Northwest transition from Europe to Asia. Film Northwest Passage. Northwest Passage vs. Northern Sea Route

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Northwest Passage(English) Northwest Passage) - sea route through the Arctic Ocean along north coast North America through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

The famous Franklin Expedition (1845-1847) perished while trying to pass along the Northwest Sea Route. In search of the missing expedition, as well as in the study this route many famous sailors and explorers, notably Edward Ingfield, John Ray, Francis McClintock.

The passage was first traversed entirely on water by Roald Amundsen in 1903-1906. Robert McClure, who passed it in 1850-1853, made part of the way on the ice and returned to England on a ship of another expedition.

In September 2007, the European Space Agency stated that over a period of about 30 years of satellite observations, the Arctic sea ​​ice dwindled to a minimum and this made the Northwest Passage navigable. The Canadian government has declared that the passage is within Canadian territorial waters. This statement was received ambiguously by the international community, which in turn may complicate future international shipping.

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Links

• / Lenta.ru, September 15, 2007
• (unavailable link since 30-09-2016 (891 days))
• (Graham Kendall), SeaExpo, 11/01/2010

An excerpt characterizing the Northwest Passage

This month, former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard, now the French representative for the Arctic and Antarctic, traveled to the Arctic aboard the Canadian icebreaker Amundsen. Rocard did not speak very highly of the capabilities of the host on far north. He stated: “I have the impression that Canada has abandoned the struggle to attract in the next 25-30 years most cargo flows on its Arctic route”.

Rocard added that Canada is too small a country to pay to turn the Northwest Passage into a viable shipping route. At the same time, he believes Russia is much more prepared to turn its Northern Sea Route into an attractive alternative to the Suez Canal. Russia already has four nuclear-powered icebreakers and is building at least one more. In addition, Russia has just announced that it will establish nine emergency response centers along the route, which will be located from Chukotka to the Barents Sea. Each center will cost $18.5 million and will include rescue, firefighting and helicopter equipment.

Dr. Alexei Knizhnikov, Russian Program Coordinator World Fund wildlife on the environmental policy of the oil and gas sector, says the following:

“Without such centers, any commercial operations in the Arctic are fraught with great dangers. These dangers will be significantly reduced as soon as Russia deploys a chain of such centers from Chukotka to the Barents Sea. These centers will ensure the protection of the local population and the fragile environment of the Arctic.”

There is a certain paradox that these centers should protect local population And environment. It seems that not too many preventive measures are being taken to prevent disasters. Rather, Russia is hosting emergency response centers that will be activated when tankers are found to have leaked oil or harmful substances into the water. Be that as it may, it cannot be denied that this country is investing heavily in the North in general, and in the Northern Sea Route in particular. Canada is lagging behind in this respect. Russia is even building 15 new observation stations and 30 automated observation posts. In total, there will be 70 and 33 of them, respectively. It even has the intention of placing additional satellites in space to monitor the weather in the Russian Arctic.

However, it is not entirely true that Canada is "too small a country" to develop the infrastructure of the Northwest Passage. In fact, if we talk about the economy, then its GDP is slightly larger than that of Russia, although Canada lives fewer people especially in the Arctic. Her problems are more related to geography and politics. Geographically, the Northwest Passage has a number of disadvantages. First of all, there is no clearly marked route through the numerous islands of the Canadian archipelago, while the North Sea the way goes mostly along the coast of Russia. In addition, Canada has very few infrastructure facilities near the Northwest Passage. Villages along the route, such as Cambridge Bay and Resolute, can only be reached by plane from elsewhere in Canada. At the same time, a favorable factor for Russia is that the ice-free port of Murmansk is located on the Northern Sea Route. At the same time it Big City with direct rail links to St. Petersburg. Although the two routes lie at roughly the same latitude - just south of 70 degrees north latitude - the Northwest Passage is generally more ice-covered than the Russian route. Also, in Canada, recent changes in ice melt are not mapped properly for the benefit of shipping. And because Canada doesn't have the icebreakers needed to steer ships through the treacherous passage, companies are reluctant to shift their shipping from the Suez Canal to the Northwest Passage, despite Somali pirate activity.

