King William Island

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King William Island, Nunavut

NASA Landsat satellite image of King William Island

King William Island is a Canadian Arctic island, in the Nunavut Territory. It has an area of 5,062 square miles (13,111 km²), making it the 60th largest island in the world and Canada's 15th largest island. Its population, as of 2001, was 960.

To the east it is separated from the Boothia Peninsula by the James Ross Strait and the Rae Strait. To the west is the Victoria Strait and beyond it Victoria Island. Beyond the Simpson Strait to the south is the Adelaide Peninsula, and the Queen Maud Gulf lies to the southwest.

The island, long occupied by Inuit people, was named for the reigning British King William IV in 1830 by John Ross. A number of other polar explorers, while searching for the Northwest Passage, had spent their winters at King William Island. John Franklin's expedition was stranded in the sea ice northwest of the island; two of Franklin's men are buried at Hall Point on the island's south coast. The island is known for its large populations of caribou who summer there, before walking south over the sea ice in the autumn.

In 1903 explorer Roald Amundsen, looking for the Northwest Passage, sailed through the James Ross Strait and stopped at a natural harbour on the island's south coast. There, unable to proceed due to sea ice, he spent the winters of 1903-4 and 1904-5. There he learned the arctic living skills from the local Netsilik people that were later to be invaluable in his Antarctic explorations. He used his ship Gjøa as a base for explorations in the summer of 1904, sledding the Boothia Peninsula and travelling to the magnetic north pole. Amundsen finally left, after 22 months on the island, in August 1905. The harbour where he lived is now the island's only settlement, Gjoa Haven.