The purpose of the Bering expedition. Bering's expedition: what secret goals it pursued. From Okhotsk to Nizhnekamchatsk

Abstract on the topic:

Second Kamchatka Expedition

Introduction

April 1732 (280 years ago) a decree was issued on the organization of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, under the leadership of V.I. Bering and A.I. Chirikov, signed by Empress Anna Ioannovna. A targeted study of the heritage of expeditionary research of those years is very relevant today. Information from the 18th century is of great interest, since it refers to a time period characterized by the greatest degree of preservation of the nature of the regions and the traditional culture of the peoples, reflected in documentary sources collected by the expedition members.

Purpose of the abstract: to study the geographical research of the Second Kamchatka Expedition of 1733-1743.

Based on the goal, we have identified the following tasks:

.get acquainted with the biographies of outstanding participants of the Second Kamchatka Expedition

.trace the route of the expedition and identify its most important discoveries

.determine the geographical significance of the expedition

When writing the abstract, we used materials from the library of the Voronezh State Pedagogical University.

Chapter 1. Equipment of the expedition. Participants

1 The purpose and objectives of the Second Kamchatka Expedition

The Admiralty Board was not entirely satisfied with the results of Bering's first expedition. She agreed that in the place where Bering sailed there was no connection, or, as they said then, similarity between the “Kamchatka land” and America, but the isthmus between Asia and the New World could be located to the north. In addition, the Senate indicated (September 13, 1732) that no astronomical observations had been made and no detailed information had been collected about “the local peoples, customs, fruits of the earth, metals and minerals.” Therefore, according to the opinion of the Senate, it was necessary to explore the North Sea against the mouth of the Kolyma, and from here sail to Kamchatka. It is clear that the Senate was not sure of the existence of a strait between Asia and America (Fig. 1).

Bering himself was aware that his voyage of 1728 did not completely solve the problems assigned to him. Immediately upon returning to St. Petersburg, already in April 1730, he submitted a project for a new expedition. In this project, he proposed to build a ship in Kamchatka and try to explore the coast of America on it, which, according to Bering’s proposals, “is not very far from Kamchatka, for example, 150 or 200 miles.” As an argument in favor of this opinion, Bering cited the following considerations: “by searching out, he invented” (i.e., discovered). Finally, Bering pointed out the need to explore the shores of Siberia from the Ob to the Lena.

In April 1732, a decree was issued to equip a new expedition to Kamchatka under the command of Bering. The Senate, the Admiralty Board and the Academy of Sciences took part in condemning the expedition plan. Astronomer Joseph Delisle was commissioned to draw a map of Kamchatka and surrounding countries. Bering's first expedition did not bring data that would resolve the question of how far America is from Asia.

In 1732, Joseph Delisle compiled a map of “the lands and seas located north of the South Sea” for the leadership of the expedition. This map shows the non-existent “Land that Don Juan de Gama saw” south of Kamchatka and east of the “Land of Ieso.” In confirmation of the reality of this Earth, Delisle refers to the above-predicted data from Bering about the location of the land east of Kamchatka. Meanwhile, Bering's message referred to the Commander Islands, which had not yet been discovered at that time. Be that as it may, Delisle recommended looking for Gama Land "at noon" from Kamchatka, east of the so-called Company Land, found by the Dutch in 1643. Regarding this Land of Gama, Delisle speculates whether it connects with America in the California region. How Delisle imagined the land of Gama can be seen from the map he published in Paris in 1752. Delisle's incorrect map was the cause of many failures of Bering's expedition.

According to Bering's project, the second expedition was supposed to reach Kamchatka by land, through Siberia, like the first. It should be noted, however, that the President of the Admiralty Board, Admiral Nikolai Fedorovich Golovin, made a proposal to carry out an expedition to Kamchatka by sea - around South America, past Cape Horn and Japan; Golovin even undertook to become the head of such an enterprise. But his project was not accepted, and the first Russian circumnavigation was carried out only in 1803-1806 under the command of Krusenstern and Lisyansky, who chose exactly the route to Kamchatka that was suggested by Golovin, past Cape Horn.

According to the instructions of the Senate (decree of December 28, 1732), one of the goals of the expedition was to find out whether there is a connection between Kamchatka land and America, and whether there is a passage through the North Sea, i.e. Is it possible to travel by sea from the mouth of the Kolyma to the mouth of Anadyr and Kamchatka? If it turns out that Siberia is connected to America and it is impossible to pass, then find out whether the Midday or Eastern Sea is far on the other side of the earth, and then, as we said, return to Yakutsk through the Lena.

Another goal set by the Senate was to search the American coasts and find a route to Japan; in addition, it was necessary to describe the Ud River and the shore of the mouth of the Udi River to the Amur. The same decree ordered Bering, in accordance with the plans of Peter I, to reach which city or town of European possessions. The closest European possession at that time was the Spanish colony of Mexico. However, Chirikov, in his thoughts on the decree of December 28, 1732, did not advise sailing to Mexico: it would be more expedient, he wrote, to explore the unknown shores of America north of Mexico, 65 and 50 north latitudes. Partly for this reason, and partly out of fear of complications with Spain, the Admiralty Board, at its meeting on February 16, 1733, considering Bering’s instructions, determined that, in its opinion, there is no reasoning for the importance or need to be in the aforementioned European possessions. for those places are already known and marked on maps, and, moreover, the American coasts to 40 degrees north latitude or higher were examined from some Spanish ships.

Thus, the expedition was given purely geographical tasks - to find out whether there was a strait between Asia and America, and also to map the shores of northwestern America.

2 Expedition members

Bering was appointed head of the expedition, Chirikov was appointed as his assistant, and Shpanberg was appointed as his second assistant. The latter was intended as the head of a detachment for sailing to Japan; Subsequently, the Englishman Lieutenant Walton and the Dutchman Midshipman Shelting were assigned to him.

Among the navigators who participated in Bering's voyage, we note the names of Sven Waxel and Sofron Khitrov. They both left notes. For the inventory of the northern shores of Siberia, lieutenants Muravyov and Pavlov were identified, subsequently replaced by Malygin and Skuratov; Ovtsin, whose work was continued by Minin, then by Pronchishchev and Lasinius, who were replaced upon death by Khariton and Dmitry Laptev. The following were appointed from the Academy of Sciences: naturalist Johann Gmelin, then professor of history and geography Gerard Miller, later the famous historiographer, and finally professor of astronomy Louis Delisle de la Croyer; His assistants were students A.D. Krasilnikov, later a member of the Academy of Sciences, and Popov. Gmelin and Miller were subsequently replaced by Steller and I. Fisher. The study of Kamchatka was carried out by student Stepan Krasheninnikov, later an academician. Academicians received a salary of 1,260 rubles per year, and in addition, 40 pounds of flour annually. Each academician had 4 ministers. Students were entitled to a salary of 100 rubles per year, and 30 poods of flour. Hired blacksmiths and carpenters were paid 4 kopecks a day.

Gerard Friedrich (or in Russian Fyodor Ivanovich) Miller was born in 1705 in Hereford, Germany. As a twenty-year-old youth, he was invited to serve at the St. Petersburg Academy with the rank of student. In 1733 he was assigned to the Bering expedition, in which he arrived, together with Gmelin, for 10 years. In Siberia, Miller worked in archives, making extracts from papers related to the history and geography of the region. In addition, he studied the life of the Buryats, Tungus, Ostyaks, and Voguls. Since the Siberian archives then mostly burned down, the materials collected by Miller represent a priceless treasure. Some of the documents were published in the Collection of State Charters and Treaties (1819 - 1828), Additions to Historical Acts in Monuments of Siberian History, in the 2nd edition of Miller's History of Siberia and in other places.

Chapter 2. Bering's voyage to the shores of America

Seven years have already passed since the expedition left St. Petersburg, and Bering has not yet set sail. The Admiralty Board constantly confronted Bering with the slowness of the matter and in January 1737 even deprived him of his extra salary. The departure of the expedition was hampered by mutual bickering among the commanding officers. (Fig. 2) As a result of quarrels, Chirikov and Bering asked for resignation. At the beginning of 1740, Chirikov made the following offer to Bereng: he would go on a brigantine<<Михаил>> on a voyage to inspect the places lying from Kamchatka between the north and the donkey, against the Chukotka nose, and other western sides of America; by autumn Chirikov hoped to return to Okhotsk. But Bering did not agree to this, saying that such a project goes against the instructions given to him.

In June 1740, in Okhotsk, two packet boats were completed and launched, each 80 feet long, two-masted, lifting 6,000 pounds. Each had 14 small cannons. In the summer we came to Okhotsk de la Croyer and Steller. Only on September 8th the ships could go to sea. The packet boat was commanded by Bering himself. In mid-September the ships arrived in Bolsheretsk. Leaving de la Croyer and Steller here, we went from here to Avachinskaya Bay. Here, back in the summer, navigator Ivan Elagin built five residential buildings, three barracks and three barns. Bering (Fig. 3) arrived here on October 6. Since it was late, we had to spend the winter. On October 6, Bering named the harbor at the wintering site, one of the best in the world, Petropavlovskaya. October 6, 1741 should be considered the founding day of the city of Petropavlovsk. On April 18, 1741, Bering sent to his office a detailed report on the actions of the 2nd Kamchatka Expedition: this report bears the signatures of Bering, Chirikov, Chikhachev, Vaksel, Plautin and Khitrov. The package with the report was received in St. Petersburg almost a year later, after the death of the head of the expedition.

On May 1741, Bering, before his speech, convened a council at which the issue of the plan for the upcoming voyage, which had the goal of finding the shores of America, was to be decided. The manual included the ill-fated map of Delisle, on which the fantastic Land of Gama was plotted, the existence of which had already been refuted by the voyage of Spanberg in 1739. Despite the conviction of all members of the expedition that new lands should be sought east of Kamchatka, it was decided to go from Petropavlovsk to the northwest to a latitude of 46 degrees and, if the sought-after land of Gama was not there, then from here to the east. Subsequently, Bering's satellites attributed all the failures to these incorrectly chosen courses. At the same council, it was decided, when they reached land (obviously America), to go along it north to 65 degrees, and then turn west and see Chukotka land. We expected to return at the end of September.

In June 1741, the packet boats "St. Apostle Peter" under the leadership of Bering and "St. Apostle Paul" under the command of Chirikov set off for the shores of America. Bering tried to find the notorious “land of da Gama,” and Chirikov wanted to prove that America was not very far from the eastern corner of Chukotka. Commander Bering vainly ironed the Pacific Ocean in a vain attempt to find the lost land. She didn’t exist then, and she hasn’t appeared now. Storms tossed the ships... Bering's patience was running out (the patience of the crew, presumably, ended much earlier). And he gave the order to turn northeast... On June 20, in heavy fog, the ships lost each other. Next, they had to complete the task separately.

July Chirikov and his “Holy Apostle Paul” reached a land off the coast of America, now bearing the name of the first ruler of Russian settlements in America - the land of Baranov. Two days later, having sent a boat with a dozen sailors to land under the command of navigator Dementyev and not waiting for their return within a week, he sends a second one with four sailors to search for his comrades. Without waiting for the return of the second boat and not being able to approach the shore, Chirikov gave the order to continue sailing.

"Saint Apostle Paul" visited some of the islands of the Aleutian chain. From the report of A.I. Chirikov (Fig. 4) about the voyage to the shores of America. 1741, December 7: “And in the land where we walked and examined about 400 miles, we saw whales, sea lions, walruses, pigs, birds... a lot of them... On this land there are high mountains everywhere and the shores to the sea are steep. .. and on the mountains near the place where they came to the land, as shown above, the forest was quite large... Our shore turned out to be on the western side, 200 fathoms away... They came to us in 7 small leather trays, each with one person... And in the afternoon... they came to our ship in the same 14 trays, one person at a time."

After visiting the islands of the Aleutian ridge, "St. Apostle Paul" headed for Kamchatka and on October 12, 1741, arrived at Peter and Paul Harbor. The packet boat "St. Apostle Peter" was looking for "St. Apostle Paul" from the very first day of their separation. Bering had no idea that he was located next to a chain of islands that Chirikov had already visited. The arguments of Georg Steller, who observed the sea of ​​gulls in the sea, that there should be land nearby and that it was necessary to turn north had no effect on the captain-commander, who was preoccupied with the disappearance of the ship, and even on the contrary, irritated the experienced 60-year-old Bering. The commander wandered for another two months in the hope of finding “St. Apostle Paul.” But it seemed that failure was following him. "Earth da Gama" was never found, the ship was lost... It was impossible to delay any further - the entire expedition was in jeopardy... And on July 14, naval master Sofron Khitrovo, after a long meeting, made the entry necessary for these cases in the ship's log: " And before we left the harbor, on the designated course south-east-shadow-east, we sailed not only up to 46, but also up to 45 degrees, but we didn’t see any land... For this reason, they decided to change one point, keep closer to the north, that is, to go east-north-east..."

