Vitus Bering. Biography
The true face of Vitus Bering was restored
The second Kamchatka expedition began on June 4, 1741, when the packet boats “St. Peter” (the flagship ship under the command of Vitus Bering) and “St. Paul” (under the command of Alexei Chirikov) left Avachinskaya Bay to the shores of America, and ended for Captain-Commander Bering 8 December 1741, death from scurvy. More details about the first and second Kamchatka expeditions, led by the fearless Dane, are described in Chapter 1.
More than two centuries have passed. Over the years, the cross erected by the team of “St. Peter” rotted, and the burial place of the fearless Russian officer was lost. Moreover, his travel diary disappeared, letters to his wife and children disappeared, and sketches by artists who visited Kamchatka in the 18th century and saw his burial place disappeared. It seemed like we had lost him forever? But, fortunately, no, we didn’t lose it! Russia is lucky that its vast expanses have not yet run out of enthusiasts who know our national history, remember it and do everything to ensure that our descendants know about it. And the fact is that the new “Ivans who do not remember their kinship” make up a very small part of the Russian people.
So, in the anniversary year of the historical voyage (1991), the idea was born in the Moscow club “Adventure” to find the grave of the famous captain-commander. And the idea was very interesting: it was possible not only to find the grave of Vitus Bering, but also to make the burial a real historical monument and restore its true appearance. It is interesting that out of almost 5 thousand participants of the Great Northern Expedition, including both Kamchatka expeditions, portrait images of only... five are reliably known these days! These are Stepan Krasheninnikov, Johann Gmelin, Vitus Bering, Vasily and Tatyana Pronchishchev. And the most controversial has always been the portrait of Vitus Jonassen Bering himself.
The name of Vitus Bering is immortalized on Russian geographical maps, in the names of our ships and in the history of Russia. But fate played an extremely cruel joke on him: serious historical research in the late 1990s showed that what is looking at us from all the portraits in reference books and encyclopedias is not the same Vitus Bering, who led both Kamchatka expeditions of the 18th century and mapped all the northern and eastern borders of Russia (from the White Sea to the Amur). Over the course of two centuries, different faces were attributed to Bering. The first portrait was published in 1912 and immediately caused confusion among historians.
As you know, Vitus Bering never wore his awards. And yet, the portrait showed “someone” with the Order... of St. George, IV degree, established... 28 years after the death of V. Bering. Only in Soviet times was it possible to establish that the name of this officer was Christian Bering, a senior engineer of the engineering troops of the times of Paul I, awarded this order and cross for the storming of Izmail.
Another well-known mistake was the portrait discovered in 1945 of the great-great-granddaughter of Captain-Commander E. Tregubova, who lived in Moscow. After its publication in the Izvestia of the All-Union Geographical Society, another “face of Bering” appeared. However, 20 years later, the largest Soviet historian Mikhail Belov stated: “The person depicted in the portrait is not a great navigator at all, but the famous Danish poet and historian Vitus Pedersen Bering, in whose honor the future navigator was named.” But what did the real Vitus Jonassen Behring look like?
So, in 1991, a Russian-Danish archaeological expedition to the Commander Islands took place. And its participants managed to find the lost burial! You can read in detail about the preparation and conduct of this expedition in the collection “The Last Expedition of Vitus Bering,” which was published by the Moscow publishing house Progress Publishing Group JSC in 1992. Therefore, we will leave the details outside the scope of this book and provide only the information that is necessary here.
The work carried out in the archives showed that during the burial, the grave cross was installed right at the head of the captain-commander. Moreover, this burial was directly next to the last dugout of Vitus Bering.
In 1979 and 1981, the first scientific archaeological expedition in all years worked at the wintering site of the Bering expedition under the leadership of V. Lenkov, an employee of the Institute of the History of Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East. Then, for the first time, a special biochemical method was used in the field. The fact is that in burial places there is usually an increased content of phosphates and proteins. Here, the researchers’ task comes down to taking soil samples from certain depths, analyzing and identifying areas with increased concentrations of the above compounds. And this method completely justified itself: Vitus Bering’s dugout was found.
Ten years later, in 1991, a group of underwater archaeologists led by Andrei Stanyukovich arrived at the burial site, who were supposed to clarify the condition of the burial site and find the last 4 cannons from the packet boat “St. Peter”. The second part of the archaeological expedition arrived behind them, along with which came a group from Denmark led by the director of the municipal museum from the city of Horsens (Bering's homeland) Ole Scherring.
The first human bones were found on the second day after the arrival of the main research team. A few days later, the remains of four Bering satellites were found. A pectoral cross was found on one of them, and some kind of mark was visible at the head of the head, possibly from a vertical wooden object.
On August 6, the Danes found the remains of a 60-year-old man, in a kind of coffin made from ship planks that were buried in the ground below others. By all indications, this was the captain-commander himself. Next to him were supposedly the person responsible for food for the expedition (commissar), warrant officer Ivan Lagunov, the oldest member of the expedition - 70-year-old navigator Andris Ezelberg, skipper Nikita Khotyaintsev, naval grenadier Ivan Tretyakov, naval soldier Fyodor Panov or gunner 2nd class Prokofy Yufimtsev. On August 13, all search work on the island was completed.
During the expedition, a grave with six burials of approximately the same time of origin was found. According to Doctor of Medical Sciences from the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Science, Professor Viktor Zvyagin, in a dozen or two years, their skeletons could completely disappear - dissolve, and certainly no one would ever find them. At this grave of Vitus Jonassen Bering and his companions, a wooden cross was erected and a fence made of driftwood and mooring rope was erected.
