England's Search for the Northern Passages in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries

For persistence of effort in the face of adversity no enterprise in the history of exploration was more remarkable than England's search for the northern passages to the Far East. ... Three routes were available: over the North Pole, by the northeast, and by the northwest, and all featured in exploration plans. The polar route seemed the most direct, but other considerations concentrated the effort on the Northeast and Northwest Passages, and by 1600 the northwest was the favoured route. Thus England established in the sixteenth century a pattern of enterprise which persisted over a period of some 350 years. ..