The loss of hopes of finding the “land da Gama” and Chirikov’s ship were not the only reasons that forced the commander to change course - out of 102 barrels of water, only half remained; he had to return to Petropavlovsk no later than the end of September if the coast of America was found. But he was not there... On July 14, the packet boat "St. Peter the Apostle" went to the northern latitudes, and a day later Steller saw the outlines of the earth.

In the morning, with clear weather, all doubts disappeared. But due to weak winds, the packet boat was able to approach the shore only on July 20. This was the American northwest. Several sailors, officer Sofron Khitrovo and naturalist Steller set foot on the long-awaited shore.

“It is easy for anyone to imagine how great the joy of everyone was when we finally saw the shore; congratulations poured in from all sides to the captain, who was most responsible for the honor of the discovery,” wrote Steller, excited by the event. Only Bering did not share the general rejoicing - he was already ill. The burden of responsibility for the expedition, failures at the very beginning of the journey - all this greatly depressed Vitus Bering. Everyone rejoiced at the sheer success, the glimpses of future glory, but it was also necessary to return. Only wise with long experience of navigation, elderly, striving for this goal for 9 years, and finally having received it, Bering realized this: Who knows whether the trade winds will delay us here? The coast is unfamiliar to us; we don’t have enough food to survive the winter.

According to the instructions of the Admiralty Board, it was necessary to search for American shores and islands with extreme diligence and diligence, ... to visit them and truly discover what kind of people are on them, and what the place is called, and whether those shores are truly American. Bering could not be denied diligence, but he probably faced a difficult choice: to carry it through to the end. discoverer's cross and explore the land found with such difficulty or not risk the expedition and immediately go back with the illusory hope of returning here with third expedition ... Later researchers will often reproach Bering for indecisiveness, but extensive life experience, according to the testimony of the same Steller (who had a very strained relationship with the commander from the very beginning of the expedition) proved that Bering was more prudent than all his officers.

Already on July 20, looking at the top of Mount St. Elijah, the captain-commander probably decided to follow another part of the instructions, which said: “If time does not allow you to inspect and describe in one summer, then report in detail on that path , and without waiting for the decree, follow and finally bring it to another summer...” And having made this decision, he was already adamant, ordering to stay just as long as necessary to replenish water supplies. Bering did everything he could for Russia; he had no right to risk people’s lives anymore. I could not spend precious time on cartographic research, searching for European cities and studying the life of the aborigines.

But, probably, the general spirit of the expedition turned out to be so strong that fate was again favorable: the captain-commander was forced to yield to the pressure of the young scientist in his desire to explore the “newly invented land” and allowed Steller to join the group of sailors who were supposed to go ashore to replenish water reserves. Naturalist Steller found himself in time trouble. And you can’t call it anything other than the will of providence - what Bering achieved in 9 years, Steller managed to do in 10 hours. The observations he made, together with the data of the navigators, allowed him to draw an unmistakable conclusion - the shore of America had been found. While the team was preparing water, Steller was doing the job for which he was born into this world - he was researching.

Having come across a well-trodden path, he literally rushed headlong in search of people. The Cossack Foma Lepekhin who was accompanying him tried to hold him back: “They’ll pile on you like a gang, you won’t be able to fight back. Look, how it was cut down (about an alder twig). It must have been with a knife or an ax. Let’s go to our own people. After all, they’ll kill you here, or they’ll take you completely. We’ll be lost.” To which Steller reasonably replied: “Fool. There are people here, we need to find them...” Perseverance was partially rewarded - they came across an aboriginal fireplace and Steller was ready to swear that this was a Kamchadal camp, and if not for the landscape and vegetation he could I would still swear. Another mystery awaited him when he came across a pit similar to those in which the Kamchadals fermented fish: four steps along, three across - two human heights. But... there was no smell of fish rot. With the risk that they would be discovered sooner or later, Steller went down into the pit - it turned out to be an underground barn, in which there were birch bark vessels two cubits high, filled with smoked salmon, in others - pure sweet grass, piles of nettles, bundles of pine bark, ropes. made of sea grass of extraordinary strength, arrows that were longer than Kamchatka ones (well planed and painted black). Regarding them, Lepekhin remarked: “It’s no different than Tatar or Tunguska.” They walked another three miles in the hope of meeting residents, until they saw a stream of smoke. But they never managed to get to this fire - on the way, Steller saw a flock of birds, the breed of which he could not determine. Therefore, he asked Lepekhin to shoot one of them. At the sound of the shot, a human scream was heard from the side where they were shooting. Steller rushed there, but there was no one there, although the grass was crushed, as if someone was standing there. Probably one of the locals accompanied them all the time or, in extreme cases, just came across them and watched the uninvited guests in bewilderment. The shot scared him. This shot brought two more results - the shot bird turned out to be previously unknown to science and its discoverer was he - Georg Steller, and also the sound of this shot came to the sailor sent in search of them - it was time to return... But in this short time he managed to collect 160 species of local plants, take samples of household utensils, get acquainted with abandoned dwellings. The very next day, on another island of the Aleutian ridge, the expedition came across American Indians.

The return journey, as Bering had expected, was difficult. Fogs and storms made it difficult for ships to move. Water and provisions were running out. Scurvy plagued people. On November 4, the expedition encountered unknown land. On November 7, Bering ordered the landing. Then no one could have imagined that they were several days' journey from Kamchatka. The difficult time of winter has come. On December 8, 1741, the leader of the expedition, Captain-Commander Vitus Jonassen Bering, died. Command passed to Lieutenant Sven Waxel. People were losing strength. Of the 76 people who landed on the island, 45 survived. Everyone who could stand on their feet hunted sea animals and birds and strengthened the crumbling dugouts.

From the report of Lieutenant S. Vaksel from the Admiralty Board on the voyage with V. Bering to the shores of America. 1742, November 15:

“This island, on which my crew and I spent the winter... is about 130 versts long, 10 versts across. There is no housing on it, but there were no signs that people had ever been on it... When we were on On this island we lived in very poor conditions, since our dwellings were in holes dug in the sand and covered with sails, and in collecting firewood we had an extreme burden, for we were forced to look for and collect firewood along the seashore and carry it on our shoulders with straps for 10 and 12 versts.

They were possessed by a severe scurvy disease... And in the spring, as those animals, out of fear, moved far from us, then they ate sea cats, which for a time in the spring sail to that island... they hunted sea cows, which are of a considerable size, for One cow will contain at least 200 pounds of meat."

Among them were Russians, Danes, Swedes, Germans - and they all fought to complete the expedition with dignity. Georg Steller found something to his liking here too - during his stay on the island, which later received the name Bering, he described 220 species of plants, observed fur seals and sea lions. His great merit was the description of the sea cow - an animal from the order of sirens, which was subsequently completely exterminated and remained only in Steller’s description. Having survived a difficult winter, the crew built a small boat from the remains of the St. Apostle Peter, broken by a storm, on which they returned to Peter and Paul Harbor on August 26, 1742. This completed the second Kamchatka expedition.

In 1743, the Senate suspended the work of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. The results of both expeditions were significant: the American coast was discovered, the strait between Asia and America was explored, the Kuril Islands, the coast of America, the Aleutian Islands were studied, and ideas about the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Kamchatka, and Japan were clarified.

Kamchatka expedition America

Conclusion

The Second Kamchatka Expedition was a grandiose enterprise even on a modern scale. Her work covered all of Siberia, right up to Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, Japan, and America. The result of the expedition was: discoveries of northwestern America, description of Kamchatka by S.P. Krasheninnikov and G. Steller, works by I.G. Gmelin on the study of Siberia, extremely important materials on the historical geography of Siberia, collected by G.F. Miller, and, finally, a completely exceptional feat in the history of geographical discoveries - the description of the northern coast of Siberia.

List of used literature

1.Berg L.S., History of Russian geographical discoveries / L.S. Berg. - M., 1962. - 266 p.

.Berg L.S., Discovery of Kamchatka and the Bering expedition/ L.S. Berg - M.-L. 1946. pp. 119, 187, 220

.Sokolov A., Northern expedition of 1733-43//p. 190-469 with maps

.Route of the second Kamchatka expedition-

.The main routes of the northern detachments of the Second Kamchatka Expedition - [Appendix 2]

.Bering Vitus (Ivan Ivanovich, 1680 -1741)

.Alexey Ilyich Chirikov-

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(1703-1748)

Route of the First Kamchatka Expedition

The great Russian navigator and talented scientist-researcher, discoverer of North-West America, Captain-Commander Alexei Ilyich Chirikov was born on December 13 (24), 1703 in a small-estate family of a Tula nobleman. The Chirikov family is known in the Tula region; their family estate was located in the village of Averkievskoye-Luzhnoe, Tula district (now the village of Luzhnoe, Dubensky district, Tula region). His father at one time served as commandant in the Kyiv province. The Tula period of the biography of Alexei Chirikov has not been studied. It is known that he lived and was raised in Moscow by his uncle I.R. Chirikov.

Study and service

On a frosty January day in 1715, cousins ​​Alexei and Ivan Chirikov arrived in Moscow. Soon they brought a petition to the Moscow Admiralty Chancellery, in which they wished to enroll them in the “school of mathematics and navigation sciences.” They submitted the petition without any hope, they were already very poor and thin. But after testing their knowledge, they were enrolled, and their studies began, and just a year later, as the most capable students, they were transferred to the Maritime Academy, which was opened in the city on the Neva.

Alexey Chirikov plunged headlong into the study of astronomy and navigation, spherical trigonometry and geodesy, " shipbuilding"and cartography. In the spring of 1721, the first graduation of students from the Maritime Academy took place. At " examination of incremental knowledge“Peter I himself was present. Alexey Chirikov showed such brilliant knowledge that he was immediately promoted to non-commissioned lieutenant. Since then, in admiralty circles, Chirikov began to be called “ learned sailor".

After a short service on a ship of the Baltic Fleet, he was appointed as a teacher at the same Naval Academy, where he taught “various sciences” to midshipmen.

Expedition to unknown places

On December 23, 1724, Peter I signed a decree on organizing a sea expedition to Kamchatka (First Kamchatka Expedition).

“Back in the fall, while rescuing sailors from a sinking ship in icy water, the king caught a cold and fell ill. They were waiting for Peter's death. And he, turning over in his mind the things that he had planned but did not accomplish, remembered that he was going to send an expedition to Kamchatka in order to find out whether there was a strait between Asia and America. And Peter writes the command with his own hand: “ 1) It is necessary to make one or two boats with decks in Kamchatka or another customs place. 2) On these boats, sail near the land that goes north and, as expected (they don’t know the end of it), it seems that that land is part of America. 3) And in order to look for where it came together with America". Peter ordered fleet captain Vitus Bering to command the expedition; Alexei Chirikov and Martyn Shpanberg were appointed as his assistants. At the end of January, Tsar Peter died..."

When approving Chirikov's candidacy, the Admiralty wrote down: " According to training, the midshipman and naval officers were the most skillful". Leaving St. Petersburg in January 1725, Chirikov hardly thought that from that moment his entire future fate would be determined... Bering instructed him not only to equip the expedition, but also to transport the convoy to the eastern outskirts of the country. The expedition spent three years and a month and a half moving from St. Petersburg to Nizhnekamchatsk. The people who were part of the expedition left St. Petersburg in separate groups between January 24 and February 5, 1725. In total, over 60 people went - sailors, soldiers, navigators, midshipmen. They were accompanied by a huge convoy - sails, tackle, anchors, chains, nails for building ships, food. The road along which it was possible to ride horses only reached Tobolsk. Further up to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk there were no paths or roads.

On March 6, 1725, the expedition arrived in Tobolsk and only on July 3, 1727 in Okhotsk. The expedition got here by dividing into three detachments. The hardest thing was for the detachment, which, having captured the heaviest and most cumbersome loads, had to try to sail along the rivers in boats as close as possible to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The passage by boats was unsuccessful, and the cargo was reloaded onto sleds with dog sleds. It was a difficult winter trek, in the coldest temperatures, through mountains, forests and snowy deserts. There was not enough food. Hunger began. Subsequently, Bering wrote in his report: « While walking along the way, the whole team became hungry, and from such hunger they ate dead horse meat, rawhide bags and all sorts of raw leather, clothes and leather shoes ».

In Okhotsk, having stocked up on provisions and ships, the expedition set out on August 22 and 2 weeks later arrived in Bolsheretsk (in Kamchatka). From here she went to Nizhnekamchatsk, where she arrived on March 11, 1728. Alexey Chirikov carried out painstaking scientific work on the way: he described rivers and navigation conditions, collected information about the cities of Siberia, determined their geographical location, observed a lunar eclipse in Ilimsk and other natural phenomena. During the many-thousand-mile journey through the spaces of Russia, Lieutenant A.I. Chirikov identified 28 astronomical points, which made it possible for the first time to determine the true latitudinal extent of Siberia and, consequently, the northern part of Eurasia.