A year after the successful completion of the expedition, the true appearance of the captain-commander was restored using plastic reconstruction. To put an end to this long and complicated matter, expedition members and experts looked for the most convincing evidence. They could be the skulls of V. Bering’s parents or his children. But, unfortunately, their burials were also lost.
The same professor Viktor Zvyagin, who came up with an original way of collecting materials necessary for identification, took on the task of restoring Bering’s true face. A pedigree of the Berings was compiled, both in the male and female lines, in which there were about 150 people. In Russia and Denmark - wherever possible - there was a search for portraits, engravings, lithographs, photographs depicting the descendants of the navigator. Thus, it was possible to obtain iconographic (portrait) material, which was immediately transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine. Here the main features inherent in the Bering family were revealed. The verdict was clear - in 1991, the grave of Vitus Jonassen Bering was indeed found. The probability of error in this case was practically zero. So, after two and a half centuries, the great navigator found his own identity. Already today this story has been continued.
On November 23, 2009, at the Moscow House of Russian Abroad, on Taganka, an evening from the series “Meetings with Russian America” took place. The theme of the evening was the legendary and in some sense controversial - for most compatriots - the figure of Vitus Bering, more precisely, the captain-commander of the Russian fleet Vitus Jonassen Bering - the head of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions, the discoverer of the northwestern American coast - Alaska (Russian America), who in a life of sailing on all four oceans of the planet.
The theme of the evening sounded intriguing: “Vitus Bering. Obvious and incredible." The invitation card for the meeting participant depicted two heads of the Berings - Vitus Pedersen Bering, a round-faced, well-fed burgher, and the wide-boned, courageous face of Vitus Jonassen Bering, weathered by Siberian frosts and ocean salt. "Who is Who?" - This question, which is in demand in modern Russian reality, hovered in the audience... The results of the above Russian-Danish archaeological expedition, which took place on Bering Island, were presented to the public at the Russian Geographical Society in the same 1992. Yes, in Commander Bay the remains of the deceased Vitus Jonassen Bering were discovered and identified, and his face was reconstructed from the preserved skull. The reconstruction of the image of V.Y. Bering was carried out using the Gerasimov method at the Russian Center for Forensic Medicine in Moscow. Here, the features of all identified portraits, drawings, as well as the descendants of this Bering family living in Russia and abroad, were studied and taken into account.
The results of the examination were simultaneously recognized both in our country and abroad, published in dozens of scientific publications and countless seas of “mass media”. Taking into account all the proper nuances required by the experts, the artists painted a portrait of the commander, carefully reproducing the details of the naval costume of that time (1732), corresponding to the rank of captain-commander. One of the portraits of the navigator Bering was presented to Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov. After all, one of Bering’s descendants was also the mayor of Moscow. Two wonderful portraits of V.I. Bering with hallmarks by E. Bogdanov were acquired by the Bering Museum in the city of Horsens. On the initiative and with the assistance of the Russian America Society, a postal envelope with a portrait of Bering was issued and scientific amendments were made to the next volume of the Great Russian Encyclopedia. In Alaska, the true Bering is also accepted by the scientific community and published in museum publications. And yet, domestic periodicals still accompany publications about V. I. Bering with a portrait of the chubby uncle of the navigator - V. P. Bering, whose name and status as a poet of the 17th century the author of the article treats with respect. But, at the same time, he believes that it is time to correct the historical mistake.
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Vitus Jonassen Bering is one of the pioneers whose life has become a symbol of courage and dedication. From a young age, the traveler was fascinated by the water element. Thanks to the man’s thirst for knowledge and skill, the first sea expedition took place, bringing the Russian state the title of “the cradle of cartography.”
Childhood and youth
The biography of the great navigator began in the city of Horsens, founded on the Danish coast of the Little Belt Strait. The boy was born on August 2 (old style - August 12), 1861. Vitus became the third son in the family of the bankrupt aristocrat Anna Pederdatter Behring and customs worker Jonas Svendsen.
The boy received both his first and last names from his mother. Despite the family's difficult financial situation, Anna Pederdatter's pedigree could serve Vitus well in the future.
The unusual name was a tribute to the memory of his mother's late brother, who became famous for his service at the Royal Court. The complete coincidence of the name became the reason why contemporaries accompany articles about the navigator with incorrect photographs, confusing representatives of the same family.
Poet Vitus Bering, whose portrait was long passed off as an image of a navigator Parents attached great importance to the education of their children, so Vitus learned to read and write early. The boy attended school, which was located on the same street where his parents' house stood. Despite his curiosity, the child ran away from classes at the first opportunity to go to the port. Vitus spent a lot of time talking with sailors, who told Bering about exciting sea adventures.
At the age of 14, immediately after graduating from school, Vitus signed up as a sailor on a Dutch ship. The young traveler visited the Caribbean islands and spent a lot of time in the East Indies. Realizing that he did not have enough knowledge to build a career, Vitus went ashore in Amsterdam, where he easily entered the naval cadet corps.
Discoveries
The completion of Bering's studies coincided with his interest in mastering the maritime craft. The agents, whose task was to recruit foreign specialists, immediately drew attention to Vitus, who was distinguished by his relaxed character and self-control, so necessary at sea.
