234 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



became merely a matter of reaching port. Stops were made at King 

 Island in Bering Sea and Akutan Harbor in the Aleutians. 



After they left the Aleutian port on October 4, a violent 2-day 

 storm and heavy swells on the North Pacific provided but a fitting 

 finish to an exciting historic voyage. Toward evening on October 16, 

 the St. Roch came into Vancouver Harbor with all flags flying and a 

 large white banner proclaiming the successful trip through the North- 

 west Passage. Three hundred and sixty-eight years after Martin 

 Frobisher first attempted to enter the Arctic, seeking a northern route, 

 the R. C. M. P. schooner St. Roch became the first ship to complete the 

 Passage in a single year from east to west, with a total elapsed time 

 of 86 days. As Captain Larsen expressed it : 



We were lucky and had the breaks. No one can predict ice or navigation condi- 

 tions in the Arctic. What we accomplished this year might be repeated the next, 

 or it might be many years. Much would depend upon the type of vessel used, 

 and the ice conditions of that particular year. Our voyage showed that the 

 Northwest Passage can be traversed in a single year, but does not prove that 

 this could be accomplished every year. 



