The October Cowbridge U3A History Group Meeting will be held in the Lesser Hall Cowbridge at 10am on Thursday 17th.

It will be on the history of the exploration of the Northwest Passage by John Andrews (History Group member).

For centuries people were fascinated by the possibility of a northern sea route from Europe to the Orient, the so-called Northwest Passage.

Its existence was finally proven in 1854 but the first to successfully navigate its full length by boat was Roald Amundsen in 1906. 

Even now, with global warming, the passage is blocked with ice for the majority of the year so the number of transits each year is small.

There have been less than 500 in total with the vast majority being completed in the last 25 years.

The efforts to find the Passage involve stories of incredible hardship, endurance and heroism.

The talk covers the history of the exploration and aims to give a flavour of what those who set out to find the Passage had to endure.

John's interest in this subject was ignited by reading Glyn Williams' book entitled "Arctic Labyrinth" and John has first-hand experience of travelling through the Northwest Passage.  

Visitors are welcome on payment of a small charge, £2.