Description

Attempts to find the Northwest Passage—a water route from Europe to Asia through the Arctic archipelago north of the Canadian mainland—began as far back as the late-15th century. After numerous failures, many involving disaster and great loss of life, the Northwest Passage finally was successfully navigated in 1903–6 by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872–1928). Amundsen and a small crew of six left Christiania (present-day Oslo, Norway) in the converted 47-ton fishing boat Gjöa on June 16, 1903. They proceeded to the west coast of Greenland ...