David Shuriila, age 14, of Nashua, N.H., for his question:

WHO WAS FIRST TO USE THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE?

The Northwest Passage is a route for ships between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean via the marine waterways of northern Canada and the coastal waters off north Alaska. It wasn't until 1969 that a U.S. Ice breaking oil tanker, the Manhattan, became the first large vessel to negotiate the passage.

Efforts to discover a navigable sea route from Europe to China and India by way of the ice clogged waters of arctic North America began in the 1490s with the voyages of John Cabot. He was unsuccessful, as were many later attempts.

The ill fated expedition (1845 46) of Sir John Franklin unknowingly came close to finding a route. Franklin's ships disappeared and during attempts to find them, the existence of a Northwest Passage was proved (1850 54).

A Norwegian polar explorer named Roaid Amundsen led his first important expedition from 1903 to 1906 in a small sloop named Gjoa. During this voyage he sailed successfully through the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean