Polish Adventurers in the Northwest Passage in the second half of the 20th century (original) (raw)
Related papers
Arctic Operational Histories, 2019
Fifty years ago, the American ice-breaking supertanker Manhattan tested the waters of Canada’s Northwest Passage. During its epic 1969 transit, Manhattan’s task was to determine the feasibility of shipping oil from newly-discovered fields of the North Slope of Alaska to North America’s Eastern Seaboard. In so doing, the massive vessel raised pivotal questions about safe navigation, sovereignty, and environmental protection, prompting new discussions about Arctic political and economic development. Often told from the vantage point of the politicians and diplomats involved, the Manhattan’s story was also one of an integrated Canadian-American expedition dedicated to cooperative exploration and innovation. This volume publishes the reports of Lieutenant Commander Erling Stolee, the Royal Canadian Navy’s observer aboard Manhattan’s two Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker escorts – CCGS John A. Macdonald and Louis St. Laurent – which offer detailed, first-hand accounts of Canadian contributions to the test voyages.
2008, From the Northwest Passage to the Canadian Inland Waters: Political History of the Canadian Arctic Waters, „Ad Americam", vol. 9, pp. 49-59. The North is one of the most important Canadian myths. Northern geography and concern for the North are treated by Canadians as distinct features, symbols of their country and an important part of their national identity. The theme of my presentation is a change in the official name of the Canadian northern sea route through the Arctic Archipelago, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and is the shortest way from the east to west coasts of North America. For centuries the passage has been referred to as the Northwest Passage and has become part of a northern myth. However, in 2006 the Canadian Army decided to change the official name to the Canadian Inland Waters. The alteration was politically motivated and has its roots in a controversy over the legal status of the channels and straits of the Northwest Passage, which star...
From the Land of Ice and Snow: Inuit, Ice and the Northwest Passage
2019
The Canadian Arctic is home to the Inuit peoples of Canada. They have lived in the north of Canada since time immemorial. They maintain a special relationship to the environment in which they live, including the ice upon which they live, hunt and travel. As the globe warms, the poles are melting faster than the rest of the world. It is anticipated that ice free summers will be a reality in the Northwest Passage through Canada’s Arctic Archipelago before the end of the century. This has opened the world to a shipping option outside of the Suez or Panama Canals. The routes through the north of Canada, known collectively as the Northwest Passage, are predicted to offer shorter and cheaper shipping between China and Europe. The world wants in. But the Northwest Passage has not yet been classified in international law. The Canadian government asserts that the Passage is part of their internal waters while the Americans have insisted that the Passage is an international strait through Canada’s territorial waters. An international strait would not allow for any meaningful limitation to the right of innocent passage. The Canadian government would not be able to regulate the passage of ships in the Passage so as to protect the interests and human rights of the Inuit people. The passage of ships through the Northwest Passage is known to cause problems with the ice formation, which puts the Inuit in a position of greater food insecurity and possible forced deportation. The only option for America to have this issue decided is via the International Court of Justice. The ICJ has indicated that the role of ice is legally different from that of water, but how far they will take that is uncertain. The Canadian government, having failed to raise UNDRIP in the past, must assert Inuit rights in positioning themselves as the proper State to regulate passage through the Northwest Passage for the protection of the Canadian Inuit. This creates a difficult task for a government with a limited acceptance domestically of UNDRIP. They must prove their arguments on the law of the sea, as well as argue for the status of UNDRIP as customary international law or reflecting general principles of international law. Failure to do so will leave the Northwest Passage open to increased shipping, putting the rights of the Inuit to self-determination at risk.
On Uncertain Ice: The Future of Arctic Shipping and the Northwest Passage
2014
The Arctic sea-ice is in a state of rapid decline. Barriers to navigation that once doomed the likes of Sir John Franklin and closed the shortcut to the Orient now seem to be melting away. The prospect of shorter, transpolar transportation routes linking Asian and Western markets has inspired excitement and fear, and particularly the latter when it comes to Canadian sovereignty. This paper confirms recent studies suggesting that, in spite of the general trend towards reduced ice cover in the Arctic Basin, environmental variability, scarce infrastructure and other navigational aids, and uncertain economics make it unlikely that the Northwest Passage will emerge as a viable trans-shipping route in the foreseeable future. Instead, the region is likely to witness a steady increase in resource, resupply, and tourist destinational shipping. Accordingly, concerns that this increased activity will adversely affect Canadian sovereignty are misplaced. Rather than calling into question Canadia...
Shipping along the Northwest Passage: A Historical Overview
2023
This chapter furnishes an overview history of booms and busts in Arctic shipping, with a focus on the bubbles created by successive defence and economic crises and opportunities in the twentieth century. The first significant non-Indigenous maritime activity centered on furs and whale oil. The Second World War and early Cold War saw fleets of American naval, coast guard and merchant marine vessels move into the region to construct installations. In the 1970s, resource extraction attracted the attention of southern companies, and the North seemed to be the next great development frontier. By the 1980s, surging oil and gas prices raised hopes for a bonanza, with government estimates forecasting hundreds of Arctic transits by resource carriers as early as the 1990s. Instead, fleets of icebreaking tankers remained on the drawing board at century’s end—where they remain today. In between these booms, Arctic shipping did not disappear, with community resupply and government operations continuing on a predictable basis.