Norway wants historic polar ship returned

OTTAWA, March 15 (UPI) -- Norway says it will appeal to a Canadian review board in an effort to return a sunken ship used by explorer Roald Amundsen from Canada to Norway.

Amundsen was using the ship, the Maud, to sail through the Northeast Passage between 1918 and 1920 but was unable to launch an expedition to the North Pole from there.

The ship was sold to the Hudson's Bay Co., renamed the Baymaud, and was used as a warehouse and radio station before partially sinking in Cambridge Bay in Nunavut, northern Canada, in 1930.

Norway bought the ship back for $1 in 1990 and received a permit to take it back to Norway but the permit has since expired, the BBC reported Thursday.

An application for another permit was denied in December by the Canadian Border Services Agency, which said the ship is important to the nation's heritage.

A Norwegian project called Maud Return Home wants the wreck towed back to Norway for display as part of a museum near Oslo. Project backers said they appealed to the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board in Ottawa to overturn the agency's decision.