GLOBAL WARMING is increasingly opening up the Northwest Passage, an Arctic sea route north of the Canadian mainland, reports the BBC.
Proof of the pudding is the 2014 voyage of the Marshall Island-flagged 22,622-gross ton geared bulk carrier Nunavik, the first cargo ship to traverse the passage unescorted to deliver nickel from the Canadian province of Quebec to China.
Tim Keane, manager of Arctic operations for the ship's owner, Canadian maritime transport firm Fednav, was on board the Nunavik for the voyage.
Mr Keane said the voyage was pleasantly 'boring' - the ship didn't have to spend days struggling through ice.
Instead it did the journey from Quebec to China in 26 days, more than two weeks less than the 41-day return via the Panama Canal.
Back in the 19th Century there was a race to map and navigate the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean as a shortcut between the North Atlantic and North Pacific.
Explorers would take ships up Greenland's west coast, then try to weave through Canada's Arctic islands, before going down the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia.
The problem was that even in the summer the route is mostly blocked by ice. On one of the best-known expeditions - that of the UK's Sir John Franklin in 1845 - all 129 crew members perished after their two vessels got stuck.
Canadian Trade Minister Jim Carr said that the route 'will in a matter of a generation, probably be available year round'.
At the moment it is still a risky business though, with ice remaining a serious problem.
A year prior to the Nunavik's journey, another large vessel - the Nordic Orion - became the first cargo ship to go through the passage, albeit led by a Canadian coastguard icebreaker.
SeaNews Turkey
Proof of the pudding is the 2014 voyage of the Marshall Island-flagged 22,622-gross ton geared bulk carrier Nunavik, the first cargo ship to traverse the passage unescorted to deliver nickel from the Canadian province of Quebec to China.
Tim Keane, manager of Arctic operations for the ship's owner, Canadian maritime transport firm Fednav, was on board the Nunavik for the voyage.
Mr Keane said the voyage was pleasantly 'boring' - the ship didn't have to spend days struggling through ice.
Instead it did the journey from Quebec to China in 26 days, more than two weeks less than the 41-day return via the Panama Canal.
Back in the 19th Century there was a race to map and navigate the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean as a shortcut between the North Atlantic and North Pacific.
Explorers would take ships up Greenland's west coast, then try to weave through Canada's Arctic islands, before going down the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia.
The problem was that even in the summer the route is mostly blocked by ice. On one of the best-known expeditions - that of the UK's Sir John Franklin in 1845 - all 129 crew members perished after their two vessels got stuck.
Canadian Trade Minister Jim Carr said that the route 'will in a matter of a generation, probably be available year round'.
At the moment it is still a risky business though, with ice remaining a serious problem.
A year prior to the Nunavik's journey, another large vessel - the Nordic Orion - became the first cargo ship to go through the passage, albeit led by a Canadian coastguard icebreaker.
SeaNews Turkey