Northwestern Passage

Foxe Basin is a shallow Arctic sea north of Hudson Bay, scattered with islands and covered by ice for much of the year. Currents and tides move the ice through the channels leading south. In 1742 Christopher Middleton sailed north through Roes Welcome Sound in search of a Northwest Passage. He reached the entrance of Frozen Strait, which leads towards Foxe Basin, but ice prevented his ships from continuing. These waters were already part of an Inuit world of hunting and travel.