Politically, Canada's sovereignty over the Northwest Passage is contested, and above all, it is contested by the United States. About the North sea ​​route there are no disputes, because it lies nearby Russian coast. Also, because Canada is a parliamentary democracy, it's not easy for Canada to just invest in this project, no matter how hard Stephen Harper tries. On the other hand, it is much easier for the Russian authorities in this regard.

While Rocard accuses Canada of a lack of willpower in the Arctic issue, Russia is preparing to escort the largest tanker ever built along the Northern Sea Route. The escort will be carried out by two nuclear-powered icebreakers. Yamal, which recently hosted an important conference on the Arctic, and 50 Years of Victory will lead the Suezmax-class tanker Vladimir Tikhonov with a displacement of 162,000 tons along the Northern Sea Route. Leaving Norway for Murmansk, accompanied by the “50 Years of Victory”, this tanker with gas condensate will reach New Siberian Islands, where he will meet with Yamal. Then he will continue sailing along the Northern Sea Route from final destination in Thailand. Canadian newspapers cannot boast of stories about wiring so large ships along the Northwest Passage. While this is a matter of the distant future.

Northwest Passage

It was the kind of game that every imaginative child is ready to play all day long. It was necessary to find the "northwest passage" to the school. The road there was easy and familiar, but the game was to find some detour. It was necessary to leave the house ten minutes earlier, turn somewhere to the side and make your way through unfamiliar streets to your goal.
HG Wells "Door in the Wall"

The rules for playing Northwest Passage are, as you can see, extremely simple. Not much is required of the player: to prefer unfamiliar paths to familiar ones and to have enough time to be able to move from theory to practice.

I read Wells' story of the game early, before I even went to school. And then he began to look for opportunities to play the "Northwest Passage". Opportunities were, frankly, very bad: a prisoner of my own court, forced to keep a screaming distance from my parents' windows, I didn't have the slightest chance to try the recipe.

However, in six months I had to go to the first class. I was lucky: the school was quite far from home, about twenty minutes on foot (which I managed to verify, because I had already gone there twice accompanied by my parents - to sign up for a preparatory class, and again, for the first lesson of this very preparatory class, from where I was miserably exhibited for the ability to read and write and an innate gift for disrupting lessons). However, my mother consoled me, saying that they would still accept me in the first class: they would not go anywhere, they say. I believed her and excitedly waited for the start of classes, anticipating in advance the daily trips to school and back. Every day is a new road, of course. I started the morning with the question: is the first of September coming soon? My parents were touched by my impatience; their acquaintances set me as an example to their children, so I quickly earned a reputation for being insane. I didn't care: I knew WHAT I expected from the school. Freedom of movement in space, and nothing else.

Everything turned out the way I envisioned. After walking me to school about five times, my mother appreciated the pointlessness of this lesson and quite easily agreed that I was already quite capable of getting there alone. The first few trips to school and back I made along the well-trodden route in order to better get used to it. When for the first time in your life you start walking around the city alone, there are no "familiar" and "usual" ways. At first.

The first deviation from the route, I allowed myself about a week later. As advised by H. G. Wells, I left the house early. Overcame half of the way as in a dream, fading from sweet horror: now, now! Finally turned into an unfamiliar lane. Into an alley that I've never been before. My heart was pounding: I learned the value of the word "for the first time." Turning back, I did not recognize the street along which I had just walked, and I almost screamed in horror. However, after a few seconds, I realized that everything was in order with the street, I just had never looked at it from such an angle. Fear was replaced by delight; I walked resolutely down an unfamiliar lane. Then he turned and turned again. I made a small loop, returned to the familiar street and went on in the usual way. A small feat, however, dashing trouble is the beginning!

After a couple of months, I knew several dozen ways from home to school. I had two game mates with whom I could compete (of course, three players are not enough, however, most of our peers moved around the city under escort; we sympathized with them indulgently). Over time, we began to write down the names of streets and alleys where we wandered, and the numbers of houses near which we should turn off, so that later everyone could try out other people's routes. Even later, they learned to draw diagrams. By the beginning of classes in the second grade, my comrades had noticeably cooled down to the game, and I could no longer stop, I was taken apart by real excitement. I signed up for almost every possible club that required me to stay at school after school: since the classes did not last from bell to bell, but depending on the mood of the teacher, my parents could no longer require me to come home at a fixed time. This gave about half an hour of freedom a day: half an hour, during which at school they knew that I had already gone home, and at home they thought that I was still at school. Half an hour of freedom a day is not so little: in half an hour an experienced Northwest Passage player usually manages to find new route where it does not exist and cannot exist (for example, to get into a parallel street with yards, breaking the heck on the gates, crawling under barbed wire and overcoming board fences).