In 1704, Bering moved to Russia, where he quickly moved up the career ladder. But after 20 years of service, marked only by positive characteristics and awards, the navigator resigned. Historians claim that the reason for the act was Bering’s pride. The man did not receive the rank of captain of the 1st rank, which the ambitious sailor had long dreamed of.
Geographical discoveries that glorified the name of Vitus occurred during the first Kamchatka expedition. In 1724, by order of Peter the Great, the Russian fleet set out to explore new lands. The only specialist who could cope with such a difficult task was Bering.
For five years, the man explored and recorded on the map the shores of Chukotka and Kamchatka. Bering's merits include refuting speculation that America is united with Asia, and Kamchatka is inseparable from Japan. Alas, such impressive results of the expedition did not receive due attention from the Admiralty.
Officials decided that Bering had not lived up to expectations and had poorly carried out the tsar’s orders. The importance of Vitus’s discoveries was confirmed by Vitus, who familiarized himself with the navigator’s maps in 1778. Impressed by the painstaking work, the Englishman named the strait between Eurasia and America in honor of the navigator whom he did not know personally.
The second Kamchatka expedition was assembled on the initiative of Vitus himself, who was convinced of the need to study Siberia, the Far East and the shores of the Northern Seas. This time the geography of the study and the tasks assigned to the fleet were much larger. Therefore, Bering decided to go on an expedition on two ships.
Command of the second ship was entrusted to Alexey Chirikov. The man served as an assistant captain in the first Kamchatka expedition and earned Bering’s boundless trust. The researchers' plans were to explore Siberia, get to Kamchatka and move to the shores of North America to get a detailed look at the little-visited shores.
Personal life
During the second Kamchatka expedition, Vitus Bering was accompanied by his wife and children. Back in 1713, the navigator married the daughter of a merchant from Vyborg, Anna Christina Pülze.
At first, the young wife calmly let her lover go on sea voyages. The woman herself took care of the house and raised children.
During the first 18 years of marriage, the couple had 8 children, but only four survived: Jonas, Thomas, Anton and Anna Helga.
By the time her daughter was born, Anna Christina was tired of her husband’s constant absence. Leaving the grown-up Jonas and Thomas in the care of relatives from Vyborg, the woman collected silver and porcelain and, taking Anton and Anna, set off on a trip with her husband.
Death
When leaving Avachinskaya Bay towards North America, the ship “St. Peter”, led by Bering, got lost in the open sea. Bad weather made it impossible to determine the location of the ship, and the scurvy that broke out began to destroy the crew of the ship.
Bering was one of the last to be affected by the unpleasant illness. Even feeling weak, the researcher did not leave control of the ship. An unexpected strip of snow-covered land on the horizon became hope for salvation.
But on December 8, 1741, a month after going ashore, Vitus Bering finally lost his strength and died in a hastily built dugout. The man was buried on an unnamed island, which in the future will be designated on maps as Bering Island.
In 1991, a special archaeological team discovered the remains of Vitus. A detailed study led to the conclusion that the cause of the traveler’s death was an unknown disease, not similar in characteristics to scurvy.
According to Olga Sotnikova, the great-great-granddaughter of the sailor Sotnikov, who sailed under the command of Bering, the great traveler died at the hands of his own subordinates. Due to a nervous breakdown, which caused several strategic mistakes, the crew of the St. Peter found themselves on a desert island, where they could not find food or shelter.
The angry sailors buried their commander alive in the ground. But the analyzes of the discoverer’s skeleton do not confirm the theory. In 1992, the remains of the navigator and unknown sailors were returned to the ground on the territory of Commander Bay.
Memory
- In 1818, the Kamchatka (or Beaver) Sea began to be called the Bering Sea.
- In 1937, geographer Erik Hulten proposed the designation Beringia, which includes the Bering Strait, the Bering and Chukchi Seas, part of Kamchatka and part of Alaska.
- In 1945, a monument to the navigator who founded the city was erected on the territory of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
- In 1957, in the Gulf of the Bering Sea, the village “Beringovsky” was named in honor of the traveler. Before this, the settlement was called “Ugolnoye”.
- In 1970, a documentary film directed by Yuri Shvyrev, “The Ballad of Bering and His Friends,” was released.
- In 2006, Kamchatka State Pedagogical Institute, by order of the Minister of Education, was renamed Kamchatka State University named after Vitus Bering.
- In 2016, in honor of the 275th anniversary of the discovery of the Commander Islands, a bronze life-size sculpture of Bering was installed. The monument is located on the territory of Bering Island (Nikolskoye village).
Captain-Commander of the Russian Fleet, polar navigator and explorer Vitus Jonassen Bering was born on August 12, 1681 in the Danish city of Horsens.
In 1710-1712 he served in the Russian Azov Fleet and took part in the war with Turkey. In 1712 he was transferred to the Baltic Fleet, and in 1715 he was promoted to captain of the fourth rank. In 1712-1723 he commanded various ships in the Baltic.
In January 1724, Bering submitted his resignation. In February, the Admiralty Board signed a report, but in August the navigator was reinstated by order of Peter I to the rank of captain of the first rank.
In 1725, Bering was appointed leader of the first Kamchatka expedition. According to the instructions drawn up by Peter I, the expedition was instructed to follow the boats along the coast of Kamchatka to the north in order to find out the existence of a strait between Asia and America.
