan Ortagus]] said, "We view Canada's claim that the waters of the Northwest Passage are internal waters of Canada as inconsistent with international law," despite historical precedent regarding archipelago baselines.<ref>{{cite news |title=The US is picking a fight with Canada over a thawing Arctic shipping route |url=https://qz.com/1653831/the-us-is-picking-a-fight-with-canada-over-an-arctic-shipping-route/ |work=Quartz |date=June 27, 2019 |access-date=August 20, 2019 |archive-date=August 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814025007/https://qz.com/1653831/the-us-is-picking-a-fight-with-canada-over-an-arctic-shipping-route/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Thinning ice cover and the Northwest Passage==
[[File:2007 Arctic Sea Ice.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Arctic shrinkage]] as of 2007 compared to previous years]]
In summer 2000, two Canadian ships took advantage of thinning summer ice cover on the Arctic Ocean to make the crossing.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/amazing-voyage-through-perilous-arctic-ocean-2724083.php |title=Amazing Voyage Through Perilous Arctic Ocean / Mounties boat sails Northwest Passage |access-date=December 18, 2010 |first=Carolyn |last=Jones |work=[[The San Francisco Chronicle]] |date=December 4, 2000 |archive-date=November 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121112620/http://articles.sfgate.com/2000-12-04/news/17671507_1_northwest-passage-arctic-ocean-king-william-island |url-status=live }}</ref> It is thought that climate change is likely to open the passage for increasing periods, making it potentially attractive as a major shipping route. However, the passage through the Arctic Ocean would require significant investment in escort vessels and staging ports, and it would remain seasonal. Therefore, the route has not become a viable alternative to the Panama Canal.<ref name="Arctic Marine Transport Workshop">{{cite report |url=https://storage.googleapis.com/arcticgov-static/publications/other/arctic_marine_transport.pdf |editor1-first=Lawson |editor1-last=Brigham |editor2-first=Ben |editor2-last=Ellis |title=Arctic Marine Transport Workshop |date=September 2004 |publisher=[[Scott Polar Research Institute]], Cambridge University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808145951/http://www.arctic.gov/files/AMTW_book.pdf |archive-date=August 8, 2007 |url-status=dead |accessdate=December 7, 2018 }}</ref>

On September 14, 2007, the [[European Space Agency]] (ESA) stated that ice loss that year had opened up the historically impassable passage, setting a new low of ice cover as seen in satellite measurements which went back to 1978. According to the [[Arctic Climate Impact Assessment]], the latter part of the 20th century and the start of the 21st had seen marked shrinkage of ice cover. The extreme loss in 2007 rendered the passage "fully navigable."<ref name="esa">{{cite web |url=http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMYTC13J6F_index_0.html |title=Satellites witness lowest Arctic ice coverage in history |publisher=[[European Space Agency]] |date=September 14, 2007 |access-date=September 15, 2007 |archive-date=April 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120412010140/http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMYTC13J6F_index_0.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Beeb">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6995999.stm |title=Warming 'opens Northwest Passage' |access-date=September 14, 2007 |work=BBC News |date=September 14, 2007 |archive-date=October 11, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011110046/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6995999.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> However, the ESA study was based only on analysis of satellite images and could in practice not confirm anything about the actual navigation of the waters of the passage. ESA suggested the passage would be navigable "during reduced ice cover by multi-year ice pack" (namely sea ice surviving one or more summers) where previously any traverse of the route had to be undertaken during favourable seasonable climatic conditions or by specialist vessels or expeditions. The agency's report speculated that the conditions prevalent in 2007 had shown the passage may "open" sooner than expected.<ref name="plain">{{cite news |last=Westcott |first=Kathryn |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6999078.stm |title=Plain Sailing on the Northwest Passage |work=[[BBC News]] |date=September 19, 2007 |access-date=February 19, 2011 |archive-date=January 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127043224/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6999078.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> An expedition in May 2008 reported that the passage was not yet continuously navigable even by an icebreaker and not yet ice-free.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080524.TRIPPING24/TPStory |work=The Globe and Mail |title=Tripping through the Northwest Passage |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029085445/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080524.TRIPPING24/TPStory |archive-date=October 29, 2014}}</ref>

Scientists at a meeting of the [[American Geophysical Union]] on December 13, 2007, revealed that NASA satellites observing the western Arctic{{Clarify|date=November 2008 |reason=Where is the Western Arctic? Is that the same thing that I would mean, anywhere west of the Boothia Peninsula but not including Resolute, or Baker Lake?}} showed a 16% decrease in cloud coverage during the summer of 2007 compared to 2006. This would have the effect of allowing more [[sunlight]] to penetrate Earth's atmosphere and warm the Arctic Ocean waters, thus melting sea ice and contributing to opening the Northwest Passage.<ref>{{cite news |first=Andrea |last=Thompson |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316753,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071215124443/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316753,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 15, 2007 |title=Extra Sunshine Blamed for Part of Arctic Meltdown |work=Fox News |date=December 14, 2007}}</ref>

In 2006 the cruise liner {{ship|MS|Bremen}} successfully ran the Northwest Passage,<ref name="hl-cruises1"/> helped by satellite images telling where sea ice was.