The expedition members, having built the ship "St. Gabriel", left Kamchatka for sea in July 1728 and headed northeast. At first everything went well. But the further north you went, the worse the sailing conditions became. Bering gathered a council. Referring to the instructions of the sovereign and oral testimony of local residents, he stated that " Chukotsky Nose"is separated from America by the sea and, therefore, it is necessary to return back. The captain was supported by naval officer M. Shpanberg. Chirikov did not agree with them, believing that the voyage must be continued along the coast to the mouth of the Kolyma River, or at least until the first ice appears. After two day Bering gave the order to turn to Kamchatka. And again, sailing through a narrow strait, they did not see the mainland - America...

For the first time, the conditions of navigation from the Kamchatka Cape Lopatka to Cape Kekurny in the Bering Strait were determined. 66 geographical objects are described, and the entire northeastern coast of Asia is mapped. In 1730, the Admiralty, having studied the materials received - Bering's reports and officers' diaries - paid special attention to the travel records of Alexei Chirikov.

In June 1731, I. Schumacher wrote to his translator: " Please translate the journal of the naval fleet of Lieutenant Alexei Chirikov, sent with this letter, from St. Petersburg to Kamchatka, into French immediately, since there is a considerable need for it.". A copy of this magazine is kept in the Archive of the Navy in St. Petersburg. But the original document, unfortunately, has been lost. There is an assumption that it is in one of the Western European archives.

Chirikov, unlike Bering" showed prudent firmness during the voyage", and was promoted to captain-lieutenant. On December 20, 1731, "fleet captain-lieutenant Alexey Ilyin son of Chirikov" submitted a petition to the Local Order, in which, in particular, he wrote: " In the current year 1731, he married ensign Yakov Semenov's son Shishkov to his daughter Praskovya"Looking ahead, it must be said that Praskovya Yakovlevna soon went on the Second Kamchatka Expedition and selflessly shared with her husband and children the trials that befell them.

"An undertaking like never before"

IN
1732 Chirikov was urgently summoned to the capital. Bering, summing up the results of the voyage, wrote a note on the economic development of Kamchatka and proposed to equip a new expedition. They became interested in his proposal. In particular, the idea of ​​equipping a new expedition was supported by the Chief Secretary of the Senate I.K. Kirilov. With his active participation, Bering's plan was significantly expanded. In April 1732, a decree was issued on equipping the Second Kamchatka Expedition under the command of Bering. The goal is to search for the northwestern coast of America, open a sea route to Japan, as well as develop industry, crafts, and farming in Siberia and the Far East.

Alexey Ilyich Chirikov without hesitation expressed his readiness to go on a second journey. In the margins of the special Admiralty instructions about the goals and objectives of the upcoming expedition, its main participants made their notes. Bering focused on administrative and economic issues. Chirikov - on the most convenient ways of transporting equipment, organizing research on the coasts of the Arctic Ocean. Concerning " unknown lands"then he believed that America" lies not very far from the eastern corner of Chukotka", between 50° and 65° N there should be populated islands rich in natural resources. Subsequently, these assumptions were justified. Thus, Chirikov was ahead of foreign geographers.

In the project, Chirikov touched upon the problem of preserving the natural environment. Observing frequent fires in the vast expanses of Siberia, causing enormous damage to forestry and fur farming, he proposed specific measures for their protection. Chirikov put forward a rather extraordinary proposal to study the natural resources of Siberia with the help of local residents. He emphasizes: " Since Siberia is so vast in space that it alone is equal to all of Europe, it is not surprising that there are rich ores in it." Therefore, it is necessary to involve "nomadic peoples" in the exploration of existing wealth, so that they "notice the properties of the earth and bring samples of it." "What if something happens? If something good is discovered in this way, then the discoverers will be rewarded."- concluded Alexey Ilyich.

Not for fame

A.I. Chirikov outlived Bering by 8 years. The scurvy he contracted had a detrimental effect on his health. The St. Petersburg climate was not suitable for him. The Admiralty Board, trying to save Alexei Chirikov, exhausted by many years of hardships, appointed him head of the Moscow Admiralty office. In the summer of 1747, Empress Elizabeth, who was in Moscow, received him. During the meeting, he presented her with a map of his voyage to the shores of America.

On September 7, 1747, a personal decree was issued on the award of Chirikov to captain-commander. Alas, fame and honors never reached one of the most outstanding people in Russia in the first half of the 18th century. Chirikov was overcome by consumption and other diseases acquired on long-distance expeditions.

Alexey Ilyich died in the prime of his creative powers, in poverty and obscurity. We don't even know the exact date of his death. Only on December 7, 1748, one of the Admiralty officials wrote down: " And since Captain-Commander Chirikov, who was in charge of Admiralty affairs in Moscow, died, they ordered Prince Volkonsky to be sent to the administration".

After the death of the pioneer, the widow Praskovya Yakovlevna and five children eked out a miserable existence. " While Bering enjoys universal fame, Captain Chirikov is almost forgotten, and few people know his name". The veracity of these words of Jules Verne is undoubted. Unfortunately, Chirikov's life feat for the sake of the fatherland was not appreciated by his contemporaries. Only later, in 1760, the Russian genius M.V. Lomonosov, responding to " History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great" will write: " The American expedition through Kamchatka does not mention Chirikov, who was in charge and went further, which is necessary for our honor. And for this purpose, send to the author a map of these navigations".

Today on the world map you can find several geographical names bearing the name of the great Russian pioneer: Fr. Chirikov in the Gulf of Alaska (USA), four Chirikov capes, two of which are located in Russia (the coast of the Gulf of Anadyr and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk), and two in the USA (Alexander Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean and Attu Island), a seamount in the Pacific Ocean .

Second Kamchatka Expedition

The active development of the Far East by Russia began under Peter the Great almost immediately after the Poltava victory and the end of the northern war with
the conclusion of peace with Sweden in 1721.
The opening of a sea route to Kamchatka would facilitate the study of the North Pacific Ocean. Peter 1 was interested in sea routes to India and
China, the spread of Russian influence on the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, reaching the “unknown part” of North America, where they have not yet reached
reach the French and the British.
Interest in India and China and the ways of penetration there grew in the world after Marco Polo in 1271 - 1295 passed to China by land and
returned back by sea, telling the world about the “kingdoms and wonders” of the East. In 1466, Afanasy Nikitin entered India, telling a description of his
trips. Later, in 1453, the land roads there were blocked by the Ottoman Turks, who captured Constantinople, and Europe was forced
look for sea routes.
Vasco da Gama managed to open this route (through southern Africa), but at the same time the search also went in a southwestern direction. Columbus, Balboa, Cabral,
Magellan discovered the New World to the world. Europe rushed to share this tasty morsel. Pope Alexander Boggia, having arbitrated, gave everything that
lay to the west of the Azores of Spain, to the east of Portugal, which was, in general, a fair decision... for Spain and Portugal... But, to
Much to their chagrin, at that moment other naval powers already existed - England, France, Holland. The showdown dragged on for
century, from which, as we now know, England emerged right in all respects, and declared itself the mistress of the seven seas.
Russia by that time had already become a maritime power and, naturally, could not cede half the world to the powerful, but still tiny England. That's why
The issue of conquering the seas and penetrating China has always been relevant for the empire that was beginning to gain strength.
Somewhere there was a still unknown “land of da Gama”, rich in fur.
In January 1725, Peter 1 ordered the preparation of an expedition to the Pacific Ocean to reach the shores of North America. The expedition was supposed to
to reach some “city of European possessions” in America:
· It is necessary to make one or two boats with decks in Kamchatka, or another place there.
· On these boats (to sail) near the land that goes to the north, and according to hope (they don’t know it) it seems that that land is part of America.
· And in order to look for where it came into contact with America, and to get to which city of European possessions; and if they see a European ship,
find out from him what this bush is called, and take it in writing and visit the shore yourself and take the original statement and, putting it on the map, come here.
On the recommendation of the Admiralty Board, the expedition was led by Vitus Jonassen Bering (1681-1741).
Vitus Jonassen Bering (1681-1741).

The first Kamchatka expedition stopped somewhere off the coast
Kamchatka. In 1726 she reached Okhotsk, from there she reached
Bolsheretsk and Nizhne-Kamchatsk. Only in 1728 did Bering sail from the eastern coast of Kamchatka to Cape Dezhnev, but bad weather did not allow
reach the final goal of the expedition to the shores of America.

