Introduction

In the spring of 1845, Sir John Franklin set sail from England on a naval expedition charged by the British Government with identifying and mapping an ocean channel through the Northwest Passage. This fabled trade route, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the sea-ice of the Canadian archipelago, had been central to much of Britain's maritime exploration of the North American continent since as far back as the sixteenth century, but no-one had yet been successful in opening the Passage. Neither was Franklin. He and all his men perished in their search, prompting an upwelling of national mourning, and adding another chapter to the mythology of heroic British explorers.

Over 160 years later, changes in Arctic climate are doing what hundreds of years of exploration could not achieve – opening a clear sea passage between the two oceans. In August 2007, the Norwegian Polar Institute announced that the Northwest Passage – the sea route – was open to routine traffic, and several ships navigated the passage before it was again closed by the growing winter sea-ice. Canada has instigated new naval patrols in the region to demonstrate her territorial claims and is contemplating a new military base in the Arctic. Russia has staked its claim to 460,000 square miles of resource-rich Arctic waters by planting its flag on the North Pole's sea floor. And the prospect of new shipping routes connecting northern Canada with eastern Asia is offering new economic opportunities in the Canadian north.