August 26, 1905

Gjøa expedition

Gjøa sights the whaler Charles Hansson in Amundsen Gulf

The first outsider to congratulate Amundsen was a San Francisco whaling captain sailing toward him from the opposite end of the passage — and nowhere near Point Barrow.

A sail coming from the west

On the morning of 26 August 1905, in Amundsen Gulf, Roald Amundsen's expedition aboard the 47-ton sloop Gjøa sighted an American whaling schooner approaching from the west.

She was the San Francisco whaler Charles Hansson, commanded by Captain James McKenna. McKenna congratulated Amundsen on connecting the Northwest Passage route and supplied the isolated seven-man party with news from outside.

Because Charles Hansson had entered from the Pacific side, the encounter confirmed to Amundsen that Gjøa had linked its east-to-west route with waters already reached from Bering Strait.

The listed place is the wrong place

The meeting happened in the Canadian Arctic, not near Point Barrow, Alaska. Gjøa passed Point Barrow during the resumed voyage in 1906.

Confirmation did not end the voyage either. By 2 September ice had stopped Gjøa at King Point near Herschel Island, forcing a third Arctic winter; the vessel did not reach Nome until August 1906.

Twelve ships were subsequently icebound near Herschel Island.

Which day counts as completing the passage

Sources pick different milestones. The Fram Museum treats 17 August — when Gjøa reached the easternmost point previously attained from Bering Strait — as the completion; other narratives emphasise the 26 August whaler encounter, or the arrival at Nome.

Amundsen's was the first complete ship navigation of the passage in a single vessel and expedition. Robert McClure's earlier party had traversed the region but abandoned its ship and continued by sledge, and the route Gjøa used was not commercially practical: at points barely one foot of water remained beneath her keel.

Nor was the party moving through empty country. Netsilik Inuit at Gjøa Haven taught expedition members about skin clothing, hunting and dogs, and Inuit communities materially assisted the expedition.

Sources

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What the sources leave uncertain

August 26 is securely attested as the date Gjøa sighted Charles Hansson.
Sources use different milestones for “completion.” The Fram Museum calls August 17—when Gjøa reached the easternmost point previously attained from Bering Strait—the completion of the passage; other narratives emphasize the confirming whaler encounter on August 26 or the vessel’s arrival in Nome in 1906.
The encounter occurred in Amundsen Gulf in the Canadian Arctic, not near Point Barrow, Alaska.