In the winter of 1725, Bering and a group of associates set off from St. Petersburg to the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk. At the end of 1726, the expedition reached the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, and from July to September 1728, it worked at sea on the boat "St. Gabriel". Bering explored the eastern coast of Kamchatka, the southern and eastern coasts of Chukotka, and discovered the island of St. Lawrence. Having passed through the Strait, later called the Bering Strait, to a latitude of 67°18" and seeing that "the land does not extend further to the north," Bering considered the question of the existence of a strait between Asia and America resolved positively and turned back. On the way back, the Ratmanov Islands and Kruzenshtern, the southern cape of Kamchatka, Lopatka, was mapped.
In St. Petersburg, the results of the expedition were considered unsatisfactory. In May 1732, the Senate issued a decree on the start of the Great Northern Expedition (the second Kamchatka Expedition), which Bering was also entrusted with leading. The expedition's work lasted from 1733 to 1743. 13 ships and more than 600 people took part in them.
In June 1740, two two-masted packet boats - "St. Peter" and "St. Paul" - were built and launched in Okhotsk. In September of the same year, both ships sailed to Kamchatka and spent the winter in Avachinskaya Bay. Bering named the harbor where the expedition wintered Petropavlovskaya, and later the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky grew here.
In June 1741, packet boats left Peter and Paul Harbor. Bering commanded the "St. Peter", and the "St. Paul" was led by Alexei Chirikov.
Walking on parallel courses, the ships lost each other two weeks later due to constant fog. "St. Paul" reached the shores of North America and in October 1741 returned to Avacha Bay.
Bering's ship "St. Peter" reached the coast of North America in July 1741 near Kayak Island. On the way back, Bering discovered the island of Ukamok, small islands called Evdokeevsky, part of the Shumaginsky and some of the Aleutian islands. Chirikov, who reached the Alaskan coast earlier, also discovered part of the Aleutian Islands.
In November 1741, Bering's ship landed on unknown islands, mistaken for Kamchatka (now Komandorskie), and was severely damaged during the stay. The crew moved to the island (now Bering Island) and settled in for the winter, during which some of the people, including Vitus Bering himself, died of scurvy. The 40 survivors moved to Kamchatka the following summer on a boat built from the remains of a ship.
Not a single lifetime image of Bering has survived. In the 1940s, Bering's great-granddaughter donated to the Central Naval Museum a portrait that had been kept in her family for a long time. Later this portrait began to be reproduced as the undisputed image of the captain-commander. Meanwhile, back in the 1940s, Danish scientists concluded that it depicts the Danish historian and poet Vitus Pedersen Bering, the navigator’s uncle. The discovery of Bering's grave in 1991 made it possible to recreate the appearance of the commander from the skull.
The remains of Bering and his companions, a year after their discovery, were solemnly reburied in Commander Bay in Kamchatka, in a specially constructed memorial.
The sea in the North Pacific Ocean is also named after Bering.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
The debate about the benefits and harms of inviting foreigners to work in Russia did not begin today. They have been going on for almost as long as Russia itself has existed.
In different eras there were people who argued that foreigners come to us solely in the name of profit and do not bring any benefit.
To be honest, there were quite a few people who were only interested in money in Russia. But at the same time, thousands of foreigners served our country faithfully. For the sake of the country, which became a second homeland for them, they sometimes did not spare their own lives.
Born on August 12, 1681 in the Danish city of Horsens Vitus Jonassen Bering, a man who was destined to become one of the greatest Russian explorers and discoverers.
The son of a customs officer, Vitus, after graduating from school, entered the Naval Cadet Corps. Together with his friends, the young man dreamed of long campaigns and glory. It was difficult to realize their dreams in little Denmark, and future sailors were thinking about where to enlist.
Exemplary "Ivan Ivanovich"
Russia, where an energetic man ascended the throne Tsar Peter I, opened its arms wide to foreigners, promising great opportunities and generous salaries.
In 1701-1703, Bering made his first big trip to the shores of India, upon his return from which he met with Vice Admiral of the Russian Fleet Cornelius Cruys.
Kruys, a Norwegian by birth, carried out a special mission in Europe on behalf of the Russian Tsar. While arranging for Russian youths to study, he simultaneously recruited young graduates of European maritime schools to serve in the Russian fleet. Among those who were caught in the web of Cornelius Ivanovich, as the vice admiral was called in Russian, was Vitus Bering.
In 1703, Bering began serving in Russia with the rank of non-commissioned lieutenant. The newly minted Ivan Ivanovich (Bering's Russian name) proved himself to be the best. He served in Azov and the Baltic, and soon found himself among those officers to whom the tsar himself drew attention.
Postage stamp issued by the USSR Post in 1981 in honor of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Vitus Bering. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Bering was among the ship commanders who were entrusted with leading the first ships under the Russian flag around Europe from the ports of the Azov Sea to the Baltic. Bering was then appointed commander of Russia's largest combat vessel, the 90-gun battleship Lesnoy.
Ivan Ivanovich started a family and plunged headlong into Russian life. Having visited Denmark in 1715, he never returned there. He was more interested in exploring the vast expanses of Russia.
Special order from the Emperor
Kamchatka was annexed to Russia, and by decree of Peter I, sea communication by boats was established between Okhotsk and the western coast of Kamchatka.
Naval officer Vitus Bering dreamed of doing research, in particular, resolving the question of whether there is an isthmus between Asia and America.
The Russian emperor, whose health was seriously compromised, nevertheless paid great attention to the study of remote Russian lands and the territories that border them.
Shortly before Peter's death, Vitus Bering, who received the rank of captain-commander, was appointed leader of the expedition to the Far East. The emperor's order was to build ships in Kamchatka and use them to “look for where Asia meets America.” At the same time, the expedition participants had to explore little-studied territories of the Far East.
