NORTH-WEST PASSAGE, a passage to the Pacific Ocean through Hudson's Bay or Davis's Straits, and which hath been frequently attempted without success; not-
withstanding which, many people are still of opinion that it is practicable. North-west Passage.
The idea of a passage to the East Indies by the north pole, or through some opening near to it, was suggested as early as the year 1527. The person who had the honour to conceive this idea was Robert Thorne, a merchant of Bristol, who addressed two papers on the subject, the one to king Henry VIII. the other to Dr Ley, ambassador from that monarch to the emperor Charles V. To remove any objection to the undertaking, which might be drawn from the supposed danger, he insists, in his address to the king, upon the great advantages of constant day-light in the polar seas, and the probability of the climate being in those regions temperate during the summer months. In the paper addressed to Dr Ley, he observes that cosmographers may as probably be mistaken in the opinion which they entertain of the polar regions being impassable from extreme cold, as it has been found they were in supposing the countries under the line to be uninhabitable from excessive heat.
The possibility of the passage was, in consequence of these addresses, very generally supposed; and in 1557, Sir Martin Forbisheer sailed to 62° north latitude, where he discovered the straits which have since bore his name. In 1577, Barne, in a book intitled the Regiment of the Sea, mentions a north-west passage as one of the five ways to Cathay; and dwells on the mildness of the climate, which, from the constant presence of the sun during summer, he imagines must be found near the pole. In 1578, George Best, a gentleman who had been with Sir Martin Forbisheer in his voyages of discovery, wrote a very ingenious discourse to prove all parts of the world habitable. It does not, however, appear that any voyage was undertaken, for the express purpose of attempting to sail to India in a north-west direction, till the year 1607, when Henry Hudson was sent, at the expence of some merchants in London, to discover a passage by the north pole to Japan and China. He sailed from Gravesend on the 1st of May, and on the 21st of June fell in with the land to the westward, in latitude 73°, which he named Hold-with-hope. On the 27th he discovered Spitzbergen, and met with much ice. The highest latitude in which he made an observation was 80° 27'. See HUDSON.
In March 1609, Jones Poole was sent by Sir Thomas Smith, and the rest of the Muscovy company, to make further discoveries towards the north pole. After great severity of weather, and much difficulty from ice, he made the south part of Spitzbergen on the 16th of May; and sailing along and sounding the coast, he made many accurate discoveries; but was not in that voyage able to proceed beyond 79° 50'. He was again employed (1611), in a small vessel called the Elisabeth, to attempt the north-west passage; but after surmounting numberless difficulties, and penetrating to 80° of latitude, he lost his ship at Spitzbergen. Two voyages, equally unsuccessful, were made in 1614 and 1615, by Bassin and Fotherby; the latter of whom concludes the account of his discoveries and dangers, with exhorting the company which employed him not to adventure more than 150 or 200 pounds at most on yearly voyages to these seas.
Hitherto nothing had been done in this great undertaking but by private adventurers, fitted out for
the double purpose of discovery and present advantage; and the polar regions were suffered to remain unexplored in that direction, from the year 1615 till 1773, when the earl of Sandwich, in consequence of an application which had been made to him by the Royal Society, laid before his majesty a proposal for an expedition to try how far navigation is practicable towards the north pole. Upon receiving this proposal, his majesty was pleased to direct that the voyage should be immediately undertaken, with every assistance that could contribute to its success. Accordingly, the Raccoon and Carcass bombs were fitted out for the purpose, and the command of the expedition given to Captain Phipps, now Lord Melgrave. His Lordship's instructions were to proceed up to the pole, or as far towards it as possible, and as nearly upon a meridian as the ice or other obstructions should admit; and during the course of the voyage, to make such observations of every kind as might be useful to navigation, or tend to the promotion of natural knowledge. A very accurate account of this voyage was published by his Lordship in 1774. He had, by exerting all the powers of a skilful and intrepid seaman, forced his way, on the 1st of August, to ; but could proceed no farther, as he was there opposed by one continued plain of smooth unbroken ice, bounded only by the horizon.
