The Northwest passage – A survival nightmare

The Northwest Passage is a shipping route that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific by traveling northwest along the coastline of Canada. Before the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, the only way to get from Europe or America to southeast Asia was to go down to South Africa and across the Indian Ocean, or travel around the southern tip of South America and risk tropical storms. A faster and safer route was needed and many explorers attempted to be the first to successfully navigate a passage along the Canadian coast and back down into the Pacific Ocean. The only problem was no one realized just how harsh the weather could be and how thick the ocean ice was, even in the middle of summer. Here are a couple of the expeditions that attempted to find a route and ended up victims of the extreme arctic weather.

The Franklin Expedition of 1845

(Sir John Franklin)

Sir John Franklin was a British navy officer and was tasked with finding the empire a route across the north-west passage. He left England on May 19, 1845, with two ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror. Onboard these ships were 129 skilled sailors and officers who all had experience in long voyages and enough provisions to last them for the whole journey. What actually happened next is unknown as the ship never made it to the other side and nothing was heard back home in England.

It turns out that at some point north of Nunavut territory in Canada, both the ships were caught in sea ice and became frozen in place. Both ships were found at the bottom of the Queen Maud Gulf between 2014 and 2016, with several interesting artifacts being recovered from them, one of which was documents that state how Sir Franklin died in June of 1847. The wrecks were found with numerous bodies on board and researchers have found out scurvy was common with the crew suggesting starvation and also some human bones with what appears to be teeth and knife marks on them. Out of the 129 people on the Franklin expedition, every single one either starved or froze to death.

The Fiala-Ziegler expedition – 1903 – 1905

Ziegler was a very wealthy businessman who sponsored an expedition to find a route through the northwest passage in 1901, but the team he sent was amateur at best and quickly ran into thick ice, ending their journey in less than a year. Not wanting to let someone else get the opportunity to claim the passage, Ziegler sent another team in 1903 led by a photographer named Anthony Fiala who took part in the first expedition.

Fiala and 38 crew set sail, but this time they turned right and made their way into the Barents Sea hoping to find a north-eastern passage across the coast of Russia. After coming close to Rudolph Island, the ship started to run into thick ice sheets which quickly crippled the hull, and with no way to repair it they were forced to abandon ship and make their way to land. Rudolph Island is about 800 miles north of the Russian coastline and is always extremely cold, there are no trees on the island and the center is covered by a glacier. Survival here would be close to impossible but fortunately, the crew were able to salvage enough supplies from the ship to make a small camp and were even lucky enough to find a source of coal along the rocky coastline. They survived by hunting polar bears and walruses to supplement their food, and two years later they were rescued by a whaling ship.

Why is the northwest passage so dangerous?

The main reason is the build-up of ice which prevents ships from getting through. Pack ice is when smaller sheets of ice overlap and freeze together, making them very thick and heavy. Throughout most of the year, the build-up of pack ice prevented ships from finding a route through, especially ships that relied on steam or sail. The first person to successfully navigate the northwest passage was a Norwegian named Roald Amundsen who made the journey between 1903 and 1906, but it was a long time after this before anyone could safely get through without relying on pure luck.

Marine shipping has long avoided this route due to the obvious risks that come with it, but since 2009 huge amounts of sea ice have been melting further and further north, allowing access for certain types of ships to successfully get through for a few of the summer months.