On November 28, 2008, the Canadian Coast Guard confirmed the first commercial ship sailed through the Northwest Passage. In September 2008, {{MV|Camilla Desgagnés}}, owned by Desgagnés Transarctik Inc. and, along with the [[Arctic Cooperative]], part of Nunavut Sealift and Supply Incorporated (NSSI),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arcticsealift.com/en/medias/MEET%20THE%20CARRIER%20%20Revised%20March%202013_0.pdf |title=Meet your Nunavut Carrier |publisher=Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003031843/http://www.arcticsealift.com/en/medias/MEET%20THE%20CARRIER%20%20Revised%20March%202013_0.pdf |archive-date=October 3, 2013 |access-date=September 23, 2013 }}</ref> transported cargo from Montreal to the hamlets of [[Cambridge Bay]], [[Kugluktuk]], [[Gjoa Haven]], and [[Taloyoak]]. A member of the crew is reported to have claimed that "there was no ice whatsoever." Shipping from the east was to resume in the fall of 2009.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/1st-commercial-ship-sails-through-northwest-passage-1.715493 |title=1st commercial ship sails through Northwest Passage |work=CBC News |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |date=November 28, 2008 |access-date=September 23, 2013 |archive-date=September 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927052019/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/1st-commercial-ship-sails-through-northwest-passage-1.715493 |url-status=live }}</ref> Although [[sealift]] is an annual feature of the Canadian Arctic this was the first time that the western communities had been serviced from the east. The western portion of the Canadian Arctic is normally supplied by [[Northern Transportation Company Limited]] (NTCL) from [[Hay River, Northwest Territories|Hay River]], and the eastern portion by NNSI and NTCL from [[Churchill, Manitoba|Churchill]] and Montreal.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntcl.com/ |title=NTCL |publisher=[[Northern Transportation Company Ltd.]] |access-date=February 19, 2011 |archive-date=February 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110210192632/http://www.ntcl.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.groupedesgagnes.com/en/cartevirtuelle/index.cfm?filiale=t |title=Ports Served |work=GroupeDesgagnes.com |publisher=[[Groupe Desgagnés]] |access-date=February 19, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221001837/http://www.groupedesgagnes.com/en/cartevirtuelle/index.cfm?filiale=t |archive-date=December 21, 2008 }}</ref>

In January 2010, the ongoing reduction in the Arctic sea ice led telecoms cable specialist Kodiak-Kenai Cable to propose the laying of a [[fibre-optic cable]] connecting London and [[Tokyo]] by way of the Northwest Passage, saying the proposed system would nearly cut in half the time it takes to send messages from the United Kingdom to Japan.

In September 2013, the first large ice-strengthened sea freighter, ''[[Nordic Orion]]'', used the passage.<ref name=reuters/>

In 2016 a new record was set when the cruise ship ''[[Crystal Serenity]]'' transited with 1,700 passengers and crew.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/09/09/first-came-an-arctic-luxury-cruise-next-comes-arctic-shipping/ |title=That pricey Arctic luxury cruise was just the beginning. Up next: Arctic shipping |author-link=Chris Mooney (journalist) |first=Chris |last=Mooney |date=September 9, 2016 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=September 14, 2016 |archive-date=September 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210907040356/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/09/09/first-came-an-arctic-luxury-cruise-next-comes-arctic-shipping/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ''Crystal Serenity'' is the largest cruise ship to navigate the Northwest Passage. Starting on August 10, 2016, the ship sailed from Vancouver to New York City, taking 28 days for the journey.

