The Canadian Coast Guard has confirmed that in a major first, a commercial ship travelled through the Northwest Passage this fall to deliver supplies to communities in western Nunavut.
The MV Camilla Desgagnés, owned by Desgagnés Transarctik Inc., transported cargo from Montreal to the hamlets of Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak in September.
"We did have a commercial cargo vessel that did the first scheduled run from Montreal, up through the eastern Arctic, through the Northwest Passage to deliver cargo to communities in the west," Brian LeBlanc of the Canadian Coast Guard told CBC News.
"That was the first -- that I'm aware of anyway -- commercial cargo delivery from the east through the Northwest Passage."
NEW ERA IN ARCTIC SHIPPING?
Don't worry deniers, delayers, and most conservatives, the CBC isn't really saying this is a new era. It's just the same old era, accept, of course, a lot warmer and a lot less icy thanks to human emissions.
For a ship to be able to travel through the Northwest Passage, which has historically been impassable with thick ice, had some wondering if the MV Camilla Desgagnés is heralding a new era in Arctic shipping.
Louie Kamookak, the director of hamlet housing and public works in Gjoa Haven, said tugboats and barges usually deliver supplies from the west. Residents were surprised to see the MV Camilla Desgagnés come in from the east, he said.
"Looks like it's going to be more shipping or ships travelling, with the ice clearing up north of this area," Kamookak said.
Kamookak said the vessel brought the hamlet some municipal equipment, including a sewage truck. It also provided local co-op stores with supplies.
The hamlet of Gjoa Haven will compare the costs of getting supplies shipped from the west versus the east, in order to see which direction may be cheaper.
Desgagnés Transarctik used the MV Camilla Desgagnés because it is a super ice-class vessel, said Waguih Rayes, the general manager of the company's Arctic division.
Rayes, who was on the vessel during its trip through the Northwest Passage, said the company informed the coast guard, which put an icebreaker on standby.
"They were ready to be there for us if we called them, but I didn't see one cube of ice," he said.
"They were informed about our presence [and] they were ready to give us the support needed. However, since there was no ice whatsoever, the service was not needed, we didn't call for it."
Rayes said he's proud to know his company, which is a managing partner of Nunavut Sealink and Supply, is the first to deliver sealift cargo through the fabled Arctic waterway.
He added that the company plans to transport cargo through the Northwest Passage again next fall.
Thanks to paulm for flagging this.
This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
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Delay And Deny Posted 2:09 pm
01 Dec 2008
Book your cruise through the Passage now while berths are available!
Enjoy 12 hours of sunshine on the beaches of Siberia. Or stay a while and buy your very own $12,000 Arctic Dacha!
So call now. You can't deny these bargains any more!!
Texeme.Construct.Questioner
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gzuckier Posted 5:02 am
02 Dec 2008
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bluecon Posted 11:47 pm
02 Dec 2008
From 1937
'Last week this new, shorter Northwest Passage's navigability was dramatically demonstrated as Hudson Bay Company's Eastern Arctic Patrol Nascopie sounded her way through Bellot Strait. Snow shrouded the Arctic dusk as head on through the haze came the bow of another ship. Nascopie's Captain Thomas Smellie's incredulous hail got a booming reply from veteran Arctic Trader Patsy Klingenberg, from the deck of the Schooner Aklavik, eastbound to Baffin Island, and astonished Eskimo cheers from both crews echoed through the rock-bound channel.'
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,770864-2 ...
The Southern route of the NW Passage was travelled every year by the HBC(Hudson Bay Company) in the 30's.
Gjoa Haven(1930) and Cambridge Bay(1929) pictures showing low ice level. A lot more info in that link.
http://www.kitikmeotheritage.ca/Angulalk/hudsons/hudsons. ...
Info on the little boat the Aklavik that made it through the NW Passage in 1937.
http://iain-cameron.blogspot.com/2007/07/test.html
Nascopie and Aklavik meet from East and West in 1937
The Nascopie commonly travelled through the passage in the 30's.
http://iain-cameron.blogspot.com/2007/07/aberdonians-arct ...
In 1944 Larsen took the St. Roch from Halifax to Vancouver in 86 days through the Parry Channel route.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/arcticexpedition/larsenexpeditions ...
The Arctic travelled the Parry channel route twice and could have travelled right out of the ice free McClure strait. This from 1908 to 1911.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/arcticexpedition/icebreakers/cgs-a ...
W.E. Parry travelled the length of the Parry Channel route and back in the early 1800's and McClure sailed right into the McClure strait from the West around 1850.
Then there is Amundsen and a lot more evidence.
This evidence is ignored by science, and it shows the conditions in the Arctic in the thirties were similar to today. And then in the late 40's the Arctic froze up and the HBC shut some of their posts due to the increased ice.
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iskander Posted 1:08 am
03 Dec 2008
1903-06 - Roald Amundsen, in the Gjoa, makes the first full transit of the Northwest Passage from east to west.
1944 - The St. Roch, an RCMP schooner, makes the first west-to-east passage. It returns west and becomes the first to make the return journey in one season .
1969 - The Manhattan, the largest ship to navigate the Northwest Passage, leads a special experiment to see if the transport of bulk oil from Alaska would be feasible through the Passage.
1975 - R. Dickinson and K. Maro, in the Pandora II and the Theta, make a west-to-east transit.
1976-78 - R. Bouvier, in the J. E. Bernier II, a ketch, makes an east-to-west transit.
1977 - W. De Roos, in the Williwaw, a Dutch 42-foot (13-m) ketch, makes the first single handed passage from east to west.
1980 - Pandora II, a hydrographic research vessel, makes a transit from west to east.
1981-83 - Japanese sloop Mermaid, makes an east-to-west transit.
1983-88 - French vessel, The Vagabond II, makes a west-to-east transit.
U.S. motor yacht Belvedere, makes a west-to-east transit.
1984 - Lindblad Explorer, the first commercial passenger vessel to make a transit from east-to-west.
1985 - Commercial passenger ship `World Discoverer', makes a west-to-east transit.
1988 - MV Society Explorer, a Bahamas-registered passenger ship, makes a west-to-east transit.
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