![]() ![]() Undoubtedly, control of the Northern Hemisphere will hinge upon the ability of submarines, with missiles, to operate undetected under the icecap. However the global strategic positioning of the Passage continues to make it an important operational area for nuclear submarine fleets. Navigation conditions are too formidable under prevailing economic and strategic conditions. With ice conditions changing through climate change there is likely to be regular economical commercial surface navigation through the Passage in the near future. Photographs of nuclear submarines from different countries surfaced at the North Pole confirm that some foreign submarines are present, from time to time, in Canadian waters. Little official public data is available to verify the basis for that attitude, but the existing records lead us to believe that this is probably an everyday occurrence. Nuclear-powered submarines of several nations are probably transiting Canadian waters there on a regular basis. It is generally felt, by Canadians, that there is considerable under–ice marine traffic in the Canadian Arctic waters. This claim gives Canada authority to the sea contained within that sector. Under the Sector Principle, Canada claims Arctic waters from the Canada - Alaska Boundary in the West to the Greenland-Canada Boundary in the East in straight lines converging on the North Pole. Many under–ice voyages are publicly known to have been made either through the Passage itself or to the North Pole (often from ocean to ocean.) Rumors of even more intensive activity abound. Although the tradition of submariners being the "silent service within the silent service" has kept the details of these voyages shrouded in mystery we have been able to track down some of the records. I was not able to find other records of surfacing Soviet submarines surfacing but presumably this has happened at other times. Not to be outdone, the Soviet navy nuclear submarine Leninskiy Komsomolets surfaced at the North Pole but it is unclear whether this is a capability which is routinely practiced. The last part of the Northwest Passage was explored and utilized. That same year two other United States submarines surfaced at the Pole ( USS Sargo and USS Seadragon) signalling that the area at the top of the world had become a regular patrol route. The USS Nautilus, in 1958, sent ripples of excitement to the world when Captain William Anderson revealed that his submarine had passed under the North Pole travelling from the Pacific to the Atlantic.Ĭaptain James Calvert in the USS Skate subsequently surfaced at the Pole in 1960 during a winter cruise emphasizing the strategic significance of the polar waters to the world’s navies. Submarines of at least three nations (the United States, the UK and Russia) have surfaced at the North Pole using special sonar technology to facilitate the point of breakthrough in the ice.Ĭuriously, a Passage to China via the North Pole was proposed to King Henry VIII by Robert Thorne saying that "sailing northwards and passing the Pole, descending to the Equinoctial Line, we shall hit the Spice Islands a shorter way than the Portuguese." Adding "There is no land uninhabitable nor no sea un–navigable." From the experience of US nuclear submarines in the area Thorne’s statement seems not too far from the truth. ![]() Nuclear–powered submarines have been making this voyage for years on missions cloaked in secrecy for many years. Now a new and different type of ship regularly passes under the Arctic Ocean ice pack, often travelling from ocean to ocean. The submarines remained on the surface for 24 hours during which the crews played a cricket match. HMS Tireless and USS Pargo rendezvous at the North Pole in 1991. A List of the Known Underwater Transits of the Canadian Northwest Passage 1958 to 2009īy John MacFarlane (1990 – Revised 1995, 2011 & 2017) ![]()
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