Traveling from the European part of Russia to the Far East in those days was not an easy task and without any research purposes.
It took the participants of the First Kamchatka Expedition two years to reach Okhotsk, reaching the starting point of the route only in January 1727. After wintering, the expedition transported its equipment by boats and dog sleds to the mouth of the Kamchatka River on the east coast of the peninsula, where by the summer of 1728 the construction of the boat “St. Gabriel” was completed.
In July 1728, the Saint Gabriel headed north and then northeast, moving along the coast.
Vitus Bering. Photo: Frame youtube.com
Strait discovered
Before Bering's expedition, no one had studied these places. He discovered Karaginsky Bay with an island, the Gulf of the Cross, Providence Bay, Anadyrsky Bay and the Island of St. Lawrence.
St. Lawrence Island, located 80 km from the Chukotka Peninsula, is located in the strait separating Asia and America. Bering himself, however, did not immediately understand this, since he was never able to discover the coast of America.
"Saint Gabriel" continued sailing and entered the Chukchi Sea. Having reached latitude 67° 18′, Bering ordered to set a return course. The captain-commander considered that he had gone north enough to declare that there is no isthmus between the two continents, but there is a strait.
Subsequently, this strait was named in honor of Vitus Bering, and today we know the Bering Strait.
In 1729, Bering's expedition circumnavigated Kamchatka from the south, identifying Kamchatka Bay and Avacha Bay, after which the researchers returned safely to Okhotsk.
In March 1730, Vitus Bering arrived in St. Petersburg, bringing with him extensive research reports and a detailed map of the explored lands, which was then used not only by Russian, but also by all European cartographers.
In his report, Bering confidently said that the American coast is located relatively close to Kamchatka, and there are every opportunity to establish trade relations with the inhabitants of America. The captain-commander called for more active study of Siberia, which is rich in mineral resources and also promising from an agricultural point of view. Bering also wrote that it was necessary to continue the exploration of the Far East by sending more numerous expeditions there.
Captain-commander against the Russian bureaucracy
During the time that Bering traveled through the Far East, Russia entered the so-called “era of palace coups” and it seemed that no one cared about his research.
However, Ivan Ivanovich managed to achieve his goal even in these conditions. In 1733, he was appointed head of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. It included several teams that had to solve their part of the research problems.
Bering himself, in addition to general leadership, was supposed to, together with his assistant Alexey Chirikov cross Siberia and from Kamchatka head to North America to explore its coast.
Although the expedition had support at the highest level, Bering experienced difficulties from the very beginning. Through Tobolsk he reached Yakutsk, where he was forced to stay for three whole years. All this time he was solving organizational issues and preparing food and equipment. Local authorities looked at the efforts of the captain-commander indifferently and did not provide him with any assistance. In 1737, Bering reached Okhotsk, but here the situation was no better - it seemed that the Second Kamchatka Expedition was not a matter of national importance, but a personal whim of its leader.
Only in the fall of 1740, having spent six years on preparation, Bering’s detachment on the ships “St. Peter” and “St. Paul” moved to the eastern coast of Kamchatka.
In the area of Avachinskaya Bay, the ships stopped for the winter. The bay that sheltered the ships was named Petropavlovskaya, in honor of two ships at once. Bering's expedition founded the settlement of the Petropavlovsk fort, which has now become the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Discovery of America: Russian version
After wintering, the expedition was finally able to begin solving the main task - finding a way to the shores of America. On June 4, 1741, “St. Peter and St. Paul left Avacha Bay. 16 days later, on June 20, after a severe storm, the ships lost each other. Searches for several days yielded no results. Thus, “St. Peter” under the command of Bering and “St. Paul” under the command of Chirikov began to act independently.
Vitus Bering's expedition was caught in a storm near the Aleutian Islands in 1741. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
On July 16, 1741, the St. Peter reached the coast of Alaska in the area of the ridge that was later named in honor of St. Elias.
This was a real triumph for the explorer, but he did not land on shore - Bering was not feeling well, and his condition was deteriorating.
Despite this, the expedition continued. In the area of Kayak Island, the crew set foot on American soil, replenished their supplies of fresh water, and the ship began to move southwest, from time to time noticing individual islands and groups of islands to the north.
Members of the expedition fell ill with scurvy one by one. At the end of August, the first death from this disease was registered - he died sailor Nikita Shumagin. He was buried on one of the open islands, which Bering named in honor of the deceased. It was there that members of the expedition first met the Aleuts.
The ship "St. Peter" is a participant in the international expedition "Russian America-250". It is an exact copy of the ship "St. Peter" by Vitus Bering. 1991 Photo: RIA Novosti / Anatoly Eshtokin
Death during wintering
After staying on the island for a week, “St. Peter” headed further, on September 6, heading west, to the shores of Kamchatka. However, the course was very conditional, since Bering was seriously ill and did not actually control the ship. After surviving a series of storms, the exhausted crew saw land in front of them on November 4, 1741. But this was not the desired Kamchatka, but the islands, which would later be called the Commander Islands.
"St. Peter" dropped anchor not far from the shore, but was torn from its anchor by a wave and thrown over the reefs into a deep bay off the coast, where the waves were not so strong.
The crew had to spend the winter. Provisions and equipment were transported to the shore, where they went down themselves.
There was clean fresh water here, but otherwise the conditions were very difficult. They spent the winter in dugouts covered with tarpaulins.
