The most stirring event in the Arctic in 1944 was the return voyage of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Schooner St Roch from Halifax to Vancouver by the North-West Passage. Not only was it the first passage made in a single summer season, but it was also by a new and probably better route. In her 1940–42 voyage the St Roch had followed Amundsen's southerly track in the reverse direction, namely eastwards. In 1944 Staff-Sergeant (now Sub-Inspector) H. A. Larsen was again in command for the return westward, but on this occasion a northern route was chosen via Barrow Strait and Melville Sound, where Parry had made his attempts in 1819 and 1820 and Bernier in 1908 and 1910.