Note:

For 300 hundred years European explorers tried and failed to traverse the hostile waters of the Northwest passage in the hope of finding a viable commercial shipping route between Europe and Asia. Once thought to be a slim landmass close to China and Japan, these unsuccessful Arctic explorations revealed the actual size and vastness of the North American continent, and as early as 1576, explorers set sail to discover the unknown riches of the frozen north.

The tragic Franklin Voyage led by the British naval officer, Sir John Franklin, in 1845, had gone the furthest in opening up the Northwest passage to sustained study and understanding. However after reaching what is now Baffin Bay, they were never seen or heard from again.

Considered the worst tragedy in the history of Arctic exploration, as a result of this disappearance, numerous ships, including the HMS Fury, were sent from England on search and rescue missions for the following 12 years; a continued mission which inadvertently helped to increase the mapping of the Arctic and complete the quest for the Northwest passage.

A highly publicized search for the lost ships was undertaken by Parks Canada in 2008 and by 2016 both had been successfully found.