If you think that I’m going to write now that, say, childhood is over, I became an adult busy (read: bald, pot-bellied, boring) person, I forgot my favorite game, and all that, then you still didn’t study me well. I'm just about to write that for an adult, playing the Northwest Passage is not just a pleasure, but a vital necessity. This is much more necessary than a sauna, a gym and a massage (which, however, are not very useful). Because the roads that we travel daily, no matter how diverse they may seem (home - service - coffee shop - shop - second place of work - club - night supermarket - home) gradually wear out under our feet. Continuing to walk familiar routes, we only increase the fatigue of the roads, and it envelops our own feet in sticky dust. Fatigue and boredom are far more dangerous diseases than it seems to those who have not yet realized that they are starting to age, and playing Northwest Passage is an excellent homeopathic remedy, suitable for both treatment and prevention.

As recently as the day before yesterday, I left the house on quite urgent business. But instead of going out and hailing a taxi, I turned into a courtyard, went out onto a parallel street, crossed several more courtyards, wandered into a parking lot, from there to the fence of some institute, from there onto a strange narrow highway surrounded by low industrial buildings. sight, then I climbed over a low wire fence, climbed a hill and squatted in surprise when I heard the whistle of an approaching train ... The gravel on the railway embankment was warm, like the skin of a living creature; plantain grew between the sleepers; the branches of the bush swayed under the weight of the tits.

My phone rang in my pocket: one of my colleagues wanted to make sure I hadn't forgotten about the meeting. "Yes, I'm on my way to you," I yelled, trying to block the roar of the rapidly approaching freight train. The roar was also heard "at the other end of the air." "Are you on the train?" - "No, I'm walking along the sleepers," I said honestly. "I'm playing the Northwest Passage. Do you want me to teach you?"

Numerous islands in the northwest American continent separated from each other and the mainland by the waters of the Arctic. Sea routes in this part of the planet are called the Northwest Passage.

Searching for a waterway from Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic began in the early 19th century. In 1818, the Englishman Ross went to the Arctic. Later the attempt was repeated several times. And only in 1904, the Norwegian Amundsen managed to find a passage through the water in two navigations.

In June 1940, the small motor schooner Saint Rock left the Canadian port of Vancouver, located on the Pacific coast. The schooner, with a displacement of 328 tons, was specially designed and built for sailing in northern latitudes. The eight-man expedition was led by a Canadian police officer of Norwegian origin. Henry Larsen. Before the war, Larsen, having received the rank of inspector, was appointed responsible for organizing the Arctic detachments.

He took the St. Rock along the coast of Alaska along the usual route that fishermen and fur hunters set off for northern waters. After passing the Bering Strait, the schooner ended up in the Beaufort Sea. After passing the Amundsen Bay, the daredevils reached Victoria Island. Off the northwest coast, in Walker Bay, the expedition made its first wintering.

Larsen tried to choose optimal route. The following year, 1941, the expedition tried to go around Victoria Island from the north, to pass through the strait separating Banks from the island. The traveler believed that the waters of the Prince of Wales Sound would be freer than the Dolphin Sound. However, he was wrong in his assumptions. The Prince of Wales Sound was clogged with heavy ice. Complex ice conditions made them come back. The schooner headed east along the mainland. Passing Coronation Bay, she found herself in the waters of the Victoria Strait. In the most difficult navigational conditions, the water had already begun to freeze with ice, "Saint Rock" reached the Butia Peninsula. Larsen then turned north and took refuge in Pasley Bay in early September.

Here the expedition settled down for the second wintering. Conditions were much harsher than at the last stop. The air temperature dropped below 57°C. During this wintering, one of the crew members died. next year due to harsh winter the waters were freed from ice only in June. Saint Rock moved on. Passing between the Boothia Peninsula and Somerset Island, the schooner headed through the Lancaster Strait and ended up in the Baffin Sea. It could be considered that the expedition was a success. In October 1942, the St. Rock anchored in Halifax. The journey, which lasted 842 days, is over. The success of the expedition was achieved due to the right choice of vessel, equipment and proper training of the crew.

