William Baffin and Robert Bylot sailed into the sound in 1616. It was later explored by John Ross in 1818 and Edward Inglefield in 1852.
The sound was especially important in the search for the North Pole. American explorer Elisha Kane used it as a route during his 1853–55 expedition, and later George Nares led the British Arctic Expedition through the region in 1875–76, attempting to reach the Pole. Nares and his crews explored large portions of Ellesmere Island and Greenland.
Inuit communities and hunters have lived and travelled around the sound and northern Greenland for centuries. Inuit knowledge was extremely important to many Arctic expeditions.
We reached the northernmost point of our trip here at 76.9°N latitude (1,500 km from the North Pole). Not quite the furthest north we have travelled, which was our visit to Svalbard in 2023 (78.37785°N,14.24509°E).
In the afternoon we had a Zodiac tour through the sea ice and around the big iceberg.