Plans to lay a [[fibre-optic cable]] through the passage were revived in 2021, the project is known as [[Far North Fiber]].<ref>{{citation|title=New submarine cable to link Japan, Europe, through famed Northwest Passage|author=Simon Sharwood|work=[[The Register]]|date=21 December 2021|url=https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/21/far_north_fiber_proposal/|access-date=January 9, 2022|archive-date=January 5, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105014846/https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/21/far_north_fiber_proposal/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Transfer of Pacific species to North Atlantic===
Scientists believe that reduced sea ice in the Northwest Passage has permitted some new species to migrate across the Arctic Ocean.<ref name=ibt>{{cite news |title=Global warming reintroduces gray whale, algae species to Northern Atlantic |first=Hao |last=Li |url=http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/169740/20110626/gray-whale-algae-atlantic-northwest-passage.htm |access-date=July 5, 2011 |work=[[International Business Times]] |date=June 26, 2011 |archive-date=July 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110701071841/http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/169740/20110626/gray-whale-algae-atlantic-northwest-passage.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[gray whale]] ''Eschrichtius robustus'' has not been seen in the Atlantic since it was hunted to extinction there in the 18th century, but in May 2010, one such whale turned up in the [[Mediterranean]]. Scientists speculated the whale had followed its food sources through the Northwest Passage and simply kept on going.<ref name=ibt/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Scheinin |first1=Aviad P |last2=Aviad |first2=P. |last3=Kerem |first3=Dan |title=Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) in the Mediterranean Sea: anomalous event or early sign of climate-driven distribution change? |journal=Marine Biodiversity Records |date=2011 |volume=2 |page=e28 |doi=10.1017/s1755267211000042|doi-broken-date=November 1, 2024 |bibcode=2011MBdR....4E..28S |s2cid=43914291 }}</ref><ref name=mulvaney>{{cite web |last=Mulvaney |first=Kieran |title=Prodigal Plankton Returns to the Atlantic |url=http://news.discovery.com/earth/prodigal-plankton-returns-to-the-atlantic-110626.html |work=[[Discovery News]] |access-date=July 5, 2011 |archive-date=June 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629003455/http://news.discovery.com/earth/prodigal-plankton-returns-to-the-atlantic-110626.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The [[plankton]] species ''Neodenticula seminae'' had not been recorded in the Atlantic for 800,000 years. However, it has become increasingly prevalent there. Again, scientists believe that it got there through the reopened Northwest Passage.<ref name=ibt/><ref name=mulvaney/>

In August 2010, two [[bowhead whale]]s from West Greenland and Alaska respectively, entered the Northwest Passage from opposite directions and spent approximately 10 days in the same area.<ref name="nwWhale">{{cite journal |first1=Mads Peter |last1=Heide-Jørgensen |first2=Kristin L. |last2=Laidre |first3=Lori T. |last3=Quakenbush |first4=John J. |last4=Citta |title=The Northwest Passage opens for bowhead whales |journal=[[Biology Letters]] |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=270–273 |publisher=[[Royal Society]] |date=September 21, 2011 |doi=10.1098/rsbl.2011.0731 |pmid=21937490 |pmc=3297376 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Div col}}
* [[Arctic Bridge]]
* [[Arctic exploration]]
* [[Discovery of North-West Passage Act 1744]]
* [[List of Arctic expeditions]]
* [[Northern Sea Route]]
* [[Northwest Passage expedition of 1741]]
* [[Northwest Passage Territorial Park]]
* [[Panama Canal]]
* [[Strait of Anián]]
* [[Territorial claims in the Arctic]]
{{Div col end}}
{{Portal bar|Oceans|Canada|North America}}

==References==
{{Reflist |30em |refs=
}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Berton |first=Pierre |title=The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818–1909 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JSI2cgof41kC&pg=PP1 |date=1988 |publisher=Doubleday Canada |isbn=978-0-385-67362-4 }}
* {{cite book|last=Day|first=Alan|title=Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Northwest Passage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q20QAJEDcScC&pg=PP1|year=2006|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6519-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Franklyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kDA3XNEiCH4C&pg=PP1 |title=Politics of the Northwest Passage |location=Kingston |publisher=McGill–Queen's University Press |date=1987 |isbn=0-7735-0613-6 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Robinson |first=J. Lewis |title=Northwest Passage |orig-year=2013 |date=2015 |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |edition=online |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/northwest-passage |access-date=December 7, 2018 |archive-date=December 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209125119/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/northwest-passage |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book|last=Waterman|first=Jonathan|title=Arctic Crossing: A Journey Through the Northwest Passage and Inuit Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wz4TOgAACAAJ&pg=PP1|year=2001|publisher=Random House Canada|isbn=978-0-679-31090-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Williams|first=Glyndwr|title=Voyages of Delusion: The Quest for the Northwest Passage|url=https://archive.org/details/voyagesofdelusio00glyn|url-access=registration|year=2003|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-09866-2}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Edinger|first=Ray|title=Fury Beach|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-QlS9b3FggC&pg=PP1|year=2003|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-425-19604-5}}
* {{cite book|last=Neatby|first=Leslie H.|title=In Quest of the North West Passage|url=https://archive.org/details/inquestofnorthwe0000neat|url-access=registration|year=1958|publisher=Longmans, Green}} Illustrated with black&white photos and reproductions and with maps (some fold to open out).
* {{cite book|editor-last=Rundall|editor-first=Thomas|title=Narratives of voyages towards the north-west in search of a passage to Cathay and India, 1496 to 1631|url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_42233|year=1849|publisher=Hakluyt Society|isbn=978-0665422331}}
* {{cite book|last=Scholefield|first=E.O.S.|chapter=Chapter II: Apocryphal Voyages|title=British Columbia from the Earliest Times to the Present|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/britishcolumbiaf01schouoft/page/18|year=1914|publisher=S. J. Clarke Publishing Company|pages=18–31}}

