Cargoship ‘Thamesborg’ Departs Arctic Northwest Passage After Refloat, Concluding Six-Week Rescue Operation

Around six weeks after running aground in Canada’s Arctic waters Dutch cargo vessel Thamesborg and its icebreaker and tug escorts have left the waters of the Northwest Passage. The convoy is traveling southward in Baffin Bay towards the Davis Strait and will leave Arctic waters in the next few days.

The Thamesborg was refloated last Thursday after reloading 5,000 tons of cargo and emptying the flooded ballast tanks with technical equipment delivered by the icebreaker Botnica. The vessel and its escorts then traveled to sheltered waters in nearby Wrottesley Inlet for a thorough inspection. A day later the vessels began their week-long journey to exit the Arctic. Based on AIS information Thamesborg is expected to reach its original destination Baie-Comeau, Canada by October 24. 

Rather than traveling through Barrow Strait to the west of Baffin Island the convoy passed through the rarely-used Bellot Strait, likely to avoid early ice buildup further north. Bellot Strait is a narrow 13.5 nautical mile long channel connecting the Gulf of Boothia and Brentford Bay in the Canadian Arctic. The strait is just 1.1 nm miles wide with steep walls rising up to 2,500 feet on either side. 

Vessels have to time a passage with the high tide and deal with strong and rapidly changing currents. Waters can flow in both east and westward direction through Bellot Strait depending on winds and tidal conditions. Thamesborg passed through the strait at around 9 knots. 

Bellot Strait was discovered as an alternative route along the Northwest Passage to avoid ice buildup further north in 1957 by a Canadian patrol ship. With a depth of at least 50 feet it proved suitable for deepwater vessels. U.S. and Canadian navigators had been searching for a passage to provide an escape route from sea ice for ships that supplied the Cold War’s Distant Early Warning (DEW) sites along the northern reaches of the continent.

“The route could be used in case the Beaufort Sea ice pack suddenly moved back onto the Alaskan shore, imprisoning the supply ships in Arctic waters,” the NY Times reported in August 1957. Nearly 70 years later Bellot Strait still aids vessels, as in the case of Thamesborg, to avoid icy conditions further north.

It also became the highlight of the U.S.’ first transit of the Northwest Passage that same year when three US Coast Guard Cutters, the Storis, Spar, and Bramble crossed the Canadian Arctic. Storis went on to serve for nearly 65 years until 2007. The new Storis entered into service with the USCG earlier this year.

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