In 1732, a ship under the command of M. Gvozdev came so close to the shores of America that
the sailors were able to distinguish its shores, but the eastern headwind again did not allow the “Archangel Gabriel”
get closer to the cherished goal.
In 1733, the government decided to organize the second Kamchatka expedition,
also called the Great Siberian or Great Siberian-Pacific.
Great hopes were placed on this expedition. The expedition had to find ways
navigation on the Arctic Ocean, explore routes to America, Japan, conduct
cartographic research (clarification of the location of the “land of da Gama”), study the life and customs of peoples,
inhabiting these lands.
The expedition included naturalists, geographers, and historians. The future hero of this expedition, Georg
Steller got into it only thanks to his persistence. Bering in every possible way refused to take on board
second physician, but the desire of the young naturalist... to all sorts of difficulties and labors, as well as the desire
to visit the newly invented places was so strong that he obtained permission from Bering
to stay on the ship not as a scientist or physician, but under any conditions.
On June 4, 1741, the packet boats “St. Apostle Peter” under the leadership of Bering and “St.
Pavel” under the command of Chirikov set off for the shores of America. Bering tried to find
the notorious "land da Gama", and Chirikov wanted to prove that America is not very far from Chukotka
eastern corner.
Commander Bering vainly ironed the Pacific Ocean in a vain attempt to find the lost land. She didn’t exist then, and she hasn’t appeared now.
Storms tore the ships... Bering's patience was running out (the patience of the crew, presumably, ended much earlier). And he gave the order
turn northeast... On June 20, in heavy fog, the ships lost each other. Next, they had to complete the task separately.
On July 15, Chirikov and his “Holy Apostle Paul” reached land off the coast of America, which now bears the name of the first ruler of Russian settlements in
America - the land of Baranov. Two days later, having sent a boat with a dozen sailors to the ground under the command of navigator Dementyev and not waiting for them
returning within a week, he sends a second one with four sailors to search for comrades. Without waiting for the return of the second boat and without having
opportunity to approach the shore, Chirikov gave the order to continue the voyage.
“Saint Apostle Paul” visited some of the islands of the Aleutian chain.
From the report of A.I. Chirikov on the voyage to the shores of America. 1741.7 December.
And in the land where we walked and explored about 400 versts, we saw whales, sea lions, walruses, pigs, birds... a lot of them... On this land everywhere
the high mountains and the shores to the sea are steep... and on the mountains near the place where they came to the land, as shown above, the forest is quite large... It turned out that our
shore on the western side, 200 fathoms away... They came to us in 7 small leather trays, each with one person... And in the afternoon... they arrived
to our ship in the same 14 trays, one person each.
After visiting the islands of the Aleutian ridge, "St. Apostle Paul" headed for Kamchatka and on October 12, 1741, arrived at Peter and Paul Harbor.
The packet boat “St. Apostle Peter” was looking for “St. Apostle Paul” from the very first day of their separation, Bering did not even suspect that he was near the ridge
islands that Chirikov has already visited. The arguments of Georg Steller, who observed seagulls in the sea, that there should be land nearby and it is necessary to turn towards
north did not have any effect on the captain-commander, who was preoccupied with the disappearance of the ship, and even vice versa - they irritated the experienced 60-year-old
Bering. The commander wandered for another two months in the hope of finding “St. Apostle Paul.” But it seemed that failure was following him. "Land da Gama" never
found, the ship was lost... It was impossible to delay further - the entire expedition was in jeopardy... And on July 14, naval master Sofron Khitrovo, after
After a long meeting, I made the necessary entry in the ship’s logbook for these cases: “And before we left the harbor, we took the indicated course south-
ost-shadow-ost they sailed not only up to 46, but also up to 45 degrees, but they didn’t see any land... For this reason, they decided to change one point, keep
closer to the north, that is, to go east-north-east..." The loss of hopes of finding the "land da Gama" and Chirikov's ship were not the only reasons,
forced the commander to change course - only half of the 102 barrels of water remained; they had to return to Petropavlovsk no later than the end of September, if
the coast of America will be found. But he was not there... On July 14, the packet boat "St. Apostle Peter" went to the northern latitudes, and a day later Steller saw
outlines of the earth.
In the morning, with clear weather, all doubts disappeared. But due to weak winds, the packet boat was able to approach the shore only on July 20.
This was the American northwest.
Several sailors, officer Sofron Khitrovo and naturalist Steller set foot on the long-awaited shore.
Anyone can easily imagine how great was the joy of everyone when we finally saw the shore, congratulations poured in from all sides to the captain, until
which the honor of discovery was most important to, wrote Steller, excited by the event. Only Bering did not share the general rejoicing - he was already ill.
The burden of responsibility for the expedition, failures at the very beginning of the journey - all this greatly depressed Vitus Bering. Everyone rejoiced at the sheer luck
glimpses of future glory, but it was also necessary to return. Only wise with long experience of navigation, elderly, striving for this goal 9
years, and finally, having received it, Bering realized this: “Who knows whether the trade winds will delay us here? The shore is unfamiliar to us, our provisions are limited
wintering will not be enough.” According to the instructions of the Admiralty Board, one should search for American shores and islands with extreme diligence and diligence,...
to visit them and truly find out what kind of people they are, and what the place is called, and whether those shores are truly American. Bering was not diligent
refuse, but he probably faced a difficult choice: to carry the “discoverer’s cross” to the end and explore the land found with such difficulty, or
not to risk the expedition and immediately go back with the illusory hope of returning here with the “third expedition”... Later explorers will
often reproach Bering for indecisiveness, but great life experience, according to the testimony of the same Steller (who was in very strained relations with
commander from the very beginning of the expedition) proved that Bering was more prudent than all his officers.
Already on July 20, looking at the top of Mount St. Elias, the captain-commander probably decided to follow another part of the instructions that said: “If more
aspirations, for which time will not allow you to examine and describe in one summer, report on that path in detail, and without waiting for the decree, follow and
finally bring it to another summer...” And having made this decision, he was already adamant, ordering to stay exactly as long as necessary for
replenishing water supplies. Bering did everything he could for Russia; he had no right to risk people’s lives anymore. Couldn't waste precious time on
cartographic research, search for European cities and study of the life of the aborigines.
But, probably, the general spirit of the expedition turned out to be so strong that fate was again favorable: the captain-commander was forced to yield
the pressure of the young scientist in his desire to explore the newly invented land and allowed Steller to join the group of sailors who were supposed to
go ashore to replenish water supplies.
Naturalist Steller found himself in time trouble. And you can’t call it anything other than the will of providence - what Bering achieved in 9 years, Steller managed
done in 10 hours.
The observations he made, together with the data of the navigators, allowed him to draw an unmistakable conclusion - the shore of America had been found.
While the team was preparing water, Steller was doing the job for which he was born into this world - he was researching.
Having come across a well-trodden path, he literally rushed headlong in search of people. The Cossack Foma Lepekhin accompanying him tried to
hold back: “They’ll pile on you, you can’t fight back. Look how it was cut down (about an alder rod). Not otherwise with a knife or an ax. Let's go to ours. After all, they will kill here, or in
They'll take it full. We’ll be lost.” To which Steller reasonably replied: “Fool. There are people here, we need to find them...” Perseverance was partially rewarded - they came across
on the fireplace of the aborigines and Steller was ready to swear that this was a Kamchadal camp, and if not for the landscape and vegetation, he could still swear.
Another mystery awaited him when he came across a pit similar to those in which the Kamchadals fermented fish: four steps along, three across - two steps.
human height. But... there was no smell of fish rot. With the risk that they would be discovered sooner or later, Steller went down into the pit - it turned out to be an underground barn, in
in which stood birch bark vessels two cubits high, filled with smoked salmon, in others - pure sweet grass, piles of nettles, bundles of
pine bark, ropes made of sea grass of extraordinary strength, arrows longer than Kamchatka ones (well planed and painted in
black color) . Regarding them, Lepekhin remarked: “It’s no different than Tatar or Tunguska.” They walked another three miles in the hope of meeting the inhabitants, until
saw a stream of smoke. But they never managed to get to this fire - on the way, Steller saw a flock of birds, the breed of which he could not determine.
Therefore, he asked Lepekhin to shoot one of them. At the sound of the shot, a human scream was heard from the side where they were shooting. Steller rushed
there, but there was no one there, although the grass was crushed, as if someone was standing there. Probably one of the locals accompanied them all the time or, in extreme cases,
I just came across them and watched the uninvited guests in bewilderment. The shot scared him. This shot brought two more results - shot
the bird turned out to be previously unknown to science and its discoverer was Georg Steller, and a sailor sent to the
their search - it was time to return... But in this short time he managed to collect 160 species of local plants, take samples of household utensils, and familiarize himself with
abandoned dwellings.
The very next day, on another island of the Aleutian ridge, the expedition came across American Indians.
The return journey, as Bering had expected, was difficult. Fogs and storms made it difficult for ships to move. Water and provisions were running out. Scurvy
harassed people. On November 4, the expedition encountered unknown land. On November 7, Bering ordered the landing. No one could have guessed then that
they are several days' journey from Kamchatka. The difficult time of winter has come. December 8, 1741 expedition leader Captain-Commander Vitus
Jonassen Bering died. Command passed to Lieutenant S. Vaksel. People were losing strength. Of the 76 people who landed on the island, 45 survived. All who
could stand on his feet, hunted sea animals and birds, and strengthened crumbling dugouts.
From the report of Lieutenant S. Vaksel from the Admiralty Board on the voyage with V. Bering to the shores of America. 1742.15 November.
This island, on which my crew and I spent the winter... is about 130 versts long, 10 versts across. There is no housing on it, but there are no signs that
when people were on it, they weren’t... When we were on this island we lived very poorly, since our dwellings were in holes dug in the sand and
covered with sails. And in collecting firewood they had an extreme burden, for they were forced to look for and collect firewood along the seashore and carry it on their shoulders.
with their straps 10 and 12 versts.
... We were possessed by a severe scurvy disease... Our food through this winter, due to the lack of provisions, can be said to be the poorest and
much difficulty, and also contrary to human nature, for they were forced to walk along the seashore and be separated from their homes for 20 and 30 miles
and the elder about killing some kind of animal for food, namely a beaver, a sea lion or a seal... which, having killed, they sewed on themselves at such a distance... And during
moreover, since those animals, out of fear, moved themselves much further away from us, then they fed on sea cats, which for a time in the spring sail to that island...
They hunted sea cows, which are quite large, because one cow contains no less than 200 pounds of meat.
Among them were Russians, Danes, Swedes, Germans - and they all fought to complete the expedition with dignity. Georg Steller found himself here too
an activity to his liking - during his stay on the island, which later received the name Bering, he described 220 species of plants, observed fur seals,
sea ​​lions. His great merit was the description of the sea cow, an animal from the order of sirens, which was subsequently completely exterminated and remained only in
Steller's description. Having survived a difficult winter, the crew from the remains of the St. Apostle Peter, broken by a storm, built a small boat, on which 26
August 1742 and returned to Peter and Paul Harbor. This completed the second Kamchatka expedition.
In 1743, the Senate suspended the work of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. The results of both expeditions were significant: the American coast was discovered,
the strait between Asia and America was examined, the Kuril Islands, the coast of America, the Aleutian Islands were studied, ideas about Okhotsk were clarified
sea, Kamchatka, Japan.
List of used literature
V.D. Sergeev, “Pages of the history of Kamchatka”, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Far Eastern book edition, Kamchatka branch, 1992, 191 p.
Martynenko, “Journey to the country of Uikoal”, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Far Eastern book edition, Kamchatka branch, 1987, 135 p.

The opening of sea communications with Kamchatka through Okhotsk and the emergence of reliable information about the location of this peninsula prepared the possibility of exploring countries and seas in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean that had not yet been visited by Europeans, adjacent to the eastern borders of Russia.

The general political conditions that emerged after the successful end in 1721 of a long-term war with the Swedes, which required the exertion of all the country's forces, favored the implementation of these difficult and complex works.

At the end of 1724 - beginning of 1725, Peter the Great prepared an expedition, which later became known as the First Kamchatka. Its main detachment set out during the life of Peter the Great, who died on January 28, 1725.

The expedition was sent north of Kamchatka and collected valuable information about the location of the northeastern coast of Asia, which served as important material for elucidating the question of the existence of a strait between Asia and America.

The solution to this great geographical problem was not only of purely scientific interest, but was also of great importance for the prospects for sailing the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans along the coast of North Asia. The question of whether Asia is united with America was of keen interest to scientists, statesmen, merchants and sailors of that time.

By the time of preparation of the First Kamchatka Expedition, quite a few judgments and news on this matter had accumulated in world literature, including “proof” of the separation of continents. On many Western European geographical maps, already since 1566, the “Strait of Anian” was marked on the site of the present Bering Strait, the history of which, however, is unknown. There were also descriptions of fictitious voyages along the Northeast Passage, such as the voyages of the Portuguese D. Melger, who allegedly passed this way from Japan to the shores of Portugal in 1660 (Buache, 1753, pp. 138-139).

Major Western European scientists (G. Leibniz, G. Delisle), who sought to get out of the labyrinth of guesses, rumors and fiction, turned to Peter the Great with a request to assist in obtaining reliable information (Guerrier, 1871, pp. 146, 187-188; Andreev, 1943a, page 4). Such a request seemed all the more appropriate since the Strait of Anian and the Northeast Passage were located off the coast of Russian possessions.

In the history of geography, the prevailing opinion is that before the First Kamchatka Expedition, Peter the Great set the task of finding out whether Asia was connected to America. We encounter this idea in the coming years after his death in the decrees of the Russian government (PSZ, vol. VIII, p. 1011), in the statements of statesmen, for example I.K. Kirilov (Andreev, 1943a, p. 35), in the works of participants in the Second Kamchatka Expedition (G. Miller, S.P. Krasheninnikov, S. Vaksel, G. Steller and others). Subsequently, it is repeated by many authors (Efimov, 1950, pp. 21-26).

Some participants in the Second Kamchatka Expedition, as well as researchers (A.P. Sokolov, L.S. Berg, etc.) believed that the goals of the expedition were limited to resolving a purely geographical issue. This opinion seemed to be confirmed by the thoughts about the expedition expressed by Peter the Great shortly before his death and set out in the famous story of A.K. Nartov. According to this story, Peter the Great sent an expedition based on the opinion of Western European scientists; he wanted to establish whether Asia was connected to America and to explore the route through the Strait of Anian to China and India.

According to other authors (A. A. Pokrovsky, A. I. Andreev, A. V. Efimov, D. M. Lebedev), Peter the Great was prompted to send an expedition by state considerations (development of trade, expansion of state borders, defense of the country, etc.) d), geographical goals had an auxiliary significance.

Recently, A. A. Pokrovsky made an attempt to put this kind of ideas into concrete form. He notes that during the period when the First Kamchatka Expedition was being equipped, Peter the Great dealt a lot with issues of trade with Spain and receiving American goods from it. A. A. Pokrovsky believed that the goal of the expedition was to reach Mexico, which was under the rule of Spain, and thus find new trade routes to the latter.

However, considering the instructions written by Peter the Great for the expedition dated January 6, 1725, which is the only document signed by him containing instructions on the tasks of this enterprise, one cannot help but come to the conclusion that based on the understanding of Peter the Great’s ideas about the geography of the places where the expedition was heading, and its aims were reflected by the opinions existing in the literature, and by the discussion of the results of the expedition, which was originally supposed to have found a strait between Asia and America.

Here is the text of this instruction (Polonsky, 1850a, p. 537): “...1) it is necessary to make one or two boats with decks in Kamchatka or another place there; 2) on these boats (sail - V.G.) near the land that goes north, and according to hope (they don’t know the end), it seems that that land is part of America; 3) and in order to look for where it came into contact with America, but also to get to which city of European possessions, or if they see which European ship, to find out from it what this quest (shore - V.G.) is called and take it to letter and visit the shore yourself and take the authentic statement, and, betting on the map, come here.”

It is clear from the text that, according to the ideas of Peter the Great, the continents are connected near Kamchatka. He believed that the land “going north” from Kamchatka was already part of America. Peter the Great does not mention the “Strait of Anian” and the route to India and China and does not propose to look for a passage between Asia and America. The ships were supposed to follow "along the coasts of Asia and America connecting with it to the nearest European possessions in America or until meeting with any European ship that could provide information about the countries reached by the expedition. Thus, the expedition was not entrusted with resolving the geographical problem of connection or the non-connection of continents.It had to resolve issues of national importance: to explore the route to America, adjacent to Asia, and to find out who is Russia’s closest neighbor on this continent.

The expedition members had no doubt that the instructions of Peter the Great expressed the opinion of connecting the continents. A note dated August 13, 1728 by A.I. Chirikov, submitted to the head of the expedition V. Bering during the voyage, when the question of continuing the expedition was being decided, speaks of the shores along which they sailed to the north: “The land is the one about which there was an opinion , which coincides with America” (TsGA VMF, f. 216, d. 87, l. 228).

Peter the Great formed the idea that there was no sea passage between America and Asia, probably due to the unreliability of the information at his disposal. As for the maps compiled in Russia, on which the northeast of Asia is washed by the sea (a version of the map of F. Stralenberg, seen by Peter the Great in 1726, the map of I.K. Kirilov), their compilers could only rely on old Russian drawings and surveys information that is no longer connected with any proven facts, since S.I. Dezhnev’s campaign was not known to government bodies at that time.