==External links==
{{GeoGroup}}
{{Commons category}}
* [https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/resources/infosheets/northwestpassage.pdf List of 287 voyages and map] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200406174008/https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/resources/infosheets/northwestpassage.pdf |date=April 6, 2020 }}
* [http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/documents/2007IceSymp/FinalArcticReport_2001.pdf US Navy: Identifying Surface Warfare Missions in an Ice-free Arctic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005090831/http://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/star/documents/2007IceSymp/FinalArcticReport_2001.pdf |date=October 5, 2011 }}
* {{cite news |last=Struck |first=Doug |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/06/AR2007080601369.html |title=Russia's Deep-Sea Flag-Planting at North Pole Strikes a Chill |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 7, 2007 |access-date=September 6, 2017 |archive-date=January 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123185507/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/06/AR2007080601369.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-plants-flag-staking-claim-to-arctic-region-1.679445 |title=Russia plants flag staking claim to Arctic region |work=CBC News |date=August 2, 2007 |access-date=January 26, 2020 |archive-date=June 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607190602/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-plants-flag-staking-claim-to-arctic-region-1.679445 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6941426.stm |title=Canada to strengthen Arctic claim |work=BBC News |date=August 10, 2007 |access-date=August 12, 2008 |archive-date=December 28, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228183449/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6941426.stm |url-status=live }}
* {{cite news |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,499287,00.html |title=Cold Wars in the Arctic: 'Canada Takes on Russia in Race' |work=[[Der Spiegel]] |date=August 10, 2007 |access-date=August 12, 2008 |archive-date=December 10, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210190658/http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,499287,00.html |url-status=live }}
* {{cite news |first=Dmitry |last=Sudakov |url=http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/09-06-2008/105459-arctic-0 |title=Arctic region likely to become the center of World War III |work=[[Pravda]] |date=June 9, 2008 |access-date=August 12, 2008 |archive-date=October 5, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005121859/http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/09-06-2008/105459-arctic-0/ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/arctic/ |title=Arctic Passage |publisher=[[PBS]] |work=[[Nova (American TV series)|Nova]] |access-date=September 6, 2017 |archive-date=October 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004123537/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/arctic/ |url-status=live }} site has articles, photographs and maps about the Northwest Passage, particularly the [[John Franklin|1845 Franklin]] and [[Roald Amundsen|1903 Amundsen]] expeditions
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080830022137/http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/woodman/utjulik.html Mission to Utjulik]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050213143119/http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF6/639.html The Voyage of the ''Manhattan'']
* {{cite news |title=Northwest Passage redux |work=The Washington Times |date=June 12, 2005 |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/specialreport/20050612-123835-3711r.htm |access-date=January 15, 2006 |archive-date=November 15, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061115213257/http://www.washingtontimes.com/specialreport/20050612-123835-3711r.htm |url-status=live }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090311074144/http://ve.torontopubliclibrary.ca/frozen_ocean/fo_s4f.htm Virtual exhibit of documents about arctic exploration "Frozen Ocean: Search for the North-west Passage"]
* [http://www.arctic.io/explorer/8//5-N78-W116/Canada-Inuvik Daily satellite view of NW Passage (during summer)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101083233/http://www.arctic.io/explorer/8//5-N78-W116/Canada-Inuvik |date=January 1, 2016 }} – arctic.io
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140820144006/http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/northwest-passage/titlepage.htm Northwest Passage website] History of NW exploration with numerous maps and illustrations.

{{Arctic topics}}
{{Polar exploration|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Arctic Ocean]]
[[Category:Canada–United States border disputes]]
[[Category:Disputed waters]]
[[Category:Exploration of North America]]
[[Category:Exploration of the Arctic]]
[[Category:Exploration of the Atlantic Ocean]]
[[Category:Geography of the Arctic]]
[[Category:Transport in the Arctic]]
[[Category:Maritime history of Canada]]
[[Category:Northern Canada]]
[[Category:Sea lanes]]