Climate Craziness of the Week: NW Passage open “first time in history” and all that… Anthony Watts fires before aiming yet again. Apparently the archaeologists finding the British naval ship HMS Investigator proves that the Northwest Passage was navigable back in the 1850’s. Therefore, there has been no Global Warming. Or, it’s all natural. Both are good.
HMS Investigator sailing the open Northwest Passage? Source: Wikimedia
Years ago I visited the site where the ships the Griper and Hecla spent the winter of 1820 ice-bound off Melville Island, within sight of the western end of the Northwest Passage. Here are two reading comprehension pointers for Anthony’s.
- The HMS Investigator was stuck in the ice for two years before the crew abandoned it.
- The wreckage was easily discovered this year because the sea ice has melted away from the search area.
So how is this “Climate Craziness”? Oh, by the way, the claim that this “shows Arctic Sea Ice conditions similar to 1853″ is just another denialist blogger making things up.
Wott's Up With That? 
It’s an amazing post. I begin to wonder if some, perhaps a lot, of posters there are really taking the whatsit out of wattsit because they can’t mean some of the stuff they write – can they? Please tell me they can’t…
A boat built like a floating bulldozer get stuck in ice for two years, yet this year you could sail a dingy up there to the same spot and somehow than means nothing has changed?
I’m tempted to say, “You couldn’t make this stuff up,” but…
Did nobody tell Anthony that HMS Investigator was searching for Sir John Franklin’s two ships which got stuck in the Northwest Passage in 1849 and were lost with all their crews?
[And now you know… the rest of the story! :-) – Ben]
“Climate Craziness of the week: NW Passage open “first time in history” and all that…” WUWT (Aug6,2010)
So, now WUWT abuses history, in its continuing abuse of science.
In search of the Franklin expedition, HMS Investigator was sent around the Horn, thru the Pacific Ocean and Bering Strait, and along the Alaskan shore.
HMS Investigator did traverse the last leg of the Northwest Passage–but only the last leg–before being caught in the ice in Mercy Bay. One of the cairn messages that McClure (unlike Franklin) had left brought help.
“…The crew were marched (14 days) to HMS Resolute, but she in turn was abandoned to her fate. At one time FIVE CREWS OF ABANDONED SHIPS were crowded aboard the Pole Star. Fortunately two other ships appeared in time to redistribute the rescued men before the journey home to England.” emphasis added
http://www.science20.com/chatter_box/arctic_heroes_3_robert_mcclure
http://www.science20.com/chatter_box/blog/spitting_graves
Excellent point. The HMS Investigator tried to sail west to east but failed, being lost just east of Banks Island. Anthony and his source are either entirely gullible about this expedition or deliberately misleading.