Many other attempts have been made to discover this passage, by sailing along the western coast of America; but hitherto none of them has been crowned with success. So early as 1579, Sir Francis Drake assured queen Elizabeth that he had sailed some leagues up the straits of Anian (see ANIAN), and discovered New Albion, to the north of California; but the strait is now known to have no existence; and Drake's real discoveries were not improved. In 1630, king Cha. I. sent captain Luke Fox in one of his pinnaces to attempt the passage; but of his proceedings we know nothing, but that he reached port Nelson in Hudson's bay, where he found some remains of former navigators. Next year captain James was fitted out by the merchants of Bristol for the same purpose. James was one of the ablest navigators that ever sailed from England or any other country; and his voyages to the north were printed in 1633. After all the experiments he had made, he concluded that there was no such passage; or if there be, he affirmed that the discovery of it would not be attended with those advantages which are commonly expected. His reasons, however, for these opinions have been answered, and many subsequent attempts have been made to perform what he thought impossible. The arguments for a north-west passage were so plausible, that, in 1744, an act of parliament was passed to encourage the discovery of it. Among many others, captain Cook attempted the discovery in vain, and thence adopted James's opinion. (See Cook's Discoveries, no 103.) This celebrated navigator, after having proceeded northwards to the western extremity of America, and ascertained the proximity of the two great continents of Asia and America, returned to the Sandwich islands, firmly persuaded of the impracticability of a passage in that hemisphere from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean, either by an eastern or a western course.
Later voyagers, however, have pretended to detect
some errors in Cook's discoveries; and the author of a small tract, intitled An authentic Statement of all the Facts relative to Nootka-Sound, goes a great way to make the discovery not yet hopeless. In his account of the expedition under the direction of Messrs. Etches, he says, that "one of the first discoveries made by these ships was, that what was by the immortal Cook laid down as a continuation of the north-west continent of America, and lying between the northern latitudes of 48 and 57, is on the contrary an extensive cluster of unexplored islands inhabited by numerous tribes of friendly Indians, with whom a regular connection was formed."
These islands they discovered, contrary to the assertion of captain Cook, to conceal the opening of a vast inland sea, or archipelago, in all probability equal to the Mediterranean or Baltic seas, and dividing the great northern continent of America. The Princess Royal penetrated some hundred leagues among them, in a north-east course, to within 200 leagues of Hudson's house, but had not then an opportunity to explore the extreme termination of that archipelago, their commercial concerns obliging them to return to the China market; but the commanders had the strongest reasons to believe, had time favoured their survey, that they should have been able to discover the long-wished for passage between the Atlantic and South Sea. They conceived, that should neither the inland arm of the sea through which the Princess Royal penetrated, nor a large strait named Sir Charles Middleton's, about three degrees to the southward, be found to reach across the continent, yet that the land barrier must be very inconsiderable; and that at the extremity of this bay a practicable passage, either by rivers or lakes, will, by perseverance, be found terminating towards Hudson's bay.
Upon the whole, however, it appears to us extremely doubtful whether there be such a passage; but it is much more likely to be discovered, if discovered at all, by the progressive advances of mercantile enterprise than by any immediate expedition undertaken for that purpose.
North-East Passage, a passage to the East Indies along the northern coasts of Asia, which, like the former, hath frequently been attempted, but hitherto without success. The first attempt was made in 1553 by Sir Hugh Willoughby, who commanded three ships. He departed from the Thames and sailed to the North Cape, where one of his ships left him, and returned home. The other two ships being separated, Sir Hugh proceeded farther northward, and discovered that part of Greenland which the Dutch have since called Spitzberg; but the severity of the cold obliging him to return to the southward, he was forced, by bad weather, into the river Arzina, in Muscovite Lapland, where, not being able to come out, he was found the next spring frozen to death, with all his ship's company; having the notes of his voyage and his last will lying before him, whereby it appeared that he lived till January. But Richard Chancellor, in the third ship, with better success, in the meanwhile entered Wardhuys, where he waited some time for his companions to no purpose; uncertain whether they were lost, or driven farther by storms of weather. He held a council on what he should do; whether to
North-east return, or pursue his voyage. Whatever danger might be in the last, every one agreed to it, that they might not seem to have less courage than their captain.
