History of Arctic Exploration
The history of Arctic exploration stretches across centuries of travel, discovery, and encounters between peoples. Long before recorded expeditions arrived from outside the region, Indigenous Peoples had established routes across Arctic lands, rivers, sea ice, and coastal waters. Their knowledge of weather, wildlife, navigation, and seasonal change supported thriving communities and later proved essential to many visiting expeditions.
Over time, voyages into northern waters were driven by trade, the search for sea passages, scientific curiosity, and national ambitions. Explorers sought connections between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, mapped coastlines, and investigated unfamiliar environments. Their journeys produced important geographical and scientific knowledge, but also brought hardship, loss, and lasting changes to Arctic communities.
This section introduces notable explorers and expeditions, alongside the Indigenous knowledge and contributions that helped make their journeys possible. Through individual stories and a historical timeline, it explores how travel and exploration shaped understanding of the Arctic and its connections with the wider world.
Notable Arctic Expeditions
Sir John Franklin (1786-1847) - The Erebus
Other Notable Arctic Explorers
Indigenous Knowledge & Contributions
Selected Milestones in Arctic Exploration
Pytheas of Massalia
The Greek navigator and astronomer Pytheas, from Massalia—present-day Marseille—made an early recorded voyage into northern European waters. Accounts preserved by later writers describe Britain and a northern land called Thule, associated with exceptionally long summer days and unusual sea conditions.
Pytheas’s original account has been lost, and the precise date, route, and northern extent of his journey remain uncertain. The location of Thule is still debated, with proposed identifications including parts of Scandinavia and North Atlantic islands. His voyage nevertheless contributed to ancient Mediterranean knowledge of northern Europe.
Giovanni Cabot’s North Atlantic voyage
Many centuries separate Pytheas’s voyage from the next expedition highlighted in this timeline: John Cabot’s westward journey across the Atlantic in 1497. The Venetian navigator Giovanni Caboto, commonly known as John Cabot, sailed west from Bristol under the authority of England’s King Henry VII, seeking a sea route to Asia. He reached the Atlantic coast of North America before returning to England. The exact location of his landfall remains disputed, although Newfoundland is frequently proposed.
Cabot led another expedition in 1498, but its course and outcome are poorly documented. His voyages contributed to European interest in the North Atlantic and the continuing search for a westward route to Asia.
Captain James Cook Exploration
In the late eighteenth century, British navigator Captain James Cook explored the North Pacific in search of a Northwest Passage linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. His expedition built on earlier voyages and contributed to European knowledge of the region’s geography.
Cook departed Britain in 1776 on his third voyage, commanding HMS Resolution alongside HMS Discovery. After travelling through the southern oceans and Pacific islands, the expedition reached the west coast of North America in 1778. Cook surveyed parts of the Alaskan coast, including Cook Inlet, before sailing through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, where sea ice prevented further progress.
The expedition subsequently returned to Hawaii, where Cook was killed in February 1779. Although he did not find the Northwest Passage, the geographical observations and charts produced during the voyage provided an important foundation for later exploration. The surviving expedition members returned to Britain in 1780.
Other Explorations
In May 1845, Sir John Franklin departed Britain aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, seeking to complete a Northwest Passage through the Canadian Arctic. The ships became trapped in ice near King William Island in September 1846 and were abandoned in April 1848. None of the expedition’s remaining 129 men survived.
Subsequent searches helped map extensive areas of the Canadian Arctic. Inuit testimony preserved crucial information about the expedition’s fate and later helped guide the searches that located Erebus in 2014 and Terror in 2016.
Roald Amundsen and his crew aboard Gjøa achieved the first complete navigation of the Northwest Passage during their 1903–1906 expedition, travelling from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The expedition combined navigation with scientific observations. Local Inuit contributed knowledge and assistance that played an important role in the journey, illustrating the connections between Indigenous expertise and visiting expeditions.
Between 1940 and 1942, Henry Larsen commanded the Royal Canadian Mounted Police vessel St. Roch through the Northwest Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It became the first vessel to complete the passage in that direction, spending two winters in the Arctic during the voyage.
In 1944, Larsen and his crew returned westward through a more northerly route. This made St. Roch the first vessel to navigate the Northwest Passage in both directions and the first to complete a transit in a single season.