The passengers were promised an “epic journey above the Arctic Circle” including “quaint villages,” “dramatic fjords,” “calving glaciers,” and even a visit to Beechly Island, the location of some grave markers of the Franklin expedition. The 1070 passengers paid between $22,000 and $120,000 for the luxury experience: gourmet meals, high-end boutiques, health and beauty spas – every imaginable entertainment. The $350-million, 820 foot-long Crystal Serenity is a veritable floating Versailles palace. There was something disturbingly grotesque about the voyage. Successful passage of ocean-going vessels (there have been an estimated 60 just since 2012, including two modest passenger ships), the Crystal Serenity is the largest. Global warming projections estimate the passage will become an all-year route at the earliest by 2031, and at the latest by 2100. The dream of fame and riches, which drove so many to this usually futile and often fatal quest, has been finally realized. The most famous and tragic effort was the 1845 expedition of Sir John Franklin – his two ships disappeared and 129 men died. Of the many who died in the search for the Passage, some were motivated by avarice (huge cash prizes were offered for success), some by glory, and many by both. The Canal will eventually fall into relative disuse – it will become too costly and too difficult, if not impossible, to accommodate the new increasingly gigantic ships, and often involves queues of up to 10 days. The Northwest Passage reduces the voyage by 7,000 kilometers and an average of 14 days, compared to the Panama Canal route. The ship left Vancouver on 10 August 2016, arriving in New York on 16 September.
The voyage of the Crystal Serenity through the Northwest Passage proclaimed the route open for routine, if still risky, commercial shipping. Thompson, expert on glacial melt, 2010.Ĭapitalism’s four-century obsession with finding a more profitable route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is finally satisfied. “Global warming presents a clear and present danger to civilization.”
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