Global warming has allowed a father and son to navigate a fabled sea route connecting Europe and Asia. Joe Willis reports.

NEGOTIATING the North-West Passage has been a dream of sailors for more than 400 years. Dozens of explorers have been frustrated in their attempts to navigate through the ice between Canada and Greenland to open a commercial sea route from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Some have even died trying.

In 1845, an expedition led by Sir John Franklin attempted the passage. His two ships disappeared, along with more than 100 crewmen.

When their bodies were later found, it was thought they had resorted to cannibalism to survive.

The route was finally conquered by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in 1906.

The journey took three years in a converted 47-tonne fishing boat. Since then, only a handful of boats have successfully navigated the passage.

However, this year a dramatic reduction of about a million square kilometres of ice compared with last year has opened up the route for the first time since records began.

Jeffrey Allison, 69, and his son, James, from Middleton Tyas, near Richmond, took advantage of the diminishing ice to complete the passage in their 49ft ketch, called Lucky Dragon.

The pair were joined on the trip by novice sailor Phil Welch, a teacher at Lord Lawson of Beamish Community School, in Birtley, near Chester-le-Street.

James Allison, 29, an engineer, was roped in for the trip only when his father's previous crew had to fly home unexpectedly.

He said: "My dad spent the winter studying maps of the shrinking ice and decided there was now a chance of completing the route this year.

"The ice has never been this far back before, and he timed it perfectly."

Although the men had to be permanently on the lookout for icebergs, Mr Allison Jr said the retreat of the ice had made the journey "depressingly easy".

He said: "I felt a bit of a fraud, to be honest."

The men are the first sailors to complete the journey in a glass fibre boat.

They took only 20 days, which is believed to be another record for a sailboat.

They are also the first Britons to sail the route westwards in one season.

The opening of the passage has led scientists to believe the summer Arctic ice may disappear much sooner than expected.

It has already been found that the North-East Passage, running around the north coast of Russia, may also soon be navigable.

These discoveries could mean commercial ships are soon taking profitable shortcuts around the North Pole on their way between Europe and Asia.

It is also believed that the melting of the ice could lead to increased political disputes in the region over who owns the passages.