At 11:29 PM 9/2/2012, Axil Axil wrote:
<http://www.canada.com/technology/Ship+historic+crossing+signals+extent+Arctic+melt/7176411/story.html>http://www.canada.com/technology/Ship+historic+crossing+signals+extent+Arctic+melt/7176411/story.html
Canadians are romantically inspired by all those
who died in their attempts to make the Northwest
Passage. All those who tested their metal
against the passage paid dearly with their lives.
"Mettle." Besides, the early ships were made of
wood. Not "all" died, read the WP Northwest Passage article.
But the world has turned over from those
storied times of wooden ships and the iron men
who sailed them; and that fabled route is now like a Sundays sail in the park.
Not exactly. This particular crew could easily
have died in the most dangerous part of the
journey. They stayed awake for some days in one
part, working to avoid the ice, which would have
crushed their fiberglass sailboat like it wasn't there.
Now from the referenced article:
With a 9.3-metre fibreglass sailboat, Nicolas
Peissel and his crewmates were able to do what
seasoned explorers on hulking Arctic ships
attempted over centuries but never succeeded.
They crossed the northernmost route of the
Northwestern Passages, which connects Baffin Bay
to the Arctic Ocean in Canada's far North.
"This is a clear signal that there's climate
change," Peissel said. And this was the point of
the whole journey. Thirty-five-year-old Peissel,
his cousin Morgan Peissel, and Swede Edvin
Buregren are making history to demonstrate how
Arctic ice is at an all-time low, and the serious implications for humanity.
It's not as dramatic a showing as they might have
hoped, because of so many other successful
Northwest Passage traverses. But, yes, the ice is
apparently at a major low, perhaps allowing them
to take the "northernmost route." Amundsen took a
passage much futher south, 1903-1906, allowed by
his usage of a shallow-draft herring boat, the
Gjøa, able to navigate the Rae Strait, which had
apparently been documented by John Rae in land expeditions (1849-1854).
A personal note re Amundsen's boat, which ended
up on display in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for almost 66 years:
In outdoor display and facing the ocean the boat
once again suffered deterioration until in 1972 Gjøa was returned to Norway.
I remember the Gjoa, "facing the ocean," I saw it
many times, in roughly 1970. I don't recall knowing what it was.
