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79-820: While searching for the Northwest Passage , a number of polar explorers visited, or spent their winters on, King William Island. The island is separated from the Boothia Peninsula by the James Ross Strait to the northeast, and the Rae Strait to the east. To the west is the Victoria Strait and beyond it Victoria Island . Within the Simpson Strait , to the south of the island, is Todd Island, and beyond it, further to

158-508: A few commercial employers: The discovery of HMS Terror and HMS Erebus shipwrecks from the Franklin's lost expedition is expected to bring increased tourism to Gjoa Haven, the nearest community to the Wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror National Historic Site . Public access to the site is not allowed. To protect the site, Inuit from Gjoa Haven are employed as guardians, camping near

237-532: A lead-based solder ). Another researcher has suggested botulism caused deaths among crew members. 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 cannibalism of deceased members in an effort to survive. Gjoa Haven Gjoa Haven ( / ˌ dʒ oʊ ˈ h eɪ v ən / ; Inuktitut : Uqsuqtuuq , syllabics : ᐅᖅᓱᖅᑑᖅ Inuktitut pronunciation: [uq.suq.tuːq] , meaning "lots of fat", referring to

316-709: 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 Greek pilot Juan de Fuca , sailing from Acapulco (in Mexico) under

395-494: 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

474-472: A newer subdivision has been developed near the airport at 68°37′56″N 095°52′04″W  /  68.63222°N 95.86778°W  / 68.63222; -95.86778 . The community is served by the Gjoa Haven Airport and by annual supply sealift . The area is home to CAM-CB , a North Warning System site. In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada , Gjoa Haven had

553-638: 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

632-401: A population of 1,349 living in 292 of its 339 total private dwellings, a change of 1.9% from its 2016 population of 1,324. With a land area of 28.55 km (11.02 sq mi), it had a population density of 47.3/km (122.4/sq mi) in 2021. The median age of the community was 23.0 with 22.0 for men and 23.8 for women. The average age was 26.5 with 26.4 for men and 26.6 for women. In

711-516: 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 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,

790-621: 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

869-476: 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

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948-411: A ship's 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 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),

1027-563: 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

1106-618: Is accordingly called the Northeast Passage (NEP). The various islands of the archipelago are separated from one another and from Mainland Canada by a series of Arctic waterways collectively known as the Northwest Passages , Northwestern Passages or the Canadian Internal Waters . For centuries, European explorers, beginning with Christopher Columbus in 1492, sought a navigable passage as

1185-555: Is known for its large populations of barren-ground caribou , which summer there before migrating in the autumn by walking south over the sea ice . The island was long occupied by Inuit , who had a culture adapted to the extreme environment. In 1830, the British explorer James Clark Ross named it "King William Land" for King William IV the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ; Ross thought at

1264-674: Is long and cold and the summers are cool, melting part of the ice; with low precipitation, it is a "cold desert". Northwest Passage 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. The eastern route along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Siberia

1343-614: The 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 . 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 , but

1422-544: The Bering Strait (separating Russia and Alaska), into the Pacific Ocean. 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

1501-554: The Hudson's Bay Company opened a trading post . In 1941 Henry Larsen reached the post from the west. The settlement has attracted the traditionally nomadic Inuit as they have adapted a more settled lifestyle. In 1961, the town's population was 110. By 2001, the population was 960 according to the census , as most Inuit have moved from their traditional camps to be close to the healthcare and educational facilities available at Gjoa Haven. Gjoa Haven has expanded to such an extent that

1580-554: The Inuit and people of the Dorset culture who inhabited the region. 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

1659-540: 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 Gjøa . 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

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1738-656: The Milne Inlet , on Baffin Island 's north shore, were bound for ports in Asia. 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. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Northwestern Passages as follows: On the West. The Eastern limit of Beaufort Sea from Lands End through

1817-608: 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." 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

1896-596: The Norwegian Polar Institute , this was the first time the Passage has been clear since they began keeping records in 1972. The Northwest Passage opened again on August 25, 2008. 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 Arctic ice cap and possibly cutting thousands of miles off shipping routes. Warning that

1975-745: The South Pole . George Porter was born on a whaling ship near Herschel Island in 1895 to Mary Kappak and W.P.S. Porter. George was schooled in Alaska. In 1913 he was a sailor on the Elvira and travelled with the explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson . After briefly working as a reindeer herder in Siberia, he enlisted with the US military near the end of the First World War. In 1919, George was discharged from

