Chart of the North West Passage

Click on the map above to view a zoomable version.

Chart of the North West Passage from Samuel Gurney Cresswell, A series of eight sketches in colour (together with a chart of the route)... of the voyage of H.M.S. Investigator (Captain M’Clure) during the discovery of the North West Passage (London, 1854).

Cresswell’s chart shows the route travelled by the Investigator from the west (1850-1853); Mercy Bay, where the Investigator was abandoned; and the long sledge journey to the Resolute (the dotted line) the ship which rescued the Investigator’s crew. Captain McClure and most of the crew were forced to spend another winter (1853-54) in the Arctic because the Resolute was frozen in. Cresswell and some of the sickest men from the Investigator returned to England in 1853 with the supply ship Phoenix (route shown on the chart), thus becoming the first men to travel the North West Passage.