Diary entries of a sailor named Roald Amundson confirm clear passage in 1903, as do those of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Arctic patrol crew that made regular trips through there in the early 1940s.
It's easy to believe, given the difficulties of making any movie that's halfway decent, let alone a labor of love. (The filmmaker also refused to make it without Ron Perlman, despite pressures to cast a more bankable star.) Among Mr. del Toro's colleagues in this elegant enterprise are the production designer Stephen Scott and the editor Peter Amundson.