The Times tube ad blunder

[cottonfoo]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/06/times_ther...

Whoops!

[Eric Mc]

The Thunderer has long since abandoned any semblence of accurate reportage.

[Balmoral Green]

And some two hundred and fifty years ago too, I think because it is almost always referred to as the 'Mythical North West Passage' people just assume that it's mythical and never been real.

[Dr_Gonzo]

Surely this could be put forward to the ASA as this is clearly false or misleading advertising?

[Spiritual_Beggar]

Dr_Gonzo said:

Surely this could be put forward to the ASA as this is clearly false or misleading advertising?

So is that TV advert that is constantly on during every advert break!!!

[T89 Callan]

wkers

[TankRizzo]

Balmoral Green said:

And some two hundred and fifty years ago too, I think because it is almost always referred to as the 'Mythical North West Passage' people just assume that it's mythical and never been real.

Errrr...isn't this the North-East Passage?

[ludo]

I seem to remember reading about the Northwest passage shipping thing a while back, and IIRC the issue is that the Norwest passage is now sometimes navigable for ordinary shipping, rather than special adapted ships or ships led by an icebreaker. If that is the case, then the Times is guilty of not understanding (and hence overplaying) the significance of the story and the Register is guilty of not pointing out that the historical crossings were either made by icebreakers (because the passage wasn't free of ice) and/or took more than one season (if you are going back that far), and hence there actually is some novelty in this most recent passage.

from the previous TheRegister story on this issue

TheRegister said:

Since the 1930s the route has seen major ports spring up, carrying over 200,000 tons of freight passing through each year, although this declined with the fall of the Soviet Union.

To put that into perspective, in 2008 Rotterdam handles 378.4 million tons of freight, so the Northwest passage freight represents about five hours worth of traffic into and out of Rottadam (i.e. bugger all)

Judging from the size of the largest container ships, 200,000 tons is about the capacity of four medium sized container ships.

The question is, if the Northwest passage has been safely navigable by ordinary ships for so long, why is it used so little?

Not that any of this matters, satelites have been monitoring sea ice extent in the Arctic for thirty years or so, and IMHO that is a much better indicator of recent changes in the region than mostly anecdotal stories about shipping.

ETA: Apparently the ships were escorted part way by ice breakers, so perhaps it was just that the icebreakers were not needed. As pointed out earlier, it was the northeast passage rather than northwest, which makes it a bit less unusual.

Edited by ludo on Tuesday 6th October 17:07

[Oakey]

TankRizzo said:

Balmoral Green said:

And some two hundred and fifty years ago too, I think because it is almost always referred to as the 'Mythical North West Passage' people just assume that it's mythical and never been real.

Errrr...isn't this the North-East Passage?

Perhaps it depends on which way you're travelling?