We should not forget that Peter the Great had at his disposal the famous “Drawing of all Siberian cities and lands” by S. U. Remezov, which summarized the enormous geographical material accumulated in Russian drawings and descriptions of travel to the beginning XVIIIV. In this drawing, in northeast Asia, an “impassable nose” is stretched into the sea, extending beyond the frame of the drawing, which meant the possibility of connecting here with another land (Remezov, 1882).

At the same time, the experience of numerous unsuccessful voyages of English and Dutch ships searching for the Northeast Passage, as well as ships sent for this purpose by Peter the Great himself, could give rise to the assumption of the existence of a connection between the continents.

When drawing up the instructions, Peter the Great probably used the map of I.M. Evreinov, whom he remembered in December 1724, shortly before signing the decree on the expedition. The tsar’s demand to find I.M. Evreinov turned out to be impossible, since the latter was no longer alive.

I.M. Evreinov’s map is cut off at 63° N. sh., i.e. at a great distance from the northeastern cape of Asia (Cape Dezhnev). But not far from Kamchatka, the coast of the Asian continent bends sharply towards America. Its ending is not shown. Perhaps, about this land, first “going north” and then bending towards America, Peter the Great said that this is America “before this end they do not know.”

The presented ideas of Peter the Great about the connection between the American and Asian continents cannot be combined with the story of A.K. Nartov. But it should be taken into account that in “Nartov’s Stories about Peter” we are dealing not directly with the notes of A.K. Nartov himself, but with their processing, carried out already in the 70s XVIIIV. his son, A. A. Nartov, involved in literature. A.K. Nartov was not a witness to some of the events from the “Stories...”, but even where “we hear the voice of an eyewitness,” it does not always sound with the desired clarity (Maikov, 1891, p. XVI). Therefore, it would hardly be correct to prefer messages from “Stories...” in cases where there is more reliable data.

As for A. A. Pokrovsky’s hypothesis that the First Kamchatka Expedition was supposed to reach Mexico, this assumption is difficult to combine with the direction of the expedition “to the north.” You can't either ignore that not a single document relating to the First Kamchatka Expedition makes any mention of Mexico or Spain. When V. Bering was reproached for not fulfilling the tasks assigned to the First Kamchatka Expedition, they did not talk about these countries, but about the fact that although he “even went up to a width of 67 degrees,” but everything that was “above the width of Bering from him on the map assigned from this place between the North and West to the mouth of the river. Kolyma, and then he put it according to the previous maps and statements, but it is doubtful and unreliable to confirm the non-union for certain.”

We do not have reliable data to judge when Peter the Great formed the idea of ​​sending the First Kamchatka Expedition. The first official document currently known concerning the expedition is dated December 23, 1724. F. Golder (Golder, 1922, pp. 6-7) published a photocopy of part of this document. In terms of content, this is a certificate of the implementation of the royal decree (written, probably, earlier) with notes from Peter the Great in the margins.

This document reads:

1. Find surveyors who have been to Siberia and arrived.

According to information from the Senate, surveyors were sent to the Siberian province: Ivan Zakharov, Pyotr Chichagov, Ivan Evreinov (deceased), Fedor Luzhin, Pyotr Skobeltsyn, Ivan Svistunov, Dmitry Baskakov, Vasily Shetilov, Grigory Putilov.

2. Find a worthy one from the lieutenants or from the second lieutenants of the sea, someone to send with them to Siberia to Kamchatka.

According to the opinions of Vice Admiral Sievers and Schoutbenacht (Rear Admiral - V.G.) Sinyavin, from naval lieutenants Stanberg (Spanberkh), Zverev or Kosenkov, second lieutenants Chirikov or Laptev, this expedition is suitable. And it wouldn’t be bad if there was a commander of captains over them, Bering or von Werd; Bering had been in the East Indies and knew his way around, and von Werd was a navigator.

3. Find one of the students or journeymen who could build a boat with a deck according to the local example, which is found on large ships, and for this purpose send 4 carpenters with him, with their tools, which would be younger, and one quartermaster and 8 sailors .

There is a bot apprentice, Fyodor Kozlov, who can make bots with and without decks according to the drawings. (Note in the margin: We really need a navigator and co-navigator who have been to North America).

4. And according to that preportion, release from here one and a half [Note in the margin: “twice”] sails, blocks, sheaves, ropes, etc., and 4 falconets with the proper ammunition and one or 2 sailing swedges.

The rigging will be released. (Note in the margin: “Everything else is fine.”)

5. If such navigators are not found in the fleet, then immediately write to Holland, so that 2 people who know the sea north to Japan, and that they be sent through the Admiralty mail.

Vice Admiral Sivere indicated in writing: if such naval navigators are found, he will immediately send them” (Sokolov, 1851).

The origin of this document is not clear enough. The fifth point seems to have been added later and relates more to Peter the Great’s remark on the third point than to the other four points. The expedition is not directly named in this certificate, but is implied in a number of places in the orders of Peter the Great and in the responses of the Admiralty boards (about sending lieutenants and second lieutenants to Siberia and Kamchatka, about “northern” America, about V. Bering, etc. ).

Judging by the orders recorded in this document, some details of the expedition were presented to Peter the Great in a slightly different form compared to the one they ultimately accepted. Obviously, it was initially intended (as in the expedition of I.M. Evreinov and F.F. Luzhin) to assign the main role to surveyors, headed by a “sea” lieutenant or second lieutenant. The proposal to place a “commander of captains” V. Bering or K. von Werd over them came from the Admiralty boards.

Captain 1st Rank Vitus Bering (1681 - 1741) was appointed head of the expedition. In Russia he was called Vitez Bering, or Ivan Ivanovich Bering. Accepted in 1703 to serve in the Baltic Fleet as a second lieutenant (General Naval List, vol. I, p. 40), he repeatedly carried out orders from Peter the Great (for example, regarding the acceptance and transportation of purchased ships), in particular during military campaigns. Apparently, V. Bering was personally well known to the tsar (Berkh, 1833). The appointment of V. Bering was to some extent facilitated by his connections: Vice Admiral K. Kruys knew him, he was related to Rear Admiral T. Sanders, he was recommended by Vice Admiral P. Sivere, Rear Admiral I.A. Senyavin and Y. Bruce (Weber, 1740, p. 160; Lauridsen, 1889, p. 30). It also played a role that before entering the Russian service, V. Bering had experience of long voyages to the east - “he was in the East Indies and knows his way around.” G. Miller reports from his words that V. Bering himself volunteered to go when Admiral General F. M. Apraksin turned to naval officers with an offer to take part in the expedition (Miiller, 1753, p. 54). Thanks to his connections with influential foreigners who served in Russia, V. Bering was close to foreign embassies (in particular, the Dutch one).

The activities of V. Bering during the First Kamchatka Expedition, and subsequently during the Second Kamchatka Expedition, characterize him as an efficient, intelligent and courageous officer, benevolent towards his subordinates, towards whom he was perhaps even too soft and trusting. At the same time, V. Bering avoided risk and responsibility and did not show sufficient determination in difficult moments. Lacking broad scientific training and the inclinations of a researcher, he was not particularly keen on discovering new lands and islands and carried out these tasks to the extent that it was necessary to report on compliance with the instructions given to him.

With these traits, V. Bering ultimately deserved the reproaches of his contemporaries and descendants that he failed to cope with the tasks that were set before him. But, having examined the activities of V. Bering, we will see that. Even if he did not do everything that could be done to make geographical discoveries, his persistence helped a lot in ensuring that the preparation of the Kamchatka expeditions for the voyage was completed.

However, V. Bering’s actions on expeditions apparently do not give a complete picture of his personality. The fact established by M. I. Belov (1956, p. 252) that V. Bering transferred a copy of the map of the First Kamchatka Expedition to the Dutch ambassador in 1733 with the condition of using it “carefully” leads to this conclusion.

Danish lieutenants Martyn Shpanberg and Alexey Ivanovich Chirikov were appointed assistants to V. Bering.

M. Shpanberg, according to the definition of A.P. Sokolov (1851c, p. 215), was a man without education, rude and “cruel to the point of barbarism, greedy for acquisitions, but nevertheless a good practical sailor, ardent and active”; some Siberians saw him as a “general”, others as a “fugitive convict."

The negative traits of his character were especially evident during the Second Kamchatka Expedition; The documents of this expedition preserved in the archives contain extensive correspondence about his tyranny and extortion. “A great lover of honor,” A.I. Chirikov wrote about him in 1742, “if it was possible for him, then he would take everyone here under his command” (Divin, 1953, p. 251).

V. Bering's second assistant, Lieutenant A.I. Chirikov (1703-1748), was an outstanding person. His great abilities were already evident during his studies at the Naval Corps and the Naval Academy. Then he was appointed by the Admiralty College as a teacher at this Academy. When appointed to the First Kamchatka Expedition, A.I. Chirikov was promoted to lieutenant out of turn (MRF, 1867, p. 698).

In the Kamchatka expeditions, the positive traits and abilities of A.I. Chirikov emerged even more clearly. During the protracted preparation of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, he was one of the participants who did not give rise to slander. During his voyages, A.I. Chirikov showed brilliant qualities as a sailor. This young Russian officer, thanks to his natural intelligence and broad geographical outlook, understood the enormous scientific and state significance of the Kamchatka expeditions and, upon their completion, presented projects for the development and strengthening of the distant Siberian outskirts.

The first Kamchatka expedition was a very difficult undertaking; in its implementation, despite the assistance of the government, many difficulties were encountered in the conditions of that time.

Unfortunately, some of the most important documents of the expedition (ship's log, V. Bering's report dated February 10, 1730) are known only in excerpts, which, as we will see later, caused misunderstandings that are not fully resolved at this time.

V. Bering received instructions from Peter the Great before February 3, 1725 (Bering Expedition, p. 373). Probably around this time he was also given instructions from F.M. Apraksin, which contained a list of everything that had been done for the expedition. But already on January 24, before V. Bering received instructions, a detachment consisting of 25 team members and a convoy, led by A. I. Chirikov and midshipman P. A. Chaplin, left St. Petersburg (Bering Expedition, p. 59). V. Bering, who left St. Petersburg shortly after receiving instructions, together with Shpanberg, five team members and the rest of the convoy, caught up with the detachment in Vologda on February 14.

The expedition had to cover the path to Okhotsk, which was about 9 thousand km (ibid., pp. 67-68). We advanced on horseback through Vologda, Veliky Ustyug and Verkhoturye. Having waited for spring in Tobolsk, on May 14, 1725, we set off further on ships: having descended to the Ob, along its right tributary, the Keti, we ascended to the Makovsky fort, from where we portaged (123 km) to Yeniseisk. From Yeniseisk we moved up the rivers Yenisei, Upper Tunguska (Angara) and its right tributary Ilim, until frost set in. Caught by frost, we stopped near Ilimsk. The winter of 1725/26 was spent in Ilimsk. Having left Ilimsk in the spring of 1726, we dragged ourselves to the river. Flour; along the rivers Muka and Kuta we reached the Ust-Kut fort on the river. Lena. Then, on ships built in winter under the leadership of M. Shpanberg in the Ust-Kutsk fort, they descended to Yakutsk, where they arrived in two detachments on June 1 and 16, 1726 (Bakhtin, 1890). From here V. Bering and his companions headed to Okhotsk.

Trade caravans, military expeditions and mail moved along this route through Siberia, but it was far from well-maintained. During the voyage along the Ob and Keti rivers from the city of Surgut to the Makovsky fort, which lasted from May 30 to July 19, 1725, over a distance of 1800 km there were only three meetings with merchant and other ships (ibid., pp. 74-75 ). On the section from the city of Narym to the Makovsky fort, with a length of 1108 km We passed through only one fort, one monastery and seven Russian villages. Along the way there were rapids and rifts (shallow places with a rocky bottom), and it was necessary to transfer from larger vessels to smaller ones.

It was especially difficult to overcome the section stretching over 1000 km between Yakutsk and Okhotsk, where it was necessary to advance through completely wild areas, crossed by mountains and replete with swamps. Here only occasionally were the nomads of the Tungus and Yakuts encountered.

The waterway through this territory has been known since the campaign of I. Yu. Moskvitin in 1639. It passed down the Lena, then along Aldan, May and Yudoma to a place called the Yudoma Cross, where the river. Yudoma comes closest to the small river Uraku, which flows into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk 20 km from the mouth of the river. Okhota, where Okhotsk is located. From the mouth of Urak to Okhotsk, ships pulled a towline along the seashore.

Bulky cargo was sent along the rivers. The rest (mainly food) was transported on horseback. Due to the lack of roads, they resorted to pack transportation using leather saddlebags. Up to 80 kg of cargo was loaded onto the horse. In winter, when the horses were exhausted due to deep snow and lack of fodder, they were replaced by people carrying a load of 80-100 kg on sleds. Already from St. Petersburg, the expedition took with it a fairly large cargo, occupying 33 carts (Polonsky, 1850a, p. 539). This cargo consisted of cannons, cannonballs, sails, anchors, ropes, tools and various equipment that could not be obtained locally. Along the way, the convoy grew larger and larger. To transport goods by drag from the Makovsky prison to Yeniseisk, midshipman P. A. Chaplin ordered 160 horses. From Yakutsk, 6 thousand poods of food alone were brought (Bering Expedition, p. 204).

