King William Island

Key historical site where Franklin spent his first winter before the Erebus and Terror vanished to the outside World.

Made very sombre with the graves of three of Franklin’s men, and others, plus later memorials. Situated on the very southwest corner of Devon Island, separated by Barrow Strait, it is at a key ‘crossroad’ in the northwest Passage and was the main base in the search for Franklin.

This remote location is a key destination for everyone that visits the NW passage, with the main focus on the location, rather than wildlife, but offshore can be good for Beluga.

Narrow strait separating Somerset Island to the north from Murchison Promontory of Boothia Peninsula to the south, the northernmost part of mainland America.

The 2km (1.2 mi) wide and 25 km (16 mi) strait connects the Gulf of Boothia, Prince Regent Inlet, and Brentford Bay to the east with Peel Sound and Franklin Strait to the west. It became a strait on ‘one’ of the NW passage routes. On a map of the Canadian Arctic, unless you look in detail, it is easy to assume the Boothia Peninsula and Somerset Island is one peninsula. In many ways, with Bellot Strait locked in ice much of the year, it is like the peninsula. Since it is so narrow, it can be a place to look for Narwhal, and, along the shore, Polar Bear, or even wolf.

Situated on the SE coast of Victoria Island (the 8th largest in the World), and the largest community on the Island. As well as the community focus there is the history of the area

The first Europeans to reach Cambridge Bay were overland explorers led by Thomas Simpson in 1839; searching for the Northwest Passage and crossing the sea ice to Cambridge Bay by foot. Another overland expedition was led by John Rae who reached Cambridge Bay in 1851. The first ship to reach the bay was HMS Enterprise under Richard Collinson who wintered there in 1852/53. Both Rae and Collinson were searching for Franklin's lost expedition.

Between Ellesmere Island and Devon Island at the entrance to Jones Sound.

It is part of the Nirjutiqavvik National Wildlife Area and Cambridge Point, with spectacular cliffs that are an important location for breeding seabirds including black guillemot, black-legged kittiwake, glaucous gull, northern fulmar, and thick-billed murre. Offshore waters are also good for marine mammals.

One of the deeper inlets into Devon Island, on the southeast side, but further west from Dundas Harbour. Great ship cruising with icebergs and the flat-topped mountain geology of this part of Devon Island.

First built in 1924 as a Canadian outpost on the southeast coast of Devon Island, with concern about sovereignty of this Arctic Archipelago. It was settled several times but finally abandoned with a ‘ghost town’ feel. Tundra is good to explore and to ship cruise the nearby inlet.

Fort Ross is an abandoned former trading post on Somerset Island. First established in 1937 by the Hudson's Bay Company, it was only operational to 1948, as severe ice conditions in the surrounding waters made the site hard to reach and economically unviable.

It is interesting to visit a Hudson’s Bay Company hut and to contemplate the location. It is situated at the eastern end of Bellot Strait on a south-eastern peninsula of Somerset Island, a key location in the northwest Passage. Also good for a rage of high arctic species.

Situated on the SE side of King William Island it is the location where the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his crew spent some time on his route through the Northwest Passage.

In October 1903 he put Gjøa into a natural harbour on the southeast coast of King William Island. He stayed there for nearly two years, learning from the local Netsilik Inuit, and the skills to live off the land and travel efficiently in the Arctic environment. This knowledge proved to be vital for Amundsen's later successful exploration to the South Pole. He also explored the Boothia Peninsula, searching for the exact location of the North Magnetic Pole. Today there is a community at Gjoa Haven and a popular landing for cruise ships. Permanent European-style settlement started in 1927, as a Hudson's Bay Company trading outpost. The settlement attracted the traditionally nomadic Inuit people as they adapted a more settled lifestyle. By 2016 the population was 1,324.

On Ellesmere Island (10th largest in the World) and the most northerly community in Canada. In Inuktitut it is called Aujuittuq—”the place that never thaws”.

It is the only ‘public’ community on Ellesmere Island, created in 1953 by the Canadian Government with a relocation of Inuit families from Inukjuak, Quebec. It is also one of the coldest inhabited places in the world, with an average yearly temperature of −16.5 °C (2.3 °F). There is an airport, but even today it can be a challenging place to land, or even get ashore by Zodiac from a ship.

This long sound separates Somerset Island on the east from Prince of Wales Island on the west. To the north it opens onto Parry Channel. To the south, at the mouth the Bellot Strait, it merges with Franklin Strait.

Sir John Franklin passed through the strait in 1846, an unseasonably warm summer, since typically Peel Sound is frozen. The east side of Peel Sound was traced by James Clark Ross in 1849, searching for Franklin, and in 1858 Francis Leopold McClintock tried to penetrate it and was blocked by ice. Even today cruise ships attempting the NW passage prefer the Bellot Strait route compared to Peel Sound.

This island is in a key location in Lancaster Sound at the junction of Prince Regent Inlet and Barrow Strait, off the northwest coast of Somerset Island. It has some really impressive and steep seabird cliffs that is one of the most important sites in the Canadian Arctic and a bird sanctuary.

Also good area to look for marine mammals and other Arctic wildlife.

Situated close to the southwest corner of Devon Island with Viscount Melville Sound nearby.

Great ship cruising in a location close to where Lancaster Sound splits into a myriad of channels that made the exploration of the northwest passage so challenging.

A large island (96th in the world, 21st in Canada) at key location with Devon Island to the east, Bathurst Island to the west, and Somerset Island further to the South, across the main passage, with various smaller islands nearby.

Cornwallis Island is the location of Resolute, one of the most northerly settlements in Canada, certainly the most northern ‘town’. The airport is used as a hub to join cruise ships, though still a challenge, with a beach landing and a Zodiac cruise to get to and from the ship, with luggage!