Polar Bear by John B Weller

Neither did William Shakespeare, but the Bard of Avon alluded to Arctic exploration as a metaphor in his play Twelfth Night. 

The double gilt of this opportunity you let time was off, and you are now sailed into the north of my lady’s opinion, where you will hang like an icicle on a Dutchman’s beard unless you redeem it by some laudable attempt, either of valour or policy. 

Dutchman William Barents searched for the Northeast Passage from 1596-7 – unsuccessfully. He is the man after whom the Barents Sea was named. Quark Expeditions is operating the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov’s final transit of the Northeast Passage in 2011. That voyage disembarks in Murmansk after navigating the Barents Sea.