Sailing from East Asia to Western Europe over the top of Canada is upwards of 7,000 km shorter than going through Panama. It took 330 years of searching to find a way through. In its busiest year ever, 41 vessels made the full crossing.
430
complete transits of the Northwest Passage recorded by the end of 2024, counting every yacht, cruise ship, icebreaker and freighter since the first crossings of the 1850s and 1900s. The Panama Canal handles about that many ships in under two weeks. Source: R.K. Headland / Scott Polar Research Institute
The Canadian Arctic Archipelago: three of the main ways through. Amundsen’s southern route (red) hugs the coast through shallow straits past Gjoa Haven. The deep-water route (dashed) is shorter but often blocked by thick old ice drifting in from the Beaufort Sea.
01 · The search
Three centuries of looking, then one tiny boat
Europe went looking for a northern sea road to Asia in the 1500s. It took until 1906, and a small converted herring boat with a crew of seven, to sail the whole thing.
129
men on Franklin’s Erebus & Terror (1845). None came back. The wrecks were found in 2014 and 2016 (Parks Canada).
3 winters
Amundsen’s Gjøa spent iced in, 1903–06. Two at Gjoa Haven, one at King Point.
1944
First transit in a single season: the RCMP schooner St. Roch.
02 · The traffic
A hundred years of trickle, then a rush
For the first century the crossing happened about once every year and a half. Since 2007, when the ice first opened all the way, it has averaged about 20 crossings a year.
41
complete transits in 2023, the all-time high
38
in 2024
+44%
unique ships in NWP waters, 2013→2019 (112 → 160), Arctic Council PAME
03 · Who sails it
More yachts than freighters
Of the 117 complete transits from 2020 to 2024, private yachts were the biggest group. Fewer than a third were commercial ships.
Complete transits by vessel type, 2020–2024 (n = 117). SPRI via Belfer Center.
41%
of 2020–24 transits were yachts or private vessels
47
commercial ships have ever completed a full transit, against 91 passenger vessels (SPRI)
04 · The shortcut
Shorter on paper, slower in practice
On the map the passage cuts thousands of kilometres off the Asia–Europe trip. Ice, shallow straits, few ports and short seasons keep cargo going through Panama.
~7,000 km
shorter than the Panama route between East Asia and Western Europe (≈3,480 nmi)
≈1 day
of normal Panama Canal traffic equals the passage’s busiest year
05 · The ice
Less ice overall, but it still gets in the way
September sea ice is shrinking fast, yet a 2024 study found the passage’s shipping season has gotten shorter since 2007. Thick old ice breaks loose and jams the narrow straits.
−12.1%
per decade: September Arctic sea-ice trend, 1979–2025 (NSIDC)
4.60 M km²
2025 minimum extent, reached Sept 10 (NSIDC)
19 / 19
the last 19 years are the 19 lowest minimums in the satellite record
Why it matters · what to notice on the map
Follow the red line, then look at the hatching
The passage is a maze, not a channel. It threads between dozens of islands. Amundsen’s route runs along the long, shallow south side; deep-draft ships need the northern straits, which ice closes most often.
The short route is the icy one. The deep straits west of Viscount Melville Sound are where old ice from the Beaufort Sea jams up. Less ice overall can mean more loose ice drifting into those choke points.
The wrecks sit beside the route. Franklin’s ships went down near King William Island, close to the route Amundsen got through nearly 60 years later. Inuit testimony helped point searchers to them.