The

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

worked together to commission the Northwest Passage expedition of 1741. The commander of the expedition, Christopher Middleton, had been a captain of ships of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

, sailing on these ships that made annual voyages to supply the company's outposts, since 1721. He had a scientific mind, and had published observations that earned him election the Royal Society, in 1737. He commanded , while his cousin and protege, William Moor, also formerly a captain of Hudson's Bay Company ships, commanded . Arthur Dobbs, a member of the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

played an influential role in organizing the expedition.

Orders

J.C. Beaglehole, in his ''Life of Captain James Cook'', notes that the expedition was commissioned in 1740, the same year George Anson was directed to lead a squadron into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, to attack Spanish shipping. He noted that Middleton's orders suggested he might rendezvous with Anson, off

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Vessels and crew

Voyage

Ice blocks navigation in Hudson's Bay for over half the year. Middleton was able to get the government to put pressure on the Hudson's Bay Company to allow his ships to moor off Fort Prince of Wales, at the mouth of the Churchill River, and to provide room for his crew, during the winter of 1742, so he could begin his expedition as soon as the Bay was free of ice. His crew were housed in an older wooden fort that had been abandoned, in place of the new stone fort. Ten of his crew died, over the winter, and many others lost fingers and toes to frostbite. The expedition was able to set off in June 1742. They proceeded north to a deep indentation he eventually named Wager Bay, after Charles Wager,

First Lord of the Admiralty First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the title of the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible f ...

Aftermath

Dobbs thought that Middleton's reports that he did not find a Northwest Passage were part of a hoax, and the two men conducted a pamphlet campaign, denouncing each other.

James Cook's third expedition

Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

's third and final expedition sent him back to the Pacific Ocean, to look for a Northwest Passage from the Pacific end. Cook consulted with Middleton, prior to his departure.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite book , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=mIk8x6lsusQC&dq=%22James+Cook%22+%22Christopher+Middleton%22&pg=PA477 , title = The Life of Captain James Cook , author = J. C. Beaglehole , publisher =

Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It is currently a member of the Ass ...

, year = 1992 , page = 477 , isbn = 9780804720090 , accessdate = 2020-02-05 , quote = having penetrated it he was to explore the western American coast, form alliance with the inhabitants, take possession of the country, winter on the coast or on some suitable island or return through the passage, as he thought best, perhaps meet Anson off California {{cite news , url = https://www.bl.uk/the-voyages-of-captain-james-cook/articles/18th-century-voyages-for-the-northwest-passage?mobile=on , title = 18th-century voyages for the Northwest Passage , work =

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, accessdate = 2020-02-05 , quote = The instigator of both of these expeditions was the indefatigable Irish MP Arthur Dobbs who was one of the main publicists for the Northwest Passage. Dobbs fell out with Middleton after the latter failed to find a passage and a pamphlet war between the two ensued. {{cite news , url = https://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/christopher-middleton-north-west-passage-expedition-1741%E2%80%9342 , title = Christopher Middleton North-West Passage expedition 1741–42 , work = Royal Museums Greenwich , accessdate = 2020-02-05 , quote = Middleton concluded that his new discovery was indeed a closed bay and did not lead to the North-West Passage. When the expedition left Wager Bay it headed north into Roes Welcome Sound. Ice made a journey into the Foxe Basin impossible and an investigation of Repulse Bay left Middleton satisfied that there was no route to the Pacific by heading west, so he set sail for England. {{cite DCB , url = http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/moor_william_3E.html , title = Moor, William , author =

Glyndwr Williams Glyndwr Williams (1932–24 January 2022) was a professor of history at Queen Mary, University of London since 1974, specialising in the history of exploration and the history of Europe overseas. He was appointed a professor emeritus of the Uni ...

, year = 1974 , volume = 3 , location =

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, publisher =

University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911. The press originally printed only examination books and the university calendar. Its first s ...

{{cite journal , url = https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/65301 , title = Christopher Middleton (ca. 1690–1770) , author =

William Barr William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as United States Attorney General, United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the first adminis ...

, date = March 1983 , journal =

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

, series = Arctic Profiles , volume = 36 , issue = 1 , pages = 98–99 , doi = 10.14430/arctic2249 , doi-access = free {{cite encyclopedia , url = http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/middleton_christopher_3E.html , title = Middleton, Christopher , encyclopedia = Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 1741–1770 , author =

, year = 1974 , volume = 3 , location =

, publisher =

{{cite encyclopedia , title = Middleton, Christopher , title-link = :s:Middleton, Christopher (d.1770) (DNB00) , encyclopedia = Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900 , author =

John Knox Laughton Sir John Knox Laughton (23 April 1830 – 14 September 1915) was a British naval historian and arguably the first to delineate the importance of the subject of Naval history as an independent field of study. Beginning his working life as a math ...

, year = 1894 , volume = 37 , location =

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, publisher = Smith, Elder & Co. , pages = 342–343 Exploration of the Arctic Maritime history of Canada