For nearly 500 years the conquest of the Northwest and Northeast Passages was the "holy grail" of exploration. Once charted, these sea routes across North America and Eurasia could reduce greatly the transit distances between East and West.
In earliest times there were political and economic reasons for trying to find these passages. In the late 1400s, Portugal had an established route around the tip of Africa to the Indian subcontinent. Concurrently, Spain sought the "Indies" by going west across the Atlantic. By the late 16th century, the two Iberian nations had virtual monopolies on trade with the Americas and East Asia.
The English, Dutch, and French found access to Asia's riches blocked by the formidable military presence of these two great sea powers, but the primitive maps available at this time showed that if a ship could cross over the top of North America or Eurasia the distance between West and East would be shortened greatly—and there would be no conflicts with Portugal or Spain. Thus began a half-millennium of exploration dedicated to finding "the way to Cathay."
Most exploration efforts were directed to the Northwest Passage. Great explorers such as John and Sebastian Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Martin Frobisher, Henry Hudson, and James Cook all tried to find it but to no avail. It was in 1906 that Norwegian Roald Amundsen made it in his ship, the Gjoa, more than 400 years after John Cabot's first voyage.
The Northeast Passage had far less exploration activity. Englishmen Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor undertook the first expedition in 1553-54, followed in that century by a handful of other Englishmen and Dutchmen. In 1594, the Dutch navigator Willem Barents got furthest east, landing at the Novaya Zemlya island group. Yet he had covered only about one-fourth of the distance from Europe to Asia. For the next three centuries other explorations followed, but with no great improvement over those of the 16th century. It was not until 1878-79 that the prize was won by the Swede Adolph Nordenskjold in his ship, the Vega.
After the 1917 revolution the Soviet Union closed this region to all foreign ships. By 1930 the Soviets were using the 2,2002,900-mile northern sea route to move their ships between European Russia and the Russian Far East. The Moscow-based Administration for the Northern Sea Route was established in 1932. The first crossing by a Soviet merchant vessel (with an icebreaker escort) was made in 1935. An expanding fleet of powerful icebreaking ships helped the Soviets extend the navigation season beyond the four-month summer (July-October).
Commissioning of the nuclear-powered icebreaker Lenin in 1959 marked the beginning of a powerful capability to provide almost year-round transits across the Northeast Passage. The Lenin was followed by seven improved nuclear-powered icebreakers: the Arktika, Sibir, Rossiya, Sovetskiy Soyuz, Yamal, Vaygach, and Taymyr. The capabilities of these ships were demonstrated in 1977 when the Arktika became the first surface ship to reach the North Pole. Since 1990, the Rossiya, Sovetskiy Soyuz, or Yamal have made annual runs there carrying tourists.
In 1987, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev opened the northern route to commercial ships of all nations. Few ship operators were interested, however. There were several problems. The passage is seasonal, with only four months being reasonably ice-free. Icebreaker escorts are required to accompany all shipping. Russia also requires all ships to be ice capable; few of the world merchant fleet meet this standard. Shallow straits on the existing route limit the size of vessels to about 20,000 tons. Finally, a transit slowed by ice might take longer than the southerly open-sea routes. At present, the major commercial use of the northern sea route is tourism; Russian icebreakers annually take groups on transits through both the Northeast and Northwest Passages.
This situation may be changing: global warming is affecting ice cover in the Arctic Ocean. In the past 20 years the area of ice in the Arctic Ocean has decreased by 6% and its total volume by about 25%. If this trend continues, within 20 years Russian coastal areas could be ice-free in the summertime. This would mean transits without icebreakers or the requirement to have ice-strengthened ships.
In 1993, Russia, Norway, and Japan initiated the International Northern Sea Route Project, putting up $1.6 million to study (50 reports so far) how the Northeast Passage can be made a reality for merchant shipping. If current problems can be overcome, significant savings in shipping costs could be realized, and economic development of Russia's Arctic lands would be accelerated. In addition, economic development of the adjacent region would be stimulated greatly.