Simpson Strait Explained

The Simpson Strait (68.5333°N -127°W) is a natural, shallow waterway separating King William Island to the north from Adelaide Peninsula on Nunavut's mainland to the south. The strait, an arm of the Arctic Ocean, connects the Queen Maud Gulf with Rasmussen Basin's Rae Strait.^[1]

Simpson Strait measures 40miles long and 2miles10miles wide,^[1] and there are several small islands within it: Albert, Beaver, Boulder, Castor, Chens, Club, Comb, Denille, Dolphin, Eta, Hook, Kilwinning, Pollux, Ristvedt, Saatuq, Sarvaq and Taupe.^[2]

History

The English naval officer George Back reached Simpson Strait in 1834, but did not name it.

In 1836, the Hudson's Bay Company wanted to "endeavour to complete the discovery and survey of the northern shores of the American continent" and so it sent the Scottish explorer Thomas Simpson and the Canadian explorer Peter Warren Dease on an expedition. Simpson and Dease reached the Simpson Strait in 1839, and named it in honor of Simpson.

Roald Amundsen traversed it in 1903 during his first successful Northwest Passage voyage.^{[3] [4]}

Notes and References

1. Web site: Simpson Strait . 2008-06-02 . 2000 . The Columbia Gazetteer of North America.
2. Web site: Group Name: Nunavut (Kitikmeot Region) East Centre group . 2008-06-02 . 2007-06-30 . rsgbiota.org.
3. Book: Greely, A. W. . Handbook of Polar Discoveries . March 2007 . 978-1-4067-6645-5.
4. Web site: Northwest Passagevia Simpson Strait . 2008-06-02 . quarkexpeditions.com . https://web.archive.org/web/20080317033256/http://www.quarkexpeditions.com/arctic/northwest-passage-via-simpson-strait/itinerary . 2008-03-17.