The title and subtitle refer to the repeated failure of British expeditions to find the Northwest Passage, a navigable passageway around the north of the American continent.

[failed verification] These expeditions "became synonymous with failure, adversity and death, with men and ships battling against hopeless odds in a frozen wilderness.

Millais's wife Effie Gray persuaded Trelawny to sit for the picture by agreeing to attend a Turkish bath he was promoting at the time.

[2] When he saw the painting at the Royal Academy exhibition, Trelawny, who was teetotal, was outraged by the fact that Millais had included a glass of grog and a lemon.

[2] Millais received a letter from the explorer Sir George Nares in which he said that the painting had had a powerful effect on the spirit of the nation.

[6] A 1915 cartoon by Joseph Morewood Staniforth entitled "The Dardanelles Passage" was captioned "it might be done and England and France can do it", referring to the Gallipoli campaign, which was then just beginning.

[7] George Bernard Shaw was inspired by the doleful imagery of failure and frustration in the work[citation needed] when he came to write his play Heartbreak House, which emphasises the pathos and impotence of its characters.

The relationship between the main characters, Captain Shotover and Ellie Dunn, was based on the figures in the painting, and one scene partially reproduces the composition.