Across the Top of the World: The Quest for the Northwest Passage

Olaf Uwe Janzen is an associate professor of history at Memorial
University, reviews editor of The Northern Mariner, and editor of
Northern Seas.

James Delgado is the Executive Director of the Vancouver Maritime
Museum, home of the RCMP schooner St. Roch. An accomplished diver and
underwater archaeologist, he investigated the sunken remains of the Maud
(the exploration vessel of famed Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen) and is
therefore uniquely qualified to tell the story of the attempt by
Europeans, over the course of four centuries, to discover and transit
the Northwest Passage. The story is told exceedingly well and is
supported with a rich collection of illustrations, photographs, and
maps. The author’s familiarity with recent polar archaeology adds
freshness to the narrative, while numerous sidebars contribute details
about key individuals, ships, and artifacts.

Delgado begins with an overview of the physical and human geography of
the Arctic, and then examines 16th-century efforts to find a sea route
between Europe and Asia around the northern flank of North America. When
it became clear that a commercial route did not exist, the polar passion
turned to hydrography, scientific discovery, and issues of national
sovereignty. The most concerted push into the Arctic came in the late
1840s and 1850s, following the disappearance of Sir John Franklin’s
expedition (Delgado devotes two chapters to the efforts by dozens of
ships and thousands of men to find Franklin or determine his fate). Not
until 1906, however, did Amundsen in tiny Gjшa complete the first
successful transit of the Passage, followed by the St. Roch four decades
later. The epilogue, which looks at how the feared polar passage can now
be routinely used by a variety of vessels, from tankers to submarines to
tourist cruise boats, seems almost anticlimactic.

Across the Top of the World examines not only major figures like Martin
Frobisher and Sir John Franklin but also less-familiar secondary
characters. Considerable attention is also given to the Inuit, who
interacted with many explorers and whose testimony provided invaluable
clues to the fate of explorers like Franklin. The book’s wonderful
illustrations reveal just how awesome and overpowering the Arctic
environment could be.