Captain-Commander Bering turned 60 years old, his health was compromised and there was practically no chance of surviving the winter. He died a month later, in December 1741.
By the spring of 1742, of the 75 people who were part of Bering’s detachment, 46 remained alive. Under the command navigator Sven Waxel On a rebuilt ship in August 1742, they managed to reach Avachinskaya Bay.
Bering's merits were recognized by Captain Cook
Alexey Chirikov on the “St. Paul” also reached the shores of America, suffered many hardships, the death of part of the crew, but managed to return to Kamchatka in the fall of 1741. In the spring of 1742, he went in search of Bering’s detachment, but did not achieve any results. Bering's surviving comrades returned to Kamchatka on their own.
The merits of Vitus Bering were recognized much later, including thanks to foreign researchers. The legendary captain-commander highly appreciated his work James Cook, who proposed to name the Strait between Asia and America the Bering Strait.
In addition, the Bering Sea, Bering Cape and the island on which the discoverer’s grave is located are named in his honor.
Of the 60 years of his life, Vitus Bering spent 38 years in Russian service. Of these 38 years, one and a half decades were spent on Kamchatka expeditions.
Danish navigator, captain-commander of the Russian fleet
Led the 1st and 2nd Kamchatka expeditions. Passed between the Chukotka Peninsula and Alaska, confirming the presence of a strait separating them (later the strait between Russia and the USA was called Bering Strait), reached North America and discovered a number of islands in the Aleutian chain.
An island, a strait, an underwater canyon, a river, a lake, a glacier, two capes, a street in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a sea in the North Pacific Ocean, as well as the Commander Islands are named after the great navigator. In archeology, the northeastern part of Siberia, Chukotka and Alaska (which are now believed to have been previously connected by a strip of land) are often referred to by the general term Beringia.
Brief chronology
1703 graduated from the Amsterdam Naval Cadet Corps
1704, with the rank of second lieutenant, entered service in the Russian Navy, in the Baltic
1710-12 transferred to the Azov Fleet, participated in the war with Turkey
1715 promoted to captain 4th rank
1725-30 headed The first Kamchatka expedition, surveyed and mapped the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and Northeast Asia
1733-41 headed Second Kamchatka expedition, during which it was possible to map the northern and eastern coasts of Russia, the internal territories of Eastern Siberia, explored routes to America and Japan, discovered the coast of Northwestern America, the islands of the Kuril and Aleutian ridges
1741, under difficult conditions of forced wintering on the island, later named after Bering, the captain-commander died. The great navigator was buried on Bering Island in Commander Bay.
Life story
Bering Vitus Jonassen born in 1681 in the Danish city of Horsens, graduated from the cadet corps in Amsterdam in 1703, in the same year he was accepted into the Baltic Fleet with the rank of second lieutenant, and in 1707 he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1710, he was transferred to the Azov Fleet, promoted to captain-lieutenant, and commanded the shrewd Munker. In 1712 he was transferred to the Baltic Fleet, in 1715 he was promoted to captain of the 4th rank.
In 1716 he commanded the ship Pearl. In 1717 he was promoted to captain of the 3rd rank. In 1719 he commanded the ship "Selafail". In 1720 he was promoted to captain of the 2nd rank, commanded the ship "Malburg", then the ship "Lesnoye". In 1724, he was dismissed from service at his request, and then re-employed as commander of the Selafail with the rank of captain 1st rank.
From 1725 to 1730 - boss First Kamchatka expedition. In the middle of the summer of 1728, he explored and mapped the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and Northeast Asia. He discovered two peninsulas (Kamchatsky and Ozerny), Kamchatka Bay, Karaginsky Bay with Karaginsky Island, Cross Bay, Providence Bay and St. Lawrence Island.
In the Chukchi Sea, passing through the Strait (later called the Bering Strait), the expedition reached 62° 24′ With. sh., but because of the tum Ana and the wind did not find the ground and turned back. The following year, Bering managed to move 200 kilometers east from Kamchatka, inspect part of the Kamchatka coast and identify Avacha Bay and Avacha Bay. The discoverer first surveyed over 3,500 kilometers of the western coastline of the sea, later called the Bering Sea.
In 1730 he was promoted to captain-commander.
After returning to St. Petersburg at the end of April 1730, Bering proposed a plan to explore the northern coast of the continent and reach the mouth of the Amur River, the Japanese Islands and America by sea.
Bering was appointed chief Second Kamchatka (Great Northern) Expedition, A. Chirikov became his deputy. On June 4, 1741, Bering and Chirikov, commanding two packet boats, headed from the shores of Kamchatka to the southeast in search of the “land of Joao da Gama,” located on some maps of the 18th century between 46 and 50 ° N. w. For more than a week, the pioneers searched in vain for even a piece of land in the North Pacific Ocean. Both ships headed northeast, but on June 20, due to thick fog, they separated forever. Bering searched for Chirikov for three days: he walked south about 400 kilometers, then moved northeast and crossed the central waters of the Gulf of Alaska for the first time. July 17 at 58° N. w. noticed the ridge (St. Elijah), but did not experience the joy of discovering the American coast: I felt unwell due to worsening heart disease.
In August - September, continuing his voyage along the coast of America, Bering discovered Tumanny Island (Chirikova), five islands (Evdokeevsky), snow mountains (Aleutian Range) on the “mother coast” (Alaska Peninsula), at the southwestern edge of which he discovered the Shumagin Islands and met the Aleuts for the first time. Continuing to go west, sometimes in the north I saw land - separate islands of the Aleutian chain. On November 4, a wave washed the ship to the ground, which turned out to be an island. Here the captain-commander died; 14 people from his detachment died of scurvy. The island was subsequently named after Bering.