2054-659: 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. In 1776, Captain James Cook was dispatched by the Admiralty in Great Britain on an expedition to explore the Passage. A 1745 act, when extended in 1775, promised a £20,000 prize for whoever discovered

2133-493: The University of Alberta , examined remains from sites associated with the expedition. 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 high concentrations of lead in all three (the expedition carried 8,000 tins of food sealed with

2212-602: The Vancouver Expedition (led by George Vancouver who had previously accompanied Cook) surveyed in detail all the passages from the Northwest Coast . He confirmed that there was no such passage south of the Bering Strait. This conclusion was supported by the evidence of Alexander MacKenzie , who explored the Arctic and Pacific Oceans in 1793. In the first half of the 19th century, some parts of

2291-419: The sailing 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 to trade for furs with Pottawatomie Indians. La Salle stayed behind while the ship sailed back to Mackinac with the furs. Le Griffon disappeared in 1679 on

2370-477: The 2021 Canadian census, Gjoa Haven's Population Centre recorded 1,110 people living in an area of 0.70 km (0.27 sq mi), giving a population density of 1,585.7/km (4,107.0/sq mi). Two churches are located in the hamlet: Gjoa Haven has a tundra climate ( ET ) with short but cool summers and long cold winters. Most employment in Gjoa Haven is with government services; there are

2449-700: 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

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2528-522: The Arctic Ocean, thereby proving that there was no strait connecting Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean. 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

2607-540: 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. 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

2686-529: The Army in Iowa. In 1921 George sailed to Australia. Later George guided Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) commander Henry Larsen on many trips. George Porter eventually made Gjoa Haven on King William Island his home, where he worked as the manager of the Hudson's Bay Company trading post for a career of 25 years. Like many places in the high Arctic the island has a tundra climate ( Köppen : ET ), its winter

2765-963: 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. From there ships passed through westward through the Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Sea , and then southwards through

2844-607: 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. 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

2923-480: The Canadian Arctic to chart the last unknown swaths of the Northwest Passage. Confidence was high, as they estimated there was less than 500 km (310 mi) 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

3002-633: The East Coast to Cape Sherard (Cape Osborn) ( 74°35′N 80°30′W  /  74.583°N 80.500°W  / 74.583; -80.500 ) and across to Cape Liverpool, Bylot Island ( 73°44′N 77°50′W  /  73.733°N 77.833°W  / 73.733; -77.833 ); down the East coast of this island to Cape Graham Moore, its southeastern point, and thence across to Cape Macculloch ( 72°29′N 75°08′W  /  72.483°N 75.133°W  / 72.483; -75.133 ) and down

3081-737: 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 . As a result of their westward explorations and their settlement of Greenland, the Vikings sailed as far north and west as Ellesmere Island , Skraeling Island for hunting expeditions and trading with Inuit groups. The subsequent arrival of

3160-540: The Inuit, threatening their community. His Inuit grandparents saved him. In 2012, Y-DNA analysis, with the families' permission, showed that Ikuallaq (and his sons) was not a match to the direct male line of Amundsen. Not all descendants claiming European ancestry have been tested for a match to Amundsen, nor has there been a comparison of Ikuallaq's DNA to that of other European members of Amundsen's crew. Permanent European-style settlement at Gjoa Haven started in 1927 when

3239-593: 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. 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

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3318-614: The Northeast. The Coast of Ellesmere Island between C. Columbia and C. Sheridan the Northern limit of Baffin Bay . On the East. The East Coast of Ellesmere Island between C. Sheridan and Cape Norton Shaw ( 76°29′N 78°30′W  /  76.483°N 78.500°W  / 76.483; -78.500 ), thence across to Phillips Point ( Coburg Island ) through this Island to Marina Peninsula ( 75°55′N 79°10′W  /  75.917°N 79.167°W  / 75.917; -79.167 ) and across to Cape Fitz Roy ( Devon Island ) down

3397-506: The Northwest Passage (north of the Bering Strait) were explored separately by many expeditions, including those by 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 , and John Rae . In 1826 Frederick William Beechey explored the north coast of Alaska, discovering Point Barrow. Sir Robert McClure