They therefore set sail, and in a few days found themselves in a sea where they could no longer perceive any land. This ship, wandering about, entered soon after into a large bay or gulf. Here they cast anchor, in sight of land; and while they were examining the coast, they discovered a fishing boat. Chancellor getting into his sloop, went towards it; but the fishermen took to flight. He followed, and, overtaking them, showed them such civilities as conciliated their affections to him; and they carried him to the place where now is the famous port of St Michael the Archangel. These people immediately spread through all the coasts an account of the arrival of those strangers; and people came from several parts to see them, and ask them questions. They, in their turn, examined the others, and found that the country they were in was Russia, governed by the mighty Emperor John Basilowitz. Chancellor from Archangel travelled on sledges to the Czar at Moscow; from whom, overjoyed at the prospect of opening a maritime commerce with Europe, he obtained privileges for the English merchants, and letters to King Edward VI. who was not, however, alive to receive them.
In 1585, Mr John Davis in two barks discovered Cape Desolation, which is supposed to be part of Greenland; and two years after advanced as far as Lat. 72°, where he discovered the strait which still bears his name. To enumerate all the attempts which have been made to discover a north-east passage, would swell the article to very little purpose. The English, Dutch, and Danes, have all attempted it without success. The last voyage from England for this purpose was made in 1676, under the patronage of the duke of York. That unfortunate prince, who was on all occasions earnest for the promotion of commerce, and the Lord Berkeley, &c. fitted out a ship, commanded by Captain Wood, for an attempt once more to find a north-east passage to India, accompanied with a ship of the king's. They were encouraged to this attempt, after it had been so long despaired of, by several new reports and reasonings: some of which seem not to have been very well grounded. — As,
“ 1. On the coast of Corea, near Japan, whales had been found with English and Dutch harpoons sticking in them. This is no infallible proof that ships could get thither by a north-east passage, although whales might.
“ 2. That, 20 years before, some Dutchmen had sailed within one degree of the north pole, and found it temperate weather there: and that therefore William Barents, the Dutch navigator who wintered at Nova Zembla in the year 1596, should have sailed further to the north before turning eastward; in which case, said they, he would not have found so much obstruction from the ice.
“ 3. That two Dutch ships had lately sailed 300 leagues to the eastward of Nova Zembla; but their East India company had stifled that design, as against their interest: — and such like other airy reports. But this attempt proved very unfortunate. They doubled the North Cape, and came among much ice and drift
wood, in 76° of north latitude, steering to the coast of Nova Zembla, where the king's ship struck upon the rocks, and was soon beat to pieces; and Captain Wood returned home with an opinion, “ that such a passage was utterly impracticable, and that Nova Zembla is a part of the continent of Greenland.”
These passages, however, are not yet deemed impracticable by all. The Count de Buffon holds it for certain, that there is a passage from Europe to China by the north sea. The reason why it has been so often attempted in vain, he thinks, is, that fear prevented the undertakers from keeping at a sufficient distance from land, and from approaching the pole, which they probably imagined to be an immense rock. Hence he affirms, that if any farther attempts be made to find a passage to China and Japan by the north seas, it will be necessary to keep at a distance from the land and the ice; to steer directly towards the pole; and to explore the most open seas, where unquestionably, says he, there is little or no ice. This opinion has been lately revived by the Hon. Daines Barrington, who says, that if the passage be attempted by the pole itself, he has very little doubt of its being accomplished. See North-Pole.