The once legendary Northwest Passage across northern Canada is now a very much real. Sufficient ice is melting in The Frozen North that a sailing passage across North America is clearly visible from satellite images. That means deep draft container ships and oil carriers will be able to take the short cut from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans without going around the Cape of Good Hope. In the northern hemisphere sprint, summer and fall the weather is not all that bad and the channel should be open at least three quarters of the years with little or no help from the ice breaker ships.
Bob Kolker
The Inuit nation may rise again B)
The oil tanker SS Manhattan was the first commercial ship to cross the Northwest Passage … in 1969. For this voyage she had been refitted with an icebreaker bow. She was the biggest ever US merchant vessel as well as the biggest icebreaker in history.
… At one point during the voyage, Inuit hunters stopped the vessel and demanded that the vessel master ask permission to cross through Canadian territory, which he did, and they granted.
BTW: Rather than “Good Hope”, don’t you mean the Panama Canal?
From looking around the web, it seems that a pipeline would be required until the passage became an all-weather one. However, it does seem to be considerably shorter for Japan-Europe and China-Europe trade. I wonder how much more expensive and slower the going is, compared to the Panama Canal. One would also have to factor in the possibility that the passage would be a short-lived phenomena, when computing depreciation on the ships.
The Inuit nation may rise again B)
BTW: Rather than “Good Hope”, don’t you mean the Panama Canal?
From looking around the web, it seems that a pipeline would be required until the passage became an all-weather one. However, it does seem to be considerably shorter for Japan-Europe and China-Europe trade. I wonder how much more expensive and slower the going is, compared to the Panama Canal. One would also have to factor in the possibility that the passage would be a short-lived phenomena, when computing depreciation on the ships.
No. Most of the Big Tankers and Big Container ships exceed Panamax. That is why the Panamanians are expanding the size of the Panama Canal. Much of the world’s shipping simply won’t fit.
Bob Kolker
…the size of the Panama Canal. Much of the world’s shipping simply won’t fit.
That would make a NW Passage that much more attractive.
That would make a NW Passage that much more attractive.
My very point. A most of the year round N.W. passage makes the Panama Canal obsolete. The world’s largest tankers and container ships can sail through safely. And shipping from Northern Europe to the Pacific coast is quicker through the N.W. passage then either Panama or going around the Cape of Good Hope.
Aaarrrghhh matey. Going “around the Horn” is hell on wheels even today. That part of the world is the asshole of creation.
Bob Kolker