Overview

The Northwest Passage was the persistent vision of many early explorers. They traveled across the ocean and up rivers and lakes searching for a waterway to the Orient and into the New World. The explorers were lured westward with hopes of finding immediate tangible wealth. The fastest mode of travel at that time was by waterways, so they followed all they could find. The search for the Northwest Passage, a route extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Arctic Archipelago (now Canada), required centuries of effort and inspired one of the world's most competitive maritime challenges. Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure (1807-1873), an Irish naval officer, was the first explorer to complete the crossing of the Northwest Passage, doing so in 1850. For 450 years a history described by self-sacrifice...