Buried on Bering Island in Commander Bay. There are four monuments at the site of Bering's death. Directly at the burial site today there is an iron cross 3.5 m high. At its foot there is a cast-iron plaque with the inscription: “1681-1741. To the great navigator Captain-Commander Vitus Bering from the inhabitants of Kamchatka June 1966.”
Being inquisitive by nature and, like an enlightened monarch, concerned about the benefits for the country, the first Russian emperor was keenly interested in descriptions of travel. The king and his advisers knew about the existence of Anian - that was the name then of the strait between Asia and America - and hoped to use it for practical purposes. At the end of 1724 Peter I I remembered “... something that I had been thinking about for a long time and that other things prevented me from doing, that is, about the road through the Arctic Sea to China and India... Wouldn’t we be happier in exploring such a route than the Dutch and the British?...” and, without putting it off for a long time, , drew up an order for the expedition. Its chief was appointed captain 1st rank, later captain-commander, 44-year-old Vitus Jonassen (in Russian usage - Ivan Ivanovich) Bering, who had already served in Russia for 21 years. The Tsar handed him a secret instruction, written in his own hand, according to which Bering was to reach a large land mass, supposedly extending in a northwesterly direction near the coast of Kamchatka. coast of Kamchatka, walk along the coast, find out whether it connects with North America, and trace the coast of the mainland south to the possessions of European states. The official task was to resolve the question of “whether America has converged with Asia” and to open the Northern Sea Route.
Initially consisting of 34 people, it set off on the road from St. Petersburg on January 24, 1725. Moving through Siberia, they walked to Okhotsk on horseback and on foot, on ships along the rivers. The last 500 km from the mouth of the Yudoma to Okhotsk, the heaviest loads were dragged by harnessing ourselves to sledges. Terrible frosts and hunger reduced the expedition by 15 people. The advance detachment led by V. Bering arrived in Okhotsk on October 1, 1726, and the group that brought up the rear of the expedition, Lieutenant Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg, a Dane in the Russian service, got there only on January 6, 1727. To survive until the end of winter, people had to build several huts and sheds.
The road through the expanses of Russia took 2 years. Along this entire path, equal to a quarter of the length of the earth's equator, Lieutenant Alexei Ilyich Chirikov identified 28 astronomical points, which made it possible for the first time to reveal the true latitudinal extent of Siberia, and, consequently, the northern part of Eurasia.
The expedition members traveled from Okhotsk to Kamchatka on two small ships. To continue the journey at sea, it was necessary to build and equip the boat “St. Gabriel,” on which the expedition set out to sea on July 14, 1728.
As the authors of “Essays on the History of Geographical Discoveries” note, V. Bering, having misunderstood the king’s plan and violated the instructions that prescribed first going south or east from Kamchatka, headed north along the coast of the peninsula, and then northeast along the mainland .
“As a result,” the “Essays...” goes on, “more than 600 km of the northern half of the eastern coast of the peninsula were photographed, and Kamchatsky Peninsula And Ozernoy, and Karaginsky Bay with the island of the same name... The sailors also put 2,500 km of the coastline of Northeast Asia on the map. Along most of the coast they noted high mountains, covered with snow in summer, approaching in many places directly to the sea and rising above it like a wall.” In addition, they opened Bay of the Cross(not knowing that it had already been discovered by K. Ivanov), Provideniya Bay And St. Lawrence Island.
However, the desired part of the land still did not appear. V. Bering, not seeing either the American coast or the turn to the west of the Chukotka coast, ordered A. Chirikov and M. Shpanberg to express their opinions in writing whether the existence of a strait between Asia and America can be considered proven, whether to move further to the north and how far . As a result of this “written meeting,” Bering decided to go further north. On August 16, 1728, the sailors passed through the strait and ended up in the Chukchi Sea. Then Bering turned back, officially motivating his decision by the fact that everything required according to the instructions had been done, the coast did not extend further to the north, and “nothing approached the Chukotsky, or Eastern, corner of the land.” After spending another winter in Nizhnekamchatsk, in the summer of 1729 Bering again made an attempt to reach the American coast, but, having traveled a little more than 200 km, due to strong wind and fog he ordered to return.
The first expedition described the southern half of the eastern and a small part of the western coast of the peninsula for more than 1000 km between the mouths of Kamchatka and Bolshaya, revealing Kamchatka Bay And Avacha Bay. Together with Lieutenant A.I. Chirikov and midshipman Pyotr Avraamovich Chaplin, Bering compiled the final map of the voyage. Despite a number of errors, this map was much more accurate than the previous ones and was highly appreciated by D. Cook. A detailed description of the first marine scientific expedition in Russia was preserved in the ship's log, which was kept by Chirikov and Chaplin.
The Northern Expedition would not have achieved success without auxiliary campaigns led by Cossack Colonel Afanasy Fedotovich Shestakov, Captain Dmitry Ivanovich Pavlutsky, surveyor Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev and navigator Ivan Fedorov.
It was M. Gvozdev and I. Fedorov who completed the opening of the strait between Asia and America, begun by Dezhnev and Popov. They examined both shores of the strait, the islands located in it, and collected all the materials needed to put the strait on the map.
Returning from the expedition, Bering proposed to the government a plan for a new large expedition and expressed his readiness to take part in it. In 1733, he was appointed head of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. His assistant (“comrade”) became A.I. Chirikov, by this time already a captain.
