NORTHWEST PASSAGE 



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NORTHWEST PASSAGE 



was eagerly sought for four hundred 

 years before it was discovered. Now that it is 

 known and charted, no use is made of it. The 

 story of the search follows. 



As early as 1524 Verrazano, sailing under the 

 French flag, made an effort to find this passage, 

 and he explored northward as far as Rhode 



land and Denmark were also active in the work 

 in the north, and by the close of the eighteenth 

 century, though the Northwest Passage had not 

 been sighted, Hudson Strait and Bay, Davis 

 Strait and Baffin Bay, the icy seas from Green- 

 land to Spitzbergen and from Spitsbergen to 

 Nova Zeinbla had all been explored, while Hud- 



Island. Henry Hudson, who was sent out by the son Bay Territory and Greenland had been set- 



MAP OF THE 'NORTHWEST PASSAGE 

 Black lines indicate the various routes taken by explorers. 



Dutch East India Company to find a shorter 

 route to the South Seas, thought that he had 

 discovered the opening into the Pacific when, 

 in 1609, he anchored in what is now New York 

 Bay; he sailed up the river named Hudson in 

 his honor, convinced that this stream reached 

 across the continent. 



England, however, made the most persist- 

 ent attempts to find the passage, and Sir Mar- 

 tin Frobisher began a series of English expedi- 

 tions in 1576 that were to last nearly three 

 centuries. Frobisher's work was of great im- 

 portance, including the discovery of Frobisher 

 Bay, an indentation in Baffin Land. The 

 great scientific seaman, John Davis, made the 

 next attempt ; he traversed the strait that since 

 has borne his \\-.\\\\\ . :m<l in 1587 advanced as 

 far north as 70 41'. 



Of still greater importance was the expedi- 

 tion begun in 1616 by William Baffin and Rob- 

 ert Bylot. These explorers sailed up Davis 

 Strait and round the great channel which has 

 been since known as Baffin Bay, and their ob- 

 servations were of great value to later explorers 

 who continued the historic search. Russia, Hol- 



tled. For the details of this important period 

 of exploration, the reader is referred to the 

 articles POLAR EXLORATION and ARCTIC LANDS 

 AND SEAS. 



The French Revolution and the Napoleonic 

 wars that followed so occupied the attention of 

 all Europe that the search for the Passage was 

 practically abandoned for a quarter of a cen- 

 tury, and interest in it did not revive until 

 after the peace of 1815. In 1818 began the final 

 series of expeditions, when Commander John 

 Ross was sent out in command of the Isabella 

 and the Alexander. Among the names of tin- 

 explorers who followed him. most celebrated 

 is that of Sir John Franklin, whose successful 

 though ill-fated expedition for the Northwest 

 Passage set sail from the Thames on May 20, 

 1845, in the Erebus and Terror. 



Franklin passed through Lancaster Sound, 

 sailed up Wellington Channel to Penny Strait 

 and down Crozier Channel, returning to Beechey 

 Island for winter quarters. On leaving Beechey 

 id in 1846 he found a ch:imrl (now Peel 

 Sound) leading south, down which he snilr.l 

 towards King William Island, with land on both 