Great difficulties arose with obtaining food locally, which was supposed to come from Irkutsk and Ilimsk, materials for building ships, as well as with obtaining horses, allocating labor, constructing roads, etc. All this, by order of the government, had to be dealt with by local authorities , whose representatives for the most part performed their duties poorly.

Responsible tasks were assigned to the Yakut Voivodeship Office. She was obliged to provide labor - about 250 people for rafting ships, more than 650 horses with Yakut guides for transporting goods in packs, leather bags and harnesses for horses. The Yakut chancellery was also supposed to ensure the clearing of the road from Yakutsk to Okhotsk and the procurement of fodder.

But these tasks were only partially completed, and even then belatedly. The expedition was faced with a choice: winter in Yakutsk or set out late, risking having to spend the winter in a deserted area.

V. Bering knew from the participants of the campaign I.M. Evreinov and F.F. Luzhin - from F.F. Luzhin himself, the sailor K. Moshkov and the soldiers Vyrodov and Arapov, who were part of the First Kamchatka Expedition, about the conditions of the upcoming journey (TsGA Navy, f. 216, d. 87, l. 52-54 and 91-94). Nevertheless, he decided not to spend the winter in Yakutsk. It can be assumed that he did not imagine all the difficulties of dealing with the harsh nature of Siberia. A year earlier, having learned about the voyages that once took place along the coast of Siberia from the mouth of the Kolyma to the mouth of the Anadyr, he, while in Yeniseisk, with the same ease proposed to the Admiralty Boards to change the route of the expedition and move from the mouth of the Kolyma to the mouth of the Anadyr, while sea ​​route off the coast of the Asian continent east of Kolyma was extremely difficult and remained unclimbed during the Second Kamchatka Expedition.

Heavy cargo was sent from Yakutsk on 13 ships under the command of M. Shpanberg only on July 7. The ships were accompanied by 204 people. Sending the rest of the cargo on horseback continued until mid-August. V. Bering himself left Yakutsk only on August 16 (Bakhtin, 1890, pp. 19-20).

The hike was very difficult. The ships commanded by M. Shpanberg only reached the river. Gorbei (near the mouth of the Yudoma River, 450 km from the Yudoma Cross), since the river was frozen. On November 4, M. Shpanberg ordered the cargo to be transported further on 100 sledges by people. But only 40 sledges reached the Yudoma Cross, the rest were stuck at different points. V. Bering sent help from Okhotsk. These were lightly dressed and half-starved people with dogs. The goods transported to the Yudoma Cross were delivered to Okhotsk at the beginning of January 1727 (ibid., p. 29). On the way, “they ate dead horse meat, rawhide bags and all sorts of raw leather, leather dresses and shoes” (Bering Expedition, pp. 61-62). M. Shpanberg's other cargo, scattered along the route over 450 miles, was transported already in May by people sent from Okhotsk.

Traveling on horseback was no easier. As V. Bering wrote in a report dated October 28, 1726, of the 663 horses sent to Okhotsk, only 396 arrived by October 25, the rest were partly lost on the way, partly froze. The provisions were carried on sledges, which were pulled by dogs and people. Many of the team fled. Some, unable to withstand the difficulties of the journey, died, among them was the surveyor F.F. Luzhin (Bakhtin, 1890, pp. 26 and 34).

A.I. Chirikov, who remained in Yakutsk, set out on a campaign along the rivers on May 2, 1727 and on July 3 arrived in Okhotsk, delivering 2.3 thousand pounds of flour (Bering Expedition, p. 62).

In the Okhotsk fort, which at that time consisted of about 10 households, it was necessary to build new huts and barns, build and equip ships for the campaign. People carried stones for furnaces for 10 versts and clay for 5 versts, floated or dragged logs and firewood, and prepared food (fish, poultry, etc.). Subsequently, the same difficulties had to be encountered in Kamchatka.

By June 8, a small ship named "Fortune" was launched. After M. Shpanberg sailed on it with rigging and military equipment to Kamchatka, the expedition set out from Okhotsk on August 22, 1727 (Bakhtin, 1890). “Fortuna” was commanded by V. Bering, and A.I. Chirikov drove the repaired “lodia”, on which in 1716 -1717. K. Sokolov swam. On September 4, the ships arrived at the mouth of the river. Bolshoi and stopped in Bolsheretsk.

The expedition had to sail to Nizhne-Kamchatsk, located on the eastern coast of Kamchatka, where a ship was to be built for a trip to the north. V. Bering did not dare to go there by sea, since at that time there were exaggerated ideas about the danger of the passage between Cape Lopatka and the first Kuril Island (Polonsky, 1850a, p. 545). It was decided to cross the peninsula on dogs, which delayed the start of the voyage to the north in 1728, since it excluded the possibility of laying down the ship in the fall of 1727. As we will see later, the reduction in the duration of the voyage to the north significantly reduced the results of the expedition.

It was not possible to cross the peninsula along the rivers (Bolshoi, its tributary Bystraya and Kamchatka) before the freeze-up. M. Shpanberg, sent

On September 19, with property on 30 ships, he was caught in the frost and unloaded (ibid., p. 546).

Further transportation began in January 1728. According to V. Bering, who left Bolsheretsk on January 14, they traveled “exactly according to local custom on dogs, and every evening on the way for the night they raked out their camps: from the snow, and covered them on top, since the great ones live blizzards, which in the local language are called blizzards, and if a blizzard catches in a clear place, but I don’t have time to create one for myself, then it covers people with snow, which is why they die” (Bering Expedition, p. 63).

Many Kamchadals with dogs and sleighs were involved in the transportation. This duty turned out to be very difficult for them, as it distracted them from hunting sea animals - the main source of their well-being, and caused the loss of a large number of dogs.

V. Bering arrived in Nizhne-Kamchatsk on March 11, 1728. The boat “St. Gabriel" (length 18.3 m, width 16.1 m, draft 2.3 m) was launched on June 9, and on July 14 the expedition set sail from the mouth of the river. Kamchatka (Bakhtin, 1890, pp. 49 and 51). The crew of "St. Gabriel" consisted of 44 people, including Captain V. Bering, Lieutenant A.I. Chirikov and M. Shpanberg, midshipman P.A. Chaplin and sailor K. Moshkov.

V. Bering and other officers of the expedition, of course, were aware of ideas about the northeast of Siberia, both established in geographical science and widespread among Siberians. We mentioned that V. Bering, when he was in Siberia, received news of the existence of a passage from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific. The expedition officers also knew about the land “against the Chukotka nose,” as follows from the note A.I. Chirikov, presented to V. Bering on August 13, 1728, in which A.I. Chirikov refers to the “skask from the Chukchi through Pyotr Tatarinov.”

It can be assumed that while passing through Tobolsk, Yakutsk and other cities, V. Bering and A.I. Chirikov got acquainted with the drawings of the northern and eastern shores of the Asian continent that were available at that time in Siberia (drawing by I. Lvov, drawings of Kamchatka from the “Service Drawing Room”) books" S.U. Remezova and others), who gave a fairly correct general idea of ​​these places.

The members of the expedition also had at their disposal Western European “new Asian maps” (Polonsky, 1850a, p. 549). A list of them has not reached us, and probably among them was I. Roman’s map, sent B. Bering on May 8, 1726 to the extraordinary envoy and head of the commission for negotiations with China, Savva Vladislavich-Raguzinsky. When meeting with V. Bering in March 1726 in the city of Ilimsk (Bakhtin, 1890, p. 80), S. Raguzinsky asked to send him a map of the territory from Kamchatka to the Amur with the coastline and islands. G. Kaan (Cahen, 1911, p. 172) suggests that this was the map of I. Roman of 1725. Reflecting the influence of Siberian sources, it provided, compared with other Western European maps of that time, the most plausible image of northeast Asia (Fig. 5). Before this map, I. Roman released several other maps on which the northeastern part of Asia was shown completely incorrectly.

Could V. Bering, who left St. Petersburg at the beginning of February 1725, have gotten to the map of I. Roman, published in 1725, in 1726? Unfortunately, we do not have data to judge this issue.

Indirect evidence that V. Bering gave S. Raguzinsky the map of I. Goman in 1725 can be the map of the surveyor Mikhail Zinoviev, who worked with S. Raguzinsky to determine the Russian-Chinese border. He compiled his map, probably at the end of 1726 or at the beginning of 1727 “from the inventory of the surveyor Pyotr Skobeltsyn from the goods and from printed maps and from various drawings” (Cahen, 1911, p. 160). The image on it of the northeastern part of Asia - “Cape Shelag” of the Chukotka Peninsula, as well as Kamchatka, is very similar to the image on the map of I. Goman of 1725.

It is characteristic that on the map of M. Zinoviev, as well as on the map of I. Goman, a small island is shown off the north-eastern coast of Asia east of the “Shelagsky Cape”, with an inscription that the Chukchi live there (Fig. 6).

One can, of course, also assume that both maps were compiled using one Siberian prototype, which remains unknown. Perhaps, along with the above-mentioned first message from I. Kozyrevsky about the campaign of 1713 and other data, it served as one of the sources for the map of I. Goman of 1725. At the same time, if this Siberian prototype of the maps of I. Goman and M. Zinoviev existed , then he would probably have been known to V. Bering.

The cape depicted on the maps of M. Zinoviev and I. Goman to the west orThe Chukotka Peninsula, which jutted out quite far to the north, was probably an echo of the “necessary noses” of Russian drawings and warned the expedition about the difficulties of sailing in these places. From this map or from some Siberian drawings, this “nose” was later transferred to many maps: it is shown on the map of P. A. Chaplin of 1729, presented by V. Bering upon his return from the expedition, on the general maps of I. K. Kirilov 1734 and the Academy of Sciences 1745, on the map of the Naval Academy 1746 and on the map of G. Miller 1754-1758.

All the drawings and maps at the disposal of the expedition did not give a specific idea of ​​​​the path that lay before it. If, while moving north, the officers of the ship “St. Gabriel” and turned to them, then each section of the path still had to be studied anew. Orientation was made difficult by almost constant fog, cloudiness and frequent rain.

How difficult it was even for such experienced sailors as V. Bering, A. I. Chirikov and K. Moshkov to correctly navigate the situation can be seen from the fact that, passing Karaginsky Island on July 19, they did not understand that it was an island. According to V.N. Berkh (18236, p. 33), the ship’s log says: “A hill on the shore, from which there seems to be a division of the earth.” They also did not notice the mouth of the river on July 31 - August 1. Anadyr, although they were looking for him.

The entire route of the expedition to the north passed along the coast, at a close distance from them; in particular, the entire Gulf of Anadyr was bypassed. The journey from the mouth of Kamchatka to 67° 18" N, from where the ship turned back on August 15 (according to civil accounts), was completed in 34 days, during which the "St. Gabriel" covered 2377 versts. Heading back, the sailors, in a hurry to get away from the autumn weather, they straightened their path greatly, staying further from the shores. They did not enter the Gulf of Anadyr at all. Taking advantage of the favorable wind, they approached the mouth of the Kamchatka River on September 2, thus completing the voyage in 19 days (Bering Expedition, page 65).

For the first time the path traveled by “St. Gabriel" in 1728, was shown on the map of A.I. Nagaev in 1767. Later V.N. Berkh (18236) compiled

a map that reflected the voyage not only of 1728 (quite similar to the map of A.I. Nagaev), but also of 1729 (Fig. 7). On both maps, the ship’s route in 1728 was shown inaccurately: the ship does not enter the Gulf of the Cross, which remains to the west and is called Nochen Bay; way "St. Gabriel" passes quite far from the Island of St. Lawrence, to which the expedition, judging by the "Brief Report on the Siberian Expedition" by V. Bering, was approaching.

F.P. Litke, who sailed in 1828 on the war sloop “Senyavin” off the coast of the Pacific Ocean north of Kamchatka, reconstructed from the journal “St. Gabriel" the route of this ship. According to his data, on August 1, the sailors were already at the Gulf of Cross, where, either entering the bay to 65 ° 39", then leaving it, they stayed until August 4. From the Gulf of Cross to the Chukotka Cape they traveled in 7 days, and on August 6 They entered a small bay called Preobrazheniya Bay. P. A. Chaplin, who was sent to the shore, found fresh water, and also saw a place “where foreigners had their homes this year and saw many well-trodden roads in the mountains” (Bakhtin, 1890, p. 56 ) Having filled 22 barrels with water, the ship set off further, and on August 8 at 64 ° 30 "N. w. The expedition met with the Chukchi, who approached them from the shore in a boat. The meeting took place, as F.P. Litke believes (1835, p. 235), at Cape Yakkun or at Cape Ching-An (apparently, near Cape Zeleny - 64°35" N and 174°15" W .). On August 9-11, they walked around the shore, “whose reach to O ended” (Polonsky, 1850, p. 550). We came close to St. Lawrence Island. These days, apparently, we rounded Cape Chukotka and Cape Chaplin, without noticing Tkachen Bay, which separates these capes.

