Northwest Passage

Season

1958

6.9

Major Robert Rogers organized "Rogers Rangers" to search for the alleged waterway across the United States during the French and Indian War (1754-1759). Helping Rogers, an experienced explorer and Indian fighter, were Hunk Marriner, another experienced Indian fighter, and Langdon Towne, a Harvard graduate who was the map maker. The episodes told the story of their trials and tribulations searching for the Northwest Passage and their battles with both the French and Indians during this war.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Fight at the River

S1 • E2

The Red Coat

S1 • E3

The Gunsmith

S1 • E4

Surprise Attack

Major Rogers plans for a decisive blow against the French army are thwarted when Ensign Towne is captured by Black Wolf's tribesmen. Rogers must rescue his young officer before the Indians can force him to reveal the Rangers attack plans.

S1 • E5

The Bound Women

S1 • E6

Break Out

Maj. Rogers, Sgt. Marriner and Ens. Towne are captured by a French patrol and thrown into a prison stockade. There they are subject to inhuman conditions and brutal torture by the sadistic French commander, Maj. Marten.

S1 • E7

Court Martial

S1 • E8

The Hostage

During the Rangers attack on Montreal in 1760, Rogers is injured when a wall collapses, is captured and held prisoner by French insurgents. A group of children and a priest help him try to escape.

S1 • E9

Sorrow Song

S1 • E10

The Assassin

S1 • E11

The Long Rifle

An old friend of Hunk's invents a better gunpowder. To attract the Army's interest, Hunk challenges the Army's current gunpowder supplier to a shooting contest.

S1 • E12

War Sign

Rogers and Marriner meet the Martin family while on a scouting trip. The Hurons decide to raid so the Captain decides to make a stand but Mr. Martin is perceived as a coward by his son and the community. The skirmish changes minds.

S1 • E13

The Traitor

S1 • E14

Vengeance Trail

A bounty hunter reports that the Mohegans, an Indian tribe who were previously neutral in the fight between the French and the English colonists, are preparing to go on the warpath against the Anglo-Americans. Rogers distrusts the man's story and over the bounty hunter's objections is determined to investigate first, rather than make a preemptive strike against a previously peaceful tribe.

S1 • E15

The 'Vulture'

Sir Martin Stanley is determined to avenge himself upon Major Rogers and his men because his wife flirted with the Ranger commander when last they met. He blocks all attempts to appropriate funds to pay his troops and then schemes to have Rogers and his two right hand men, Hunk Marriner and Langton Towne shanghaied aboard a sailing ship bound for the far reaches of the British empire.

S1 • E16

The Counterfeiters

Maj. Rogers, Sgt. Marriner and Ens. Towne dine at a local tavern, and when they go to pay the bill, they find that their money--which they've just received from the military paymaster--is counterfeit. An investigation reveals that counterfeiting isn't the only criminal activity going on.

S1 • E17

The Secret of the Cliff

The French capture a British spy upon Quebec's Plains of Abraham and are convinced that he has discovered a route to climb the 200 foot cliffs that protect the city from the St. Lawrence River below. The British army believes this too and sends Rogers with a beautiful double-agent to Quebec to try to learn about the route from the spy who is imprisoned in the city's deepest dungeon.

S1 • E18

Dead Reckoning

S1 • E19

Death Rides the Wind

Two escaped convicts break into a trapper's cabin. While the man is sleeping, they eat his food, steal his pelts and a rifle and leave. What they don't know, however, is that the trapper wasn't sleeping--he was dying of smallpox. When the Rangees discover what has happened, they set out to capture the fleeing men before they're able to get to Portsmouth and bring that contagious, and fatal, disease with them.

S1 • E20

The Fourth Brother

When a local trapper is robbed and murdered, suspicion immediately falls on a family of troublemakers, the Wade brothers. However, Dan Wade, the youngest brother, insists that he had nothing to do with the crime and pleads with Maj. Rogers to help prove his innocence.

S1 • E21

The Ambush

S1 • E22

The Witch

While scouting French army positions, Rogers is shot. He manages to elude his pursuers and floats downstream unconscious until his canoe is recovered by an old woman skilled in herbs and poultices who recently escaped from Indian captivity. The woman is accused of witchcraft by a sick child and when a traitor learns she was caring for the injured Rogers, plans to turn the ranger over to the French for the thousand dollar reward.

S1 • E23

Stab in the Back

Rogers must learn why his men are being killed and stripped of their uniforms before an envoy with important dispatches reaches the Crown Point area. He suspects that a new trading post owner and his beautiful daughter are involved and details Ensign Towne to learn more about the recent arrivals, much to the young man's delight.

S1 • E24

The Deserter

Major Robert Rogers and his Sgt. Hunk are assigned to pursue Pvt. Tom Jason who deserted his post. They discover the young man Tom had left to see his wife Betty and to see his baby. Rogers tries to find a lenient punishment.