The Search for the Northwest Passage
Under the ice
Unlike its counterpart to the south, the North Pole lies under an ocean – albeit a frozen one.
In 1931, having flown over it three years earlier, the Australian explorer Sir (George) Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958) attempted to make the first journey under the pole – in effect, finding an undersea Northwest Passage. With a crew of scientists, he set out in the Nautilus, a decommissioned US submarine, and tried to travel underwater from Spitsbergen (now Svalbard) to the Bering Strait, via the North Pole.
Sadly, the journey ended with mechanical failure, and little of the scientific work that Wilkins had planned materialised.
The undersea passage was eventually completed by another American submarine called Nautilus. As a nuclear-powered vessel (the world's first), it was able to travel long distances without bulky fuel. Even so, the first attempt, in 1957, failed. But in the summer of 1958, the Nautilus, under the command of Commander William R Anderson, conducting ‘Operation Sunshine’, successfully passed under the ice and over the top of the world – sailing from the Bering Strait, under the North Pole (on 3 August), to Spitsbergen (Svalbard).
On 17 March 1959, the US submarine Skate was the first to surface at the North Pole. There, the crew scattered the ashes of Sir Hubert Wilkins, who had died the previous November.
A passage for the future?
It was now clear that the Northwest Passage was passable – sometimes – and it has often been completed since. With global warming, it may become easier, but it will always be hazardous.