The modern name “Chukotsky Cape” is already found in the documents of the expedition (“Chukotsky Corner”), although it arose, perhaps, not during the voyage itself, since, according to V.N. Berkh (18236, p. 49), in the magazine did not use this name. F.P. Litke argued that if V. Bering “really called any cape for this circumstance (meeting with the Chukchi - V.G.) Chukotsky, then it should be Cape Yakkun or Ching-An.” This is hardly correct.

The map presented by V. Bering along with the report on the expedition shows the “Chukchi corner” - this is how the cape protruding to the south at the eastern edge of the northern shore of the Gulf of Anadyr is designated; the same name is given in the title of the map (“from Tobolsk to the Chukotka corner”, Bagrov, 1914, p. 19). In addition, the “Chukotsky Corner” is mentioned in the “Catalog of Siberian Cities and Notable Places...” attached to the report (Bering Expedition, p. 66). V. Bering considered it the extreme limit of the coast, along which he followed to the east, bypassing the Gulf of Anadyr. His report says: “but no land approached Chukotsky or the eastern corner” (ibid., p. 64). Thus, probably, the “Chukotsky corner” meant the cape, called Chukotsky on modern maps, which, perhaps, V. Bering combined with Cape Chaplin.

The expedition members’ ideas about the geographical position of their ship become clear from their conversation with the Chukchi they met on August 8.

This conversation is recorded in a document signed by V. Bering, M. Shpanberg and A. I. Chirikov.

August 8, 1728 Eight people arrived to us from the ground in a leather tray, with whom the interpreters who were with us... spoke to them in the Karyak language on our orders, and what is clear about this in the paragraphs.

Questions

1. What rank are people?

2. Where is the Anadar River and how far is it from here?

3. Do you know the Kolyma River?

4. Do you have a forest and what are the big rivers from the land and what are the big rivers and where did your land go and how far?

5. Has any prow stretched out from your land into the sea?

6. Are there any islands or lands in the sea?

Answers

Chyukchi.

We passed the Anadar River far back. How did you get so far here? Before this, no ships had ever come here. We don’t know the Kolyma River, we only heard from the Alena Chyukchi that they go to the river with earth and say that Russian people live on that rock, but whether this river is the Kolyma or another, we don’t know about that.

We don’t have any forests and throughout our land no large rivers have fallen into the sea; and there are those who fell, then small ones, and our land almost from here turned to the left and went far, and all our Chukchi live on it. No bow into the sea stretched from our land, all of our land was flat. There is an island not far from the land, and if it weren’t foggy, you could see, but on that island there are people, and the only thing larger than the land is our entire Chyukotsky land” (TsGA VMF, f. 216, d. 87, l. 227 and vol. ).

As we see, the Chukchi talked about turning left from Cape Chaplin and did not know that after this the coast again stretches far to the northeast; the islands of Itygran and Arakamchechen, located not far on the way “to the left” (to the west), were unknown to them, not to mention the Diomede Islands. They had not heard of R. Kolyma. In other words, their testimony referred to the immediate area, and from their words, of course, one could not draw a conclusion about the division of America and Asia. But V. Bering could not take their words critically, since, having rounded Cape Chaplin on August 11-12, he lost the coast due to bad weather (Berkh, 18236, p. 53) and, not seeing them, moved north, considering from the words of the Chukchi that he bypassed the extreme eastern ledge of the Asian continent.

Subsequently, as shown by the final map of the expedition compiled by P. A. Chaplin, on which the coast from the “Chukotsky corner” stretches to the northeast, the expedition members changed their opinion about the extreme eastern position of this “corner”.

Very little information has been published about the voyage on the afternoon of August 12th. From them it is only clear that on August 13-14, the sailors noticed “high land” behind them, and a little later - high mountains, “which would be like being on the mainland” (ibid.). On this day they reached a latitude of 66° 41", that is, they entered the Arctic Ocean without noticing it. On August 14 they sailed without seeing the shores, and on August 15 (according to civilian accounts) at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, reaching 67°18 "48" N., decided to return. In P. A. Chaplin's journal it is said briefly about this: “At 3 o'clock Mr. Captain announced that he had to return against the decree in order to comply with the decree and, turning the boat, ordered to keep on StO" (Bakhtin, 1890, appendix).

Before making a decision on the return voyage, V. Bering on August 13, when the ship was at 65° (or 65° 30 "N) and the land was not visible, consulted about this with A.I. Chirikov and M. Shpanberg and demanded that they express their opinion in writing. As A.I. Chirikov says in a note compiled in connection with this dated the same date, V. Bering “announced his recognition of the land of Chukotsky to the nose (according to the skasks of the Chukotsky inhabitants and according to stretching the earth from the mentioned nose between N andNWalso because we are now located in a width of 65° north), the shown nose, the land about which there was an opinion that it converges with America is divided by the sea and so that we can write down our opinion propose what to do ahead in this expedition” (TsGA VMF f. 216, d. 87, l. 227 vol. and 228).

Thus, V. Bering was sure that he had already given an answer to the second point of Peter the Great’s instructions (since he had sailed to the place where it became clear that America did not converge with Asia). V. Bering could also think that the third point of the instructions (“get to which city of the European possessions”) is no longer necessary, since America has not “connected” with Asia and it is not known at what distance it is located.

The answers to V. Bering’s question whether they should sail further or return clearly depict the officers’ idea of ​​the boat’s position and are interesting for characterizing the officers themselves.

M. Shpanberg, as can be understood from his response compiled on August 14, considered the position of the ship unclear. He was thinking about how to get out of this dangerous situation. This sailor, very decisive on land, was little inclined to take risks at sea, as we will see when describing the further history of his voyages. His opinion in V. Bering’s translation, which, as A. S. Polonsky says (1850a, p. 551), was not very competent, read as follows: “We have now reached the above-mentioned width and there is no harbor, firewood or current on the Chukotka land ( rivers? - V.G.), where we can protect ourselves in such winter time as happened in the local parallel; also, people are not peaceful and did not know how many places we had observed and what retreat (shelter. - V. G-), we don’t know, it seems (or I’m speculating) when we will still travel our way to the 16th day of this month to the north, if it is impossible to reach 66°, then in God’s name we will return in time to look for a harbor and protection in the river. Kamchatka, where we left, to protect the ship and people” (TsGA Navy, f. 216, d. 87, l. 228).

A.I. Chirikov had a different opinion. He said with complete clarity that V. Bering’s assumption about the division of Asia with America can only be verified by examining the northern coast of Asia towards the west to a place that is already known, i.e. to the river. Kolyma. “We still have no information up to what degree of width from the North Sea near the eastern coast of Asia from known peoples European inhabitants were, and from this we cannot reliably know about the division of Asia with America by the sea, unless we reach the mouth of the river. Kolyma or before the ice, it is known that there is always ice in the North Sea; For this reason, we must, in accordance with the force given by your honor... the decree, go near the land (unless ice prevents it or the coast does not lead west to the mouth of the Kolyma River) to the places shown in the said decree.” If there was no success before August 25, or if contrary winds appeared, it was necessary to look for places for wintering. “Especially against the Chyukotsky nose on Earth, on which, according to the skask received from the Chyukochs through Pyotr Tatarinov, there is a forest” (ibid., fol. 227 vol.).

The opinion of M. Shpanberg was more in line with the intentions of V. Bering, and he imposed a resolution: “If we now hesitate any longer in the northern regions, it is dangerous that on such dark nights and in the fog we do not come to a shore from which it will be impossible for contrary winds move away; v I’m talking about the situation of the ship, the Shverets and Leyvaglen Izlaman, it is also difficult for us to look in these parts for places where to spend the winter, since there is no other land other than Chukotskaya (unknown), on which the people are not peaceful and there are no forests. And in my opinion, it is better to return back and look for a harbor in Kamchatka for the winter” (ibid., l. 228).

V. Bering outlined approximately the same considerations in “Brief: Relation...” (Bering Expedition, p. 64).

It is difficult to blame V. Bering for this decision, dictated by the consciousness of responsibility for the expedition entrusted to him. But one also cannot help but regret that neither the words of A.I. Chirikov about the land opposite the Chukotka Cape, nor the mountains seen from the ship on August 13 (probably the northern coast of the Asian continent), nor the Diomede Islands discovered on the way back, forced V. Bering to think that the commander of such a responsible expedition, which reached these distant limits with great difficulty, should not forget about another duty - to find all possible ways to discover new territories. Having spent several days sailing west along the northern coast of Asia, where A.I. Chirikov suggested: sailing, or east of one of the Diomede Islands, the expedition could be convinced of the absence of “Cape Shelag”, which had appeared on the maps for so long, or discover American continent.

What final destination did the expedition reach in 1728?

The incompleteness and ambiguity of the description of the route of the ship “St. Gabriel" in the last days of the voyage to the north caused the emergence of XVIITAnd XIXcenturies misconceptions about the swimming limit. The misunderstanding arose as a result of an incorrect presentation of this issue by the first historian of the voyage, G. Miller (1758, p. 392), who, according to him, took his “news” from the report of Captain Bering. Obviously, this report was not a “Brief Report on the Siberian Expedition,” and G. Miller, apparently, did not know P. A. Chaplin’s journal.

Without mentioning the cape, bypassed by the expedition on August 9-10, G. Miller writes that “on August 15, they arrived at 67 degrees 18 minutes of pole altitude to the bow, beyond which the shore, like the aforementioned Chukchi (who sailed SAugust. - V.G.) showed, extended to the west." Here, according to G. Miller, V. Bering came to the conclusion that “he reached the very edge of Asia to the northeast,” but “this circumstance ... was without reason; for after that it was announced that this cape, from which it turned, is the one that the inhabitants of the Anadyr fort, because of the stone mountain located on it, which has the appearance of a heart, call the Heart-Stone; behind it the seashore turns to the west, but with this turn it forms only a large lip, in the middle of which, according to the above announcement of the Cossack Popov, the Matkol stone is found, and from there the coast extends again to the north and northeast to 70 degrees of the pole’s altitude and more, where it lies the real Chukotka nose, like a large peninsula, and there only one could say with reason that both parts of the world are not connected to each other” (ibid., pp. 393-394).

Cape “Heart-Stone” and “Chukchi Nose” were put by G. Miller on the map of 1754-1758. 30 On it, from Cape “Serdtse-Kamen”, shown in the place of Cape Dezhnev, the coast goes beyond 70° N. sh., forming a large bay and. a cape, at the end of which, in a circle bounded by a dotted line, there is the inscription “the country of the Chukchi, which is unknown to what place it extends.” Judging by the above text by G. Miller, this expression, of course, was not evidence of the “necessity” mentioned in the old drawings, but only a statement of the actual state of knowledge about the cape lying at “170 degrees of pole altitude and more.”

Thus, G. Miller moved to the north the place where the coast turned, according to the Chukchi, to the west, made it the final point of navigation and placed the “Heart-Stone” cape here.

In Western European literature there was an idea that V. Bering, having passed Cape Dezhnev, sailed west along the coast of Asia. This concept is indicated by the map in the conical projection of I. Gazius in 1743 (“Imperii Russici et Tartamae universae tabula novissima), on which the northeast of Asia is depicted according to the map of P. A. Chaplin. On this map, on the northern coast of Asia near the Bering Strait, at approximately latitude 67°, there is an inscription: “Terminus litorum a navarcho Beerings recognitorum"(the limit to which the navigator Bering explored the shores, Fig. 8). Probably the same idea is less clearly expressed in a copy of the map of P. A. Chaplin, 1729, published by J. du Gald in Paris in 1735, on which the mountains stretching along the northern coast of Asia from Cape Dezhnev, located approximately at latitude 66° 40", they abruptly end slightly above 67° N, that is, at the limit reached by "St. Gabriel". This seemed to indicate that the coast had been explored to this place. Englishman Campbell, who attached to his description of V. Bering’s voyage in 1728 a map published by J. du Gald, directly states that V. Bering moved to the west and, having made sure JOn August 5, unable to continue the journey, he returned (Harris, 1764, p. 1020).

D. Cook, who cried in 1778 north of the Bering Strait, was also influenced by ideas about V. Bering’s movement in a westerly direction. He was familiar with the descriptions of the First Kamchatka Expedition compiled by G. Miller and Campbell (Cook a King, 1785, p. 474).

Moving from the northwest to the southeast, D. Cook saw a low bank, which (as follows from the map he attached) stretched almost directly to the east; from the same cape the coast noticeably changed direction to the southeast and became mountainous (Cook a. King, 1785, p. 468). It can be assumed that these facts and their comparison with Campbell’s story and map, as well as with the story of G. Miller, forced D. Cook to take this cape as the extreme point reached by the expedition, and give it the name Heart-Stone, which is preserved on geographical maps .

