M'Clure Strait was filled with the heaviest floes seen on the voyage, but Prince of Wales Strait was reached without much difficulty.
However, they certainly suggest that under average conditions the passage through Prince of Wales Strait was just as reliably navigable as Amundsen's route, and quite possibly more so.
McGoogan's books feature such inaccuracies as the statements that Victoria Strait was "forever impenetrable to sailing ships" (2001:169) and that Larsen's voyage through Prince of Wales Strait was possible only because he "relied almost entirely" on St.
In other words, his goal was to find what is now called Prince of Wales Strait, which would indeed have been an ideal route.
He quickly discovered the southern part of Banks Island, then followed its eastern coast into Prince of Wales Strait. He wintered in the ice near the strait's northern end, and after a short sledge journey was able to confirm on 26 October 1850 that it opened into Viscount Melville Sound.
The route west of Banks Island was clearly far too dangerous for any further attempts there., but Prince of Wales Strait was a different matter.
Collinson wintered in Hong Kong in 1850-51, then headed north and followed McClure's route up Prince of Wales Strait just after McClure himself had left it.
Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, Viscount Melville Sound, and Prince of Wales Strait.
In 1915, Vilhjalmur Stefansson tried to take his schooner Polar Bear through Prince of Wales Strait, but he was stopped by ice and wintered on Victoria Island.
