Sailing Through the Northwest Passage

I really enjoyed watching the documentary about people sailing the Northwest Passage in the Arctic realms of Northern Canada.  The documentary is now on Netflix and is titled "The Polar Sea."  

Because of global warming the ice is melting in this polar region with a dramatic effect on the landscape, animals, and humans. 







Stan Rogers (1949-1983) composed this song, "Northwest Passage."






"Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lie
The sea route to the Orient for which so many died
Seeking gold and glory, leaving broken weathered bones
And a long forgotten lonely cairn of stones

Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea

Three centuries thereafer I take passage overland
In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began
Watching cities rise before me, and behind me sink again
This tardiest explorer driving hard across the plain

Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
To make a Northwest Passage to the sea

Through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west
I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest
Who cracked the mountain ramparts
and showed a path for me
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea

How then am I so different from the first men to this way
Like them I led a sheltered life and threw it all away
To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men
To find there but the road back home again

Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
And make a northwest passage to the sea
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea."
-  Stan Rogers, 1981