Sea passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans along the northern coast of North America.
The search for a commercial sea route around the American land barrier dates from the end of the 15th century and attracted explorers such as Jacques Cartier , Francis Drake , Martin Frobisher , and Capt. James Cook . The passage was finally navigated successfully in 1906 by Roald Amundsen . As a modern trade route, it has been only marginally useful, because of the difficulties in navigating around the polar ice cap and the giant icebergs in the Atlantic between Greenland and Baffin Island and in the Pacific in the Bering Strait. The U.S. and Canadian governments have tried to encourage international commerce in the passage, and it would significantly shorten many international shipping distances, though the cost of strengthening ships against ice and the probable high insurance rates for vessels used in Arctic service could continue to inhibit use of the Northwest Passage as a trade route.