3476-481: The Northwest Passage and other Arctic routes are not always seen as promising shipping lanes by industry insiders, at least for the time being. The uncertainty related to physical damage to ships is also thought to translate into higher insurance premiums, especially because of the technical challenges posed by Arctic navigation (as of 2014, only 12 percent of Canada's Arctic waters have been charted to modern standards). The Beluga group of Bremen , Germany, sent

3555-422: 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 Italian cartographer Giacomo Gastaldi about 1562. Five years later Bolognino Zaltieri issued

3634-497: 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 ( 70°36′N 127°32′W  /  70.600°N 127.533°W  / 70.600; -127.533 ). On the Northwest. The Arctic Ocean between Lands End, Prince Patrick Island, and Cape Columbia , Ellesmere Island . On

3713-429: The United States claims that they are an international strait and transit passage, allowing free and unencumbered passage. If, as the head of a Canadian mining company claims, parts of the eastern end of the Passage are barely 15 metres (49 ft) deep, 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

3792-430: The abundance of sea mammals in the nearby waters; French pronunciation: [ɡʒɔa avɑ̃] or [ɡʒɔa evən] ) is an Inuit hamlet in Nunavut , above the Arctic Circle , located in the Kitikmeot Region , 1,056 km (656 mi) northeast of Yellowknife , Northwest Territories . It is the only settlement on King William Island . The name Gjoa Haven is from the Norwegian Gjøahavn or "Gjøa's Harbour"; it

3871-477: 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. Before the Little Ice Age (late Middle Ages to the 19th century), Norwegian Vikings sailed as far north and west as Ellesmere Island , Skraeling Island and Ruin Island for hunting expeditions and trading with

3950-440: The crew may have survived into the early 1850s, no evidence has ever been found of any survivors. In 1853, 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 cannibalism amongst the surviving crews. Starvation , exposure and scurvy all contributed to the men's deaths. In 1981 Owen Beattie , an anthropologist from

4029-405: 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

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4108-403: The estuary, 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 before concluding that no such strait existed there. He later explored

4187-477: The expedition told of their relations with Inuit women, and historians have speculated that Amundsen might also have taken a partner, although he wrote a warning against this. Specifically, half brothers Bob Konona and Paul Ikuallaq say that their father Luke Ikuallaq (b. 1904) told them on his deathbed that he was the son of Amundsen. Konona said that their father Ikuallaq was left out on the ice to die after his birth, as his European ancestry made him illegitimate to

4266-437: 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 sledge . Although some of

4345-513: The expedition, including William Bligh , George Vancouver , and 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 1,200 mi (1,900 km) chain of Aleutian Islands. Despite reaching 70°N , they encountered nothing but icebergs. From 1792 to 1794,

4424-413: 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

4503-407: The first Western commercial vessels through the Northern Sea Route (Northeast Passage) in 2009. Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that "ships entering the North-West passage should first report to his government". The first commercial cargo ship to have sailed through the Northwest Passage was SS  Manhattan in August 1969. SS Manhattan , of 115,000 deadweight tonnage ,

4582-462: 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. The first recorded attempt to discover the Northwest Passage was the east–west voyage of John Cabot in 1497, sent by Henry VII in search of a direct route to the Orient . In 1524, Charles V sent Estêvão Gomes to find

4661-410: The local Netsilik . He used his ship Gjøa as a base for explorations in the summer of 1904, during which he travelled by dogsled on the Boothia Peninsula and to the North Magnetic Pole . After 22 months on the island, Amundsen left in August 1905. The harbour where he lived has the island's only settlement, Gjoa Haven . Amundsen used skills learned from the Inuit when he made his later expedition to

4740-449: The mid-18th century, Captain James Cook had reported that Antarctic icebergs had yielded fresh water, seemingly confirming the hypothesis.) Explorers thought that an Open Polar Sea close to the North Pole must exist. 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

4819-448: The mid-19th century. In 1602, George Weymouth became the first European to explore what would later be called Hudson Strait when he sailed Discovery 300 nautical miles (560 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 . Discovery was the same ship used by Henry Hudson on his final voyage. John Knight , employed by

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4898-402: 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. Fully laden, Nordic Orion sat too deep in the water to sail through the Panama Canal . The Northwest Passage has three sections: Many attempts were made to find a salt water exit west from Hudson Bay, but the Fury and Hecla Strait in

4977-402: 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

5056-407: The return trip of her maiden voyage. 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 French colony on the Gulf of Mexico. He was murdered by his followers in 1687. Henry Ellis , born in Ireland, was part of a company aiming to discover the Northwest Passage in May 1746. After

