2018-09-01
Who Discovered the Northwest Passage?
Publication
Publication
Arctic , Volume 71 - Issue 3 p. 292- 308
In 1855 a parliamentary committee concluded that Robert McClure deserved to be rewarded as the discoverer of a Northwest Passage. Since then, various writers have put forward rival claims on behalf of Sir John Franklin, John Rae, and Roald Amundsen. This article examines the process of 19th-century European exploration in the Arctic Archipelago, the definition of discovering a passage that prevailed at the time, and the arguments for and against the various contenders. It concludes that while no one explorer was “the” discoverer, McClure’s achievement deserves reconsideration.
| Additional Metadata | |
|---|---|
| John Franklin, John Rae, Northwest passage, Roald Amundsen, Robert Mcclure | |
| dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic4733 | |
| Arctic | |
| Organisation | Department of History |
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Cavell, J. (2018). Who Discovered the Northwest Passage?. Arctic, 71(3), 292–308. doi:10.14430/arctic4733
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