The name Heart-Stone was the source of another error, which began with G. Steller, who believed that the limit of navigation of the First Kamchatka Expedition was Cape Heart-Stone in the Gulf of the Cross, located, according to modern definitions, at 65 ° 36 "N latitude ( now Cape Linlinney) (Steller, 1774. p. 1.5). L. S. Berg (1946a, p. 110), having lost sight of the map of 1754-1758, attributed this opinion to G. Miller.

When deciding on the extreme point reached by the bot “St. Gabriel,” other misunderstandings arose. N. N. Ogloblin (1890, pp. 273-276) argued that V. Bering could not have been in the strait between Cape Dezhnev and one of the Diomede islands, since if he had been there, he would have had to see two Diomede islands and the northwestern coast of America. According to I.N. Ogloblin, V. Bering reached King Island, located 70 km south of Cape Prince of Wales. This hypothesis is completely excluded by the accuracy of determining the latitude and longitude of the northeastern cape of the Chukotka Peninsula on the map presented by V. Bering.

V. Dol (Dall, 1890, p. 155) believed that the northern limit of navigation “St. Gabriel" was a point at 67° 24" N and 166° 45" W. d., not far from the American coast, north of Cape Prince of Wales.

Currently, this controversial issue can be resolved by published documents. In them you can find not only the latitude (67° 18" 48") of the place from which the expedition turned back, but also its longitude, which was determined "and 30° 14" in length from the mouth of the Kamchatka River", i.e. about

168° W d. Greenwich (Bering Expedition, p. 375). This approximately corresponds to the limit of navigation on the maps of A. I. Nagaev and V. N. Berkh.

As is known, on August 15 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon the ship turned back. It sails quickly, with a tailwind, and by noon on August 16 we covered 102.7 miles. Observations made in more favorable weather over the shores of the Asian continent and the islands in the strait made it possible to better determine the geographical position of the ship and provided the material for depicting these places on the map of P. A. Chaplin in 1729.

According to the journal of P. A. Chaplin, on August 16 (according to the civil account), at 9 o’clock. In the morning the land “on which the Chukhchi live” was spotted. At 12 o'clock The sailors saw land on the left, about which it was written in the journal: “I think it’s an island.” The latter was named the island of "St. Diomede" and is shown on the map of P. A. Chaplin at latitude 66°. Its location in relation to the northeastern tip of the Asian continent - Cape Dezhnev - is depicted incorrectly. Cape Dezhnev is shown on 67° N. sh., i.e. 1° north of its true position and almost at the extreme limit reached by “St. Gabriel." The island of St. Diomede" turned out to be not only noticeably south of Cape Dezhnev, but also to the west.

Continuing their journey to the south parallel to the eastern coast of the Asian continent, on August 20 the sailors passed the Chukotka Cape and reached Preobrazheniya Bay, where they again met the Chukchi. August 31 to September 1, when the travelers were already close to the mouth of the river. Kamchatka, they began to be pressed by a strong wind to the rocky shore, from which they were half a mile away. The gear was damaged. Fearing an accident, the sailors dropped anchor. When the wind died down somewhat and the crew began to pick up the anchor, the rope broke. Transferring this episode. V.N. Verkh (18236, p. 66) emphasizes that with a stronger wind they would have died near this steep and rocky coast. This event shows that the gear was unreliable, and the caution of V. Bering, who did not agree to wintering near the Bering Strait, was justified.

At the mouth of the river The Kamchatka boat arrived, as already mentioned, on September 2nd it began to spend the winter near the Nizhne-Kamchatsky fort.

While in Kamchatka, V. Bering heard from residents that on clear days land was visible to the east (probably Bering Island). In this regard, on June 5, 1729, having repaired the boat, the expedition set out to sea to the east. They walked “about 200 miles, but only saw no land (Bakhtin, 1890, p. 95). According to the map of V.N. Berkh, on June 8-9 the ship was very close to Bering Island. However, they could not see him, the fog was in the way. On June 9 we turned to Kamchatka. From the latitude of Cape Kronotsky, the expedition headed south and descended to 51° 59" N by June 16. But a strong southwest wind forced V. Bering to sail back “against his will.” Returning to Cape Kronotsky, he walked along Kamchatka to the cape The shoulder blades, which he bypassed. On July 1, P. A. Chaplin wrote in his journal: “Scorner of Kamchatka land from us to NWtWin 1.5 minutes. And from it the sand stretches into the sea about a mile away” (ibid., p. 66). On July 3 we arrived in Bolsheretsk. On August 29, the expedition arrived in Yakutsk. Having set out along the Lena on September 3, the travelers stopped at the village of Peleduy on October 1, caught in the frost. They continued their journey on horseback and arrived in St. Petersburg on March 1, 1730.

V. Bering presented a report on the expedition from the journey in the form of a report dated February 10, 1730. In April, he presented a “Brief Report on the Siberian Expedition.” A map of the expedition's voyage was attached to both reports (Bering Expedition, p. 64; Andreev, 1943a, p. 11).

It is widely believed that the first information about the First Kamchatka Expedition appeared in print quite late. These ideas are based on a misunderstanding, since the “St. Petersburg Gazette” for March 16, 1730 (No. 22, p. 88) published a message about the return of V. Bering and about the main results of the expedition’s work. This message said that on two ships built in Okhotsk and Kamchatka, Bering “went to the northeastern country and reached 67 degrees 19 minutes north latitude, and then he discovered that there was a truly northeastern passage, thus that from Lena, if ice did not interfere in the northern country, it would be possible to travel by water to Kamchatka, and further to Japan, Hina and the East Indies; and besides, he learned from the local residents that before 50 or 60 years a certain ship from Lena arrived to Kamchatka.

In other matters, he confirms the previous news about this land, that it is connected to the northern country with Siberia, also in addition to what was sent here in 1728, a map about his travels, which extends from Tobolsk to Okhotsk, another very authentic map about the land of Kamchatka and its water route was drawn, from which you can see that this land to the south at 51 degrees north latitude begins and goes up to 67 degrees north extends. He declares about the geographical length that from the western coast to the Tobolsk meridian it is 85 degrees, and from the extreme north-eastern border to the same meridian - 126 degrees, which, if shortened to the common meridian from the Canary Islands, on the one hand is 173 , and on the other hand it will be 214 degrees.” The report erroneously refers to sailing on two vessels.

It is interesting to note that the opinion expressed with reasonable certainty is that the Northeast Passage is open. The mention of a ship that arrived along the Lena to Kamchatka, apparently, refers to the campaign of S.I. Dezhnev and F.A. Popov, although it does not coincide in time. This is the first news of Dezhnev's voyage published in the Russian press.

A report about V. Bering’s expedition was published in the same year in the Copenhagen newspaper “Nye Tidende" Judging by the content of this message in the program of P. Lauridsen (Lauridsen, 1889, p. 35), it was an abbreviated summary of a note from the St. Petersburg Gazette. This newspaper information became the property of the educated society of Europe. This is what the book saysX. Weber (Weber, 1740, pp. 157-158), which tells about the voyage of V. Bering in terms close to the mentioned news.

The publication in the St. Petersburg Gazette could not have appeared without the knowledge of government agencies. Consequently, the opinion about V. Bering’s discovery of the Northeast Passage was initially widespread in official circles.

The map presented by V. Bering, the inscription on which indicated that the northern coast of the Asian continent east of Kolyma was drawn on the basis of old maps and inventories, later forced the Admiralty Board to doubt the opening of the strait between the continents (TsGADA, f. Senate, book 666, l. 114). The Senate also came to this conclusion, and it was repeated several times in the decree of December 28, 1732 on the Second Kamchatka Expedition (PSZ, vol. VIII, page 1004).

Despite this, the Admiralty Board and the Senate appreciated the merits of the expedition, rewarding V. Bering and his companions. A positive assessment of V. Bering’s activities should also be seen in the fact that in 1732 he was appointed head of the much larger Second Kamchatka Expedition.

It is now clear to us that even if V. Bering did not do the maximum possible, the scientific results of the expedition were still of paramount importance.

The cartographic work of the expedition and the tables that supplemented them, indicating the geographical coordinates of points along the expedition’s route and the distances between them, were of great value. The materials concerning the First Kamchatka Expedition mention three maps presented by V. Bering. We learn about the first of them from the minutes of the Conference of the Academy of Sciences dated January 17, 1727, which talks about I. Delisle’s consideration of “Captain Bering’s map of Russia” (Gnucheva, 19406, pp. 36-37). The second map, compiled by P. A. Chaplin, depicting the route from Tobolsk to Okhotsk, was sent from Okhotsk in June 1727 (Fig. 9). She is mentioned in the above message in the St. Petersburg Gazette. Third (final) map

expedition was attached to the two mentioned reports of V. Bering (however, perhaps different maps were attached to these reports).

Currently, a copy of the final map compiled in 1729 by P. A. Chaplin is known, who, judging by the inscription on the map, used earlier maps of surveyors, including P. Skobeltsyn, G. Putilov and P. Chichagov, when depicting Siberia .

It is possible that other final maps were drawn up that are not yet known. The “Register of Geographical Atlases, Maps, Plans and Theaters of War”, published by the Library of the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1877 (p. 52), mentions a map presented in 1732 by V. Bering, indicating the places through which he was traveling from Tobolsk to Kamchatka. M.I. Belov (1956, p. 252) cites a letter from the Dutch ambassador Zwart, in which the latter reports that V. Bering gave him in 1733, as mentioned above, a copy of the Russian map he compiled during the expedition.

It is difficult to say whether these maps differed from the map of P. A. Chaplin of 1729 and whether any of them were actually compiled by V. Bering. Copies of the final map of P. A. Chaplin were also called maps by V. Bering, the inscription on which says that the map was compiled “under the command of the fleet of Captain V. Bering,” without mentioning the name of P. A. Chaplin. Noteworthy is I. Delisle’s remark on one of the copies of the maps of the First Kamchatka Expedition that the Bering maps were actually compiled by P. A. Chaplin (Bagrow, 1948 -1949, p. 38).

L. S. Bagrov compiled a summary of the 14 copies known to him of the final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition, published, described, or, according to his assumption, stored in archives and libraries. Six reproductions are attached to the summary (including a map from du Galde’s book, not mentioned by L. S. Bagrov in his summary). Of the copies he named, 10 are located abroad. In basic features they are similar and differ only in the quality of execution and some additional special information (on ethnography, on the location of forests). About the French copy depicting forests, made by I. Delisle and stored in the National Library in Paris, L. S. Bagrov reports that the inscriptions on it are more detailed and differ from the inscriptions on other final maps. Also noteworthy is the copy of Du Gald (Fig. 10), which gives an idea of ​​the expedition’s voyage to the west (see also the map of I. Gazius, Fig. 8).

On the map of P. A. Chaplin of 1729, not only the north-eastern shores of Asia are quite accurately outlined, but also the position of various places in Siberia, about which there were previously misconceptions, is correctly indicated.

Russian maps of Siberia XVIIV. (P.I. Godunova, S.U. Remezova, etc.), most of them drawn up according to the conventional stencil of that time and devoid of a degree grid, could not give an idea of ​​​​the outlines of the country, since the contours of the map were adjusted to the shape of the sheet on which it is drawn. The turn of the northern coast of the Asian continent near Lena to the south, shown on these maps, did not say anything about the extent of the continent in an easterly direction (Middendorf, 1860, pp. 38-39).

On the map of A. Vinius (1678-1683), which has a degree grid, the extent of the Asian continent is shown more successfully than on some later maps, but the distance between the mouth of the Ob and the eastern end of the northern coast of Asia is still 95°, instead of 117°. The location of individual parts of Siberia relative to each other is shown incorrectly, with a sharp decrease in the eastern part due to an increase in the western part.

The distance between the mouths of the Ob and Lena on the map of A. Vinius is 65°, and between the mouth of the Lena and the eastern end of the Asian coast is 30° (the actual distances are 54 and 63°, respectively).

On the map of Izbrand Ides, published in 1704, the distance between the mouth of the Ob and the eastern end of the northern coast of the Asian continent is only 57°. The incorrectness of I.M. Evreinov’s map, on which the extent of Siberia from west to east is halved, has already been mentioned above. On F. Stralenberg's map of 1730 (Bagrov, 1914), the distance from the mouth of the Ob to the eastern edge of the northern coast of Asia is about 95°, as on the earlier map of A. Vinius.

Thus, all these maps gave an incorrect idea of ​​the geography of Siberia, and only accurate determinations of the geographical location of individual points, which were made by the First Kamchatka Expedition, made it possible to correctly navigate the extent of Siberia and the relationships of its individual parts.

The final map of the expedition was supported by a table (“Catalog of Siberian cities and notable places included on the map...”) identifying the coordinates of 28 points, of which 15 points are in the territory between Tobolsk and Okhotsk, 4 points in Kamchatka and 9 points on the shores of the Pacific ocean. To illustrate the degree of accuracy of these definitions in Table. 1 compares them with modern data (to convert the longitude from Tobolsk, indicated in the “Catalogue”, into longitude from Greenwich added 68°15").

Despite the errors encountