who discovered the northwest passage

The Northwest Passage does not have a single “discoverer,” but two key milestones are usually highlighted: Sir Robert McClure is often credited with discovering a continuous route in the 1850s, and Roald Amundsen was the first to sail it completely between 1903 and 1906.

Quick Scoop

• Discovery of the route (over ice + sea):
  • Irish explorer Sir Robert McClure is widely credited with discovering a continuous Northwest Passage in the early 1850s.

* His ship became trapped in ice, and he and his men completed key stretches by **sledge over the ice** , proving that there was in fact a link between the Atlantic and Pacific through the Arctic archipelago.

• First full transit by ship:
  • Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to successfully navigate the entire Northwest Passage by ship.

* He sailed a small vessel, the _Gjøa_ , between 1903 and 1906, carefully overwintering and learning Arctic survival from local Inuit, which helped him complete the voyage.

Why there’s confusion about “who discovered it”

• Over roughly 400 years , many expeditions searched for the Northwest Passage, including those led by Martin Frobisher, John Davis, Henry Hudson, James Cook, and John Franklin, each charting pieces of the Arctic.

• Because McClure proved a continuous route (partly over ice) and Amundsen sailed it end‑to‑end, some sources emphasize McClure as the “discoverer” while others highlight Amundsen as the one who truly “opened” it as a navigable sea route.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.