Roald Amundsen completes the first Northwest Passage traverse by sea

Story: 1906 C.E.  |  Last updated: August 1, 1906

For more than three centuries, European and North American sailors had died trying to find it. The Northwest Passage — a sea route threading through the Arctic archipelago north of Canada to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans — had swallowed ships whole, starved crews, and turned expeditions into tragedies. In 1906 C.E., a Norwegian explorer named Roald Amundsen sailed out the other side.

Key findings

• Northwest Passage traverse: Amundsen departed Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, in June 1903 C.E. aboard a small converted herring boat called the Gjøa, with a crew of six, and arrived at Nome, Alaska, in August 1906 C.E. — completing the first navigated sea route through the Arctic from east to west.
• Gjøa expedition: Rather than pushing recklessly through the ice as earlier expeditions had done, Amundsen spent nearly two full winters anchored at a sheltered harbor on King William Island, which the crew named Gjøahavn, conducting magnetic and meteorological research while waiting for navigable conditions.
• Inuit knowledge: The expedition’s survival and success depended heavily on relationships with local Netsilik Inuit communities, from whom Amundsen and his crew learned cold-weather clothing techniques, dog-sled handling, and ice-reading skills that no European manual could have provided.

What three centuries of failure looked like

The search for the Northwest Passage began in earnest in the early 16th century C.E. when European maritime powers were desperate for a faster route to Asia. English, Dutch, and later British expeditions sent ships north and west, and most came back empty-handed or not at all.

The most catastrophic failure was the Franklin Expedition of 1845 C.E., in which two Royal Navy ships and 129 men vanished in the Canadian Arctic. The search for Franklin’s lost ships sent dozens of rescue missions into Arctic waters over the following decade — and those missions, ironically, mapped much of the archipelago that Amundsen would later navigate.

Amundsen studied all of it. He read the expedition logs, traced the routes on charts, and concluded that earlier expeditions had failed largely because they used ships too large and too rigid to work in shallow, ice-choked waters. He chose the Gjøa precisely because it was small.

The Inuit knowledge that made it possible

Amundsen was unusual among polar explorers of his era in that he genuinely wanted to learn from Arctic peoples rather than simply pass through their territory. At Gjøahavn, he spent extended time with Netsilik Inuit communities and was candid in his journals about how much their knowledge shaped his methods.

He adopted Inuit-style fur clothing over wool, which managed moisture far more effectively in extreme cold. He learned to read ice conditions the way Inuit hunters did — by texture, color, and sound. He watched how they managed dog teams and adapted the techniques for hauling sledges across sea ice.

In a letter home, Amundsen wrote that the Netsilik were “the happiest people I have ever known.” His admiration was genuine, though not without the paternalism common to his era. The Inuit were not passive bystanders to his achievement — their knowledge was woven into every decision he made in those Arctic winters.

Northwest Passage traverse: the final push

By the summer of 1905 C.E., ice conditions finally opened enough for the Gjøa to move west. Amundsen navigated through the shallow waters of Simpson Strait — waters previous expeditions had considered impassable — and continued west along the Arctic coast of North America. In August 1905 C.E., the crew spotted a whaling vessel coming from the west. They had made it through. The passage was complete in principle, though ice trapped the ship for a third winter before they could reach open water.

Amundsen skied 800 kilometers to Eagle, Alaska, to send a telegraph announcing the achievement. He reached Nome in August 1906 C.E., completing the full transit. The journey had taken three years and two months.

Lasting impact

The immediate practical impact of the Northwest Passage traverse was limited — the route Amundsen used was too shallow and ice-choked for commercial ships, and it remained so for most of the 20th century C.E. But the symbolic and scientific impact was enormous.

Amundsen’s magnetic observations at Gjøahavn produced valuable data on the location of the magnetic North Pole, contributing to navigational science. His documentation of Inuit techniques influenced subsequent polar expeditions — including his own South Pole journey in 1911 C.E. — and eventually contributed to modern cold-weather survival science.

More broadly, the achievement closed a chapter of exploration that had consumed European ambition for 300 years. It demonstrated that the Arctic could be navigated, not conquered — and that success depended on adaptation, patience, and learning from people who had lived in the region for millennia.

Today, the warming of the Arctic has made the Northwest Passage increasingly navigable for the first time in recorded history. Sea ice extent has declined sharply since the late 20th century C.E., and the passage now sees seasonal commercial and tourist traffic. Amundsen’s route, once heroic and nearly fatal, is becoming routine — a fact with implications far beyond navigation.

Blindspots and limits

Amundsen’s achievement was celebrated almost entirely as a European triumph, and the Netsilik Inuit whose knowledge made it possible received no formal recognition and no share of the acclaim. The expedition also operated in waters and lands that were Inuit territory without any formal consultation or agreement — a pattern common to Arctic exploration that communities in the Canadian North continue to address in ongoing land-rights and sovereignty discussions. Amundsen was more respectful than most explorers of his era, but the structural inequity of whose achievement gets remembered was never challenged in his lifetime.

Read more

For more on this story, see: New Internationalist — Arctic History

For more from Good News for Humankind, see:

• Indigenous land rights: 160 million hectares recognized ahead of COP30
• Ghana establishes marine protected area at Cape Three Points
• The Good News for Humankind archive on Norway

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