5135-518: The sea ice northwest of the island. After abandoning the two ships, most of the crew died from exposure and starvation as they attempted to walk south near the western coastline. Two of Franklin's men were buried at Hall Point on the island's south coast. The ships were believed lost forever , as many subsequent expeditions were unable to find them. It was not until June 29, 1981, that researchers finally had luck. A team led by Canadian archaeologist Owen Beattie , found 31 pieces of human bone fragments on

5214-578: The south, is the Adelaide Peninsula . Queen Maud Gulf lies to the southwest. Some places on the coast are: (counter clockwise from the northern tip) Cape Felix, Victory Point and Gore Point at the mouth of Collinson Inlet, Point Le Vesconte, Erebus Bay, Cape Crozier, (south side) Terror Bay, Irving Islands, Washington Bay, Cape Herschel, Gladman Point, entrance to Simpson Strait , Todd Islets, (east side) Gjoa Haven , Matheson Peninsula, Latrobe Bay, Cape Norton at mouth of Peel Inlet, Matty Island , Tennent Islands , Clarence Islands , Cape Felix. The island

5293-476: The southern tip of the island, called Booth Point. On September 9, 2014, Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the Victoria Strait Expedition had located one of Franklin's two ships beneath shallow waters south of King William Island. It is preserved in very good condition; the side-scan sonar could detect the deck planking. By the beginning of October, the wreck had been identified as HMS Erebus . The other expedition vessel, HMS Terror ,

5372-418: 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

5451-426: The time that it was a peninsula . Some sources credit his uncle, John Ross with naming the land. In 1834, George Back , another Arctic explorer, viewed its south shore from Chantrey Inlet and eventually recognised it as an island. Sir John Franklin , another British explorer, made an Arctic expedition looking for the Northwest Passage about a decade after Ross; his two ships became stranded in 1846 when frozen in

5530-423: 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. Bylot tried again in 1616 with William Baffin . They sailed as far as Lancaster Sound and reached 77°45′ North latitude,

5609-411: 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 65°N . Cook, however, failed to make any progress in sighting a Northwestern Passage. Various officers on

5688-589: The world", for nearly two years. He and his crew spent much of that time with the local Netsilik , learning from them the skills to live off the land and travel efficiently in the Arctic environment. This knowledge proved to be vital for Amundsen's later successful exploration to the South Pole . He explored the Boothia Peninsula , searching for the exact location of the north magnetic pole . Some Inuit in Gjoa Haven with European ancestry have claimed to be descendants of Amundsen (or one of his six crew, whose names have not remained as well known). Accounts by members of

5767-483: The wreck sites to monitor access to the sites. The Nattilik Heritage Centre will be expanded to create a visitor centre for the historic site. Gjoa Haven has three schools: The community has been served by the Qiniq network since 2005. Qiniq is a fixed wireless service to homes and businesses, connecting to the outside world via a satellite backbone. The Qiniq network is designed and operated by SSi Canada . In 2017,

5846-584: Was a backer of Frobisher, claimed the territory of Newfoundland for the English crown. On August 8, 1585, the English explorer John Davis entered Cumberland Sound , Baffin Island. 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

5925-435: Was credited with the discovery of the Northwest Passage in 1851 when he looked across McClure Strait from Banks Island and viewed 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 in 1854. In 1845, a lavishly equipped two-ship expedition led by Sir John Franklin sailed to

6004-541: Was found in 2016 in Terror Bay , off the south-west coast of King William Island. In 1903, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen , looking for the Northwest Passage , sailed through the James Ross Strait and stopped at a natural harbour on the island's south coast. Unable to proceed due to sea ice , he spent the winters of 1903–1904 and 1904–1905 there. During his stays, he learned Arctic living skills from

6083-479: Was named by early 20th-century polar explorer Roald Amundsen after his ship Gjøa . In 1903, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had entered the area on his ship Gjøa in an expedition intending to travel through the Northwest Passage . By October the straits through which he was travelling began to ice up. Amundsen put Gjøa into a natural harbour on the southeast coast of King William Island. He stayed there, in what Amundsen called "the finest little harbor in

6162-401: Was the largest commercial vessel ever to navigate the Northwest Passage. The largest passenger ship to navigate the Northwest Passage was the cruise liner 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. In 2018, two of the freighters leaving Baffinland 's port in

6241-520: 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

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