NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Polar Possessions of the SU. was: Lunars with SNO-T
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2004 Oct 25, 10:01 +0000
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2004 Oct 25, 10:01 +0000
George asked: > I would like to learn more about the modern Northern sea-route. Is there a > recommended publication in English? Does it still operate? How big are the > convoys? Where do the ships over-winter? I once read an article about the shipping route through the North East Passage but, despite scratching my head for the past 24 hours, I can't recall where. The one point that I do remember is that the route has some shoal areas (between the ice edge and the land) such that ships must be either smaller than one would want for such a long voyage or else designed to be relatively shallow draft. In my abortive search for the article, I did come across a review of a book that would likely contain pointers to sources that would answer all of George's questions, though its focus is elsewhere: "The Challenge of Arctic Shipping" by D.L.Vanderzwaag & C.Lamson (McGill-Queens University Press, 1990). Should be available in the U.K., though perhaps only from research libraries of institutions with an interest in the arctic, in shipping or in environmental management. Note that this is the North East Passage (the Northern Sea Route or "Glavsevmorput" to the Russians). The North West Passage is a much more dubious commercial prospect, partly because the heaviest ice is centred on the American side of the pole (thus away from the Asian side) and partly because of the Canadian archipelago complicating the route. Is ice navigation an appropriate topic for the list? From what little I understand of the topic, it doesn't have much to do with position fixing but rather finding ways to manoeuvre around the ever-changing obstacles created by the ice. Trevor Kenchington -- Trevor J. Kenchington PhD Gadus@iStar.ca Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250 R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251 Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555 Science Serving the Fisheries http://home.istar.ca/~gadus