CONQUEST OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE BY R. C. M. P. 

 SCHOONER "ST. ROCH" 1 



By J. Lewis Robinson 

 Geographer, Bureau of Northwest Territories and Yukon Affairs, Ottawa 



[With 12 plates] 



The search for the Northwest Passage forms an intriguing chapter 

 in the history of Canadian exploration. The stories of early naviga- 

 tors who faced the dangers of polar pack ice in tiny wooden sailing 

 ships, traveling, with doubtful compasses, along uncharted coasts, are 

 accounts of hardship, courage, and perseverance. The fruitless quest 

 for a route north of the North American mainland to the wealth of the 

 Far East resulted in the exploration and charting of most of the 

 numerous Arctic islands of Northern Canada. As more and more 

 knowledge of this inhospitable region was obtained through explora- 

 tion, the trading incentive behind the search for a northwest route 

 waned in the light of geographic facts which showed the route to be 

 commercially impractical. 



In the sixteenth century Europe began to look toward the new 

 continent to the west, and expeditions from England, Spain, Portugal, 

 and France groped their way along the unknown coasts. At first this 

 new land mass was regarded chiefly as a barrier, of little value in itself, 

 blocking the route to the fabled riches of the East. Exploration was 

 interested in a way around or through it, and in 1576 Martin Frobisher 

 first entered the eastern Arctic seeking such a route. John Davis, who 

 followed Frobisher's lead, reached Baffin Bay before the end of the 

 century and noted several westward openings on the barren rocky coast. 



Exploration in the early seventeenth century was sidetracked by the 

 broad opening of Hudson Strait, and many years were spent in defining 

 the limits of extensive Hudson Bay. The failure of several expedi- 



1 Article prepared at the Bureau of Northwest Territories and Yukon Affairs, Lands, 

 Parks, and Forests Branch, Department of Mines and Resources, Ottawa, based on inter- 

 views with and reports from Staff Sergeant (now Subinspector) Henry A. Larsen of the 

 Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and published by permission of the Commissioner, Royal 

 Canadian Mounted Police. Reprinted from the Canadian Geographical Journal, vol. 30, No. 

 2, February 1945, by permission of the publishers and the Administration of the Northwest 

 Territories, Ottawa, Canada. 



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