's ill-fated 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage: a British voyage that set out to establish a sailing route through the Arctic and ended with the untimely, mysterious deaths of its two ship crews.

ENGADGET: University of Victoria's Mano underwater robot to prowl Arctic waters for legendary ships

Clydesdale had prided itself on sailing a careful route through the credit crunch of 2008 and 2009.

BBC: Clydesdale Bank

Last year, Transport Minister Keith Brown said passengers would see marked improvements on the route once it started sailing in June 2014.

BBC: Problem hits second ferry serving Western Isles

The paper issued a graphic comparing Friday's sailing with an earlier sailing by the liner, suggesting that Friday's route had deviated far from its usual course.

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Over the past two sailing seasons, Russian oil and gas companies have tested the route for gas condensate and LNG shipments.

CNN: China eyes Arctic options in energy, transport

Sailing along the coast of Siberia by the north-east passage, or Northern Sea Route (NSR), as Russians and mariners call it, cuts the distance between western Europe and east Asia by roughly a third.

ECONOMIST: The melting north | The

Sailing boats that were too tall to pass under the 14 bridges along the river pageant route lined the river from London Bridge to Wapping, in the east, creating an avenue of sails set against the Tower of London and the city's financial center.

CNN: Eyes of world on spectacular Thames royal pageant

The 26-year-old, sailing with co-skipper Alain Gautier, led the 14-strong fleet out of Le Havre en route to Brazil on Wednesday morning.

BBC: SPORT | Other Sport | MacArthur leads across line