It should be noted that the leader of the trip himself very reservedly assessed the results of the expedition, calling it reconnaissance for laying the continuation of the Northern Sea Route. This route in the conditions of the Second World War had a very importance. According to Larsen, his expedition proved that the Northwest Passage can be completed in one navigation, but it can not be done every year.

The Larsen expedition was unable to assess to what extent northern route suitable for ships with a large draft. It wasn't until 1954 that the first commercial ship sailed through the Northwest Passage. Over the past 30 years, the movement of ice in the western part of the Arctic has been constantly monitored from space. Meteorologists have come to the conclusion that due to climate change, the amount of sea ice is significantly decreasing, which makes the Northwest Passage open to navigation.

Editing Conrad A. Nervig Cinematographers William V. Skull , Sidney Wagner Writers Bruno Frank , Jules Firthman , Elizabeth Hill , more Illustrators Cedric Gibbons , Edwin B. Willis

Do you know that

• The film "Northwest Passage" entered the TOP of the highest-budget films of that time. The funds that were spent on its production amounted to almost 3,000,000 dollars. And although the picture was quite successful, it was not possible to return the money invested in it.
• One of the most dangerous scenes that the directors had to film was the passage of the "human chain" through mountain river ford. The difficulty was that there were no understudies on the set. Whether they were not provided, or lost, but the actors had to perform this difficult task on their own. And this fact made some of them seriously think about having their stage fee revised. In order not to put the actors at risk, it was decided to shoot this scene in several stages. The first of them was filmed on one of the lakes in Idaho, but they ended up in a special pool installed at the studio.
• It is noteworthy that the fact of crossing the river caused problems not only for the film crew of the Northwest Passage. According to historical reference, before crossing the river, the detachment of Major Rogers was 154 people, after the river was overcome, its number was 142. 12 people died during the crossing. By the way, this is not the only case when a detachment lost soldiers not in a combat situation. By the end of the expedition, only 100 people returned home.
• Fortunately, on the way of the expedition we met good days. A funny incident happened near the walls of one of the British forts. When Major Rogers' detachment approached the fort to resupply the expedition, it was abandoned. It turned out that the commandant of the fort confused the band of rangers with the French troops and decided to retreat. Major Rogers had 10 days to catch up with Lieutenant Stevens to bring him back to the fort.

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Mistakes in the movie

• The very first blunder in this film is contained almost at the beginning. Major Rogers gives parting words to his soldiers before they set out on an expedition, and in his hands is a travel staff. When he begins his speech, the staff rises 15 centimeters above his head, but when the speech ends, the staff, for unknown reasons, becomes almost half a meter shorter.
• During the attack scenes, if you look closely, you can see that some of the bayonets on the rifles are moving from side to side. This is due to the fact that some props for the film were made of rubber.
• The film also contains some historical inaccuracies. The picture shows an episode when Major Rogers orders his soldiers to carry their whaleboats through mountain ranges on shoulders. In fact, this event has nothing to do with the mission of St. Francis, they happened a few years earlier when Major Rogers was moving to Carillion.
• Another funny blunder is contained in the scene of the battle with the Indians. During the battle turmoil, one dead Indian turns his head, and does this in order to avoid a collision with a man running behind him.

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Plot

Beware, the text may contain spoilers!

The events in the film begin to unfold from the moment when the young Langton Towne arrives home with unpleasant news: he has been expelled from Harvard University. Naturally, the family is disappointed, but he is accepted back. The young daughter of an influential clergyman, Elizabeth Brown, is also happy about the return of her fiancé, which cannot be said about her father. He considers Langton a frivolous and frivolous young man, because he dreams of becoming an artist and insists that his daughter break off this relationship. In order to somehow escape from the troubles that have fallen on him, Town goes to a local eatery. There, in a fit of drunken stupor, he starts a conflict that threatens him with imprisonment. To avoid him, Town decides to run away. After some time of his ordeals, he finds himself in a roadside tavern, where he meets a mysterious man in a green uniform. Waking up after yesterday's drinking, the young bully finds himself in a military camp, and the man who got him drunk yesterday turns out to be Major Rogers. The Major is recruiting a detachment of volunteers to make a desperate expedition, and Langton's cartography skills will be very useful to him. This acquaintance will turn the life of the protagonist once and for all. Having passed all the tests, he will return as a real man who does not give up either his dream or his woman.