Their task was to explore the American coast from Kamchatka. At the same time, M. Shpanberg was supposed to sail to Japan and establish contact with it, and several detachments were to map the northern shores of Russia from Pechora to the extreme northeast and, if possible, to Kamchatka. An Academic detachment was also formed, whose task was to explore the interior regions of Siberia. The northern detachments worked independently, but all their activities were controlled by V. Bering. The work of the expedition was designed for 6 years.
At the beginning of 1734, V. Bering gathered all the participants of the expedition in Tobolsk. From here several land parties of surveyors left to study the ocean coast. Bering himself headed to Yakutsk, where he had to spend three years. There, under his leadership, an ironworks and a rope workshop were built, the collection of resin, the manufacture of rigging for ships was organized, and equipment and food were sent to Okhotsk for M. Shpanberg’s detachment.
In total, about 800 members of the expedition teams gathered in Yakutsk. The local administration, which was irritated by Bering’s incorruptibility and exactingness, created obstacles to the procurement of food and equipment and wrote denunciations to St. Petersburg against the stubborn “German.” However, V. Bering left Yakutsk only after making sure that the team was fully provided with provisions. In Okhotsk he also had to deal with disorder and corruption of local authorities. The capital's authorities, as is usual in Rus', trusted the denunciations of idlers and bribe-takers, and not the reports of the honest and pedantic Bering.
Finally, at the beginning of September 1740, V. Bering sailed from Okhotsk on two 200-ton ships with crews of 75 people. The ships were named after the apostles of Christ - “St. Peter" and "St. Paul". The expedition spent the winter on the eastern coast of Kamchatka, near Avacha Bay. And on June 4, 1741, eight years after leaving St. Petersburg, Bering ships And Chirikova reached the shores of America. The expedition included the young scientist Georg Wilhelm Steller and Sven (Xavier) Lavrentievich Waxel, who left interesting descriptions of this voyage.
As mentioned above, the German map used by Bering included a mythical landmass. In search of this non-existent land, V. Bering first went to the southeast, to the coordinates indicated on this map. Having lost more than a week in vain and making sure that there was no land in this part of the ocean, the ships headed northeast. But on June 20, thick fog fell on the sea, and the ships were separated forever. From this day on, “St. Peter" and "St. Pavel" made voyages in autonomous mode.
"St. Peter" finally reached the American shore on July 17, 1741. From the deck of the ship one could see the shore and, in the distance, the snowy ridge of St. Elias, almost merging with the clouds, with its peak, Mount St. Elias, 5488 m high. The goal set by the emperor 17 years ago was achieved. But the sixty-year-old captain-commander did not share the joy and triumph of the team. He suffered from scurvy and did not know exactly the coordinates of the ship’s location; acutely experiencing losses and failures, the experienced navigator saw the future in a gloomy light.
Without approaching the mainland, V. Bering moved west along the coast for 4 days. On July 21, he sent people for fresh water and, without even filling all the barrels, despite the stormy weather, headed west, to the shores of Asia.
Scurvy has already killed a third of the crew. On August 10, despairing of moving forward due to a strong headwind, V. Bering decided to go straight to Kamchatka. On August 29, sailors discovered “treeless and deserted islands” off the southwestern tip of Alaska. The captain-commander called them the “Shumagin Islands” - in memory of the sailor buried on one of them. Moving all the time to the west in the open sea, the sailors periodically saw land in the north - it was the Aleutian chain. There the Russians first met with local residents - the Aleuts.
When high mountains covered with snow appeared in the distance on November 4, the sailors mistakenly decided that they had approached Kamchatka. Having landed on the shore, they dug rectangular holes in the sand. To adapt them for housing, roofs were made from sails. Many suffered from scurvy. 20 people died. Only 10 sailors were still standing. The sick Bering lay without getting up. As S.N. wrote in The Earthly Circle. Markov, “...everyone knows what happened next. Arctic foxes gnawed at Bering's boots when he was still alive. In his death throes, Bering buried himself in the sand to warm himself up a little.” After lying there for a whole month, he died on December 6, 1741.
The land to which his ship washed up later received his name and is called Bering Island, and the entire group was christened in honor of the deceased captain-commander Commander Islands. “The sea discovered by F. Popov and S. Dezhnev, along which V. Bering sailed so little in 1728, was called the Bering Strait, through which he was not the first to pass, but the same F. Popov and S. Dezhnev, caused on the map not by them, but by M. Gvozdev and I. Fedorov, and at the suggestion of D. Cook, it was named the Bering Strait. The unfortunate captain-commander Vitus Bering... came to exceptional posthumous glory."
Accepted the team Sven Waxel as senior crew officer. Having walked around the new land, the sailors were convinced that they were on an island. The winter was difficult: frequent storms and hurricanes, unexpected earthquakes, scurvy... By the summer of 1742, 46 people remained alive, including the ten-year-old son of K.L. Vaksel Lorenz, future officer of the Russian fleet Lavrentiy Ksaverevich Vaksel.
The ship "St. Peter" was badly damaged, and it had to be dismantled in order to build a small ship of the same name from its parts. Since all three ship carpenters died of scurvy, the Krasnoyarsk Cossack Savva Starodubtsev took up shipbuilding and successfully completed the construction of a new ship. On August 13, the travelers went to sea and, due to the calm, moving mostly on oars, on August 26, 1742 they reached Petropavlovsk.
