Northwest Passage

The Arctic maze through Canada's northern islands that explorers died seeking and ships now thread in summer.

Overview

Franklin's 1845 expedition of 129 men vanished seeking it, with the wrecks finally found in 2014 and 2016, and Amundsen completed the first passage in 1903 to 1906 in a small boat over several years. Retreating ice now opens several channels for weeks each summer, and a growing but still small number of yachts and expedition cruise ships complete transits. Canada treats the waters as internal, the United States and others treat them as international straits, and the dispute sits dormant. Thin charts, sparse rescue capability and insurance costs keep it a corridor of promise rather than a trade route.