The North-West Passage Exploration Anthology

“The Northwest Passage Exploration Anthology”, features the first-hand personal accounts of Roald Amundsen, Robert McClure, John Rae, John Franklin, Thomas Simpson, Peter Warren Dease, William Edward Parry and Richard Hakluyt.


This book charts the full history of the exploration of the legendary “Northwest Passage” – the sea-lane around the frozen Northern shore of the North American Continent.   Discovering this passage became an obsession for generations of explorers and seafarers eager to slash the vast length of the sea journey between Europe and the riches of the East.

From Richard Hakluyts 16th Century text, “Voyages in search of the North-West Passage”, right up to Roald Amundsen’s   personal account of his successful three year (1904-6) journey in the small ship the “Gjoa”, several centuries later, the prize of discovery had transfixed but eluded the greatest explorers of the age.

This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Exploration, nautical enterprise, or the history of development and exploration in Canada and the USA.   There are 8 separate texts in this anthology, which is liberally supplied with maps, illustrations and even photographs from the actual expeditions.