Northwest Passage History
Everything started in 1490 when John Cabot, the navigator and
explorer hypothesized a shipping route to the Orient through the
Northwest. For nearly 300 years, many expeditions looking for
this passage ended up in failure but helped in discovering the
Arctic islands.
It was not until 1906 that the Northwest Passage was finally
crossed from east to west by the Norwegian explorer Roald
Amundsen. He completed the journey in three years on his 21
meter sloop named Gjøa.
The first complete traverse from west to east was made by
Canadian Henry Larsen in 1940s aboard the 27 meter St Roch. We
will attempt the same exploit as of June 2009 on our «Baloum-Gwen».
Since 1906, only a handful of sailing boats managed to cross the
6,000 km linking east to west and vice versa
<more info>
Today, the Northwest Passage is a vital key to economic trade
growth between Europe and the United States and Asia but the
ecological impact discussed below are
alarming!
This passage shortens by 4000 km the sea journey between Europe
and the Far East which today is done via the Suez Canal. For
example, the maritime route Rotterdam - Tokyo is 15900 km via
the Northwest Passage and 14100 km via the passage of the
Northeast, whereas via the Suez Canal is 21100 km and 23300 km
via the Panama Canal.
It’s the turn of the «Baloum-Gwen»
to enter the history records of Polar sea exploration by
attempting as of June 2009 to traverse the Northwest Passage
from west to east, having already managed to successfully cross
the Northwest Passage from the opposite direction the year
before