Melting Arctic?: 2009 Northwest Passage expedition fails near the point that an 1845 expedition failed

2009 Arctic Mariner Expedition - The Northwest Passage in an Open Boat.

Detailed study of recent ice charts has shown that the ice should progressively clear sufficiently to enable the passage.

September 2009 update 

As we approached Simpson Strait, the narrowest point of the Northwest Passage where some of Franklin's men are believed to have crossed in their doomed attempt to escape to the south, the tide rose with us and pushed us forward at some of the quickest speeds of the whole expedition. With 170 miles sailed and just 14 remaining to Gjoa Haven we elected to overnight on a low lying barren rocky island. Todd island is known to have contained the skeletons of some of Franklin's sailors and Marines. It seems a fitting place for us to spend the last night of our journey.

John Franklin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The expedition was last seen by Europeans on 26 July 1845, when Captain Dannett of the whaler Prince of Wales encountered Terror and Erebus moored to an iceberg in Lancaster Sound.
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In 1854, explorer Dr. John Rae, while surveying the Boothia Peninsula for the Hudson's Bay Company, discovered the true fate of Franklin party from talking to Inuit hunters. He was told both ships had become icebound, the men had tried to reach safety on foot but had succumbed to cold and some had resorted to cannibalism.