Naval Participation in the Discovery of the North-West Passage

Extract

Following directly on the voyages of Captain Cook, who had been killed at Hawaii in 1779, there was a growing interest in the search for a North-West Passage. Although it must have been apparent at an early date that no practicable trade route would be discovered, interest in this geographical feature of the world was not only sustained, but grew right up until the middle of last century. During the Napoleonic Wars, as in the wars of our own times, polar exploration had suffered. With a return to the more humdrum conditions of peace, it was revived with redoubled vigour, reaching a climax in the remarkable series of searched following the disappearance of Her Majesty's Ships Erebus and Terror under Captain Sir John Franklin.