Exploring the elusive route through Canada's Arctic waters
by
It was the greatest earth-based quest before the quest to put a man on the moon. For centuries, Europeans sought the elusive Northwest Passage that would link Europe to the Far East and China. Early visitors to Canada's northern coasts included Viking sailors and Basque whalers. Then came the prominent explorers John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Martin Frobisher, Henry Hudson, Sir John Franklin and Roald Amundsen. Others tried to find a passage overland through North America or up the Pacific coast to the Beaufort Sea. This book explores the explorers who traced a passage through the ice at the top of the world. Now that global warming threatens to melt much of the Arctic ice cap, conflict over who owns the Northwest Passage and the resource riches of the Arctic is intensifying.
Centuries of exploration, discovery and conflict over the prized elusive route through Canada's Arctic waters are examined:
For centuries, Europeans sought the elusive Northwest Passage that would link Europe to the Far East and China. Early visitors to Canada's northern coasts included Viking sailors and Basque whalers. Then came the prominent explorers -- John Cabot, Vasco da Gama, Martin Frobisher and Sir John Franklin. Now that global warming threatens to melt much of the Arctic ice cap, conflict over the Northwest Passage and the resource riches of the Arctic is intensifying in the 21st Century.
