What Historic Efforts Were Made To Find A Northwest Passage?

In their quest for a sea route to the Orient early explorers made many attempts to navigate the passage. Jacques Cartier, who claimed Canada for France in 1534, was actually searching for such a sea route. These early explorers anticipated a cargo of rich spices from China if a navigable route could be found.
Most voyages in those early days, however, were stricken with tragic losses, some with total disaster. Ships often became trapped in the ice for more than one winter, sometimes remaining enclosed during the summer so that little or no progress could be made. The dreaded disease scurvy, resulting from lack of vitamin C, took a terrible toll of human life during these expeditions.
By 1825 it was clear that the doorway to the passage lay through Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. Credit for finding the key to the passage along the continental coastline is generally given to the Franklin Expedition of 1845-1848. But the two ships and 129 men of that expedition perished in the frozen wastes. Finally, in 1903-1906 the first voyage through the entire passage was made under Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who followed Franklin's route with a slight variation, traveling along the coastline from east to west.
In 1942 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police vessel St. Roch made the first successful voyage along the same route from west to east. Two years later it followed a more northerly route from east to west. By its voyage the SS Manhattan attempted to establish the feasibility of building specially equipped fleets of ships for transporting commercial products over this hazardous passage.

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