Northwest Passage/Timelines

Chronology of the Search for the Passage

1539: Francisco de Ulloa sails up the inland side of Baja California in search of the legendary Strait of Anián. 1576: The first of Sir Martin Frobisher makes three voyages to Baffin Island in search of the passage and gold. 1585: The English explorer John Davis enters Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island. 1609: Henry Hudson sails up Hudson River in search of the passage; he later explored Hudson Bay, where he presumably met his death after being set adrift by his mutinous crew. 1619: Norwegian Jens Munk's expedition. 1719: James Knight's expedition into the northwest corner of Hudson Bay. 1741: Christopher Middleton's search for the Passage near Wager Bay. 1746: William Moor and Francis Smith's disputatious voyage fails to get much further than York Factory. 1770-2: Samuel Hearne's overland journey to the mouth of the Coppermine River proves that no passage exists south of that point. 1791-1795: The Vancouver Expedition surveys the inland waters of the Northwest Coast, proving that no passage exists south of the Bering Strait. 1818: Sir John Ross circumnavigates Baffin Bay, but returns without venturing into Lancaster Sound. 1819-1820: William Edward Parry, Ross's former second-in-command, enters Lancaster Sound and earns the Parliamentary Prize. 1845: Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition departs from Greenhithe. 1903-05: Roald Amundsen makes the first successful voyage through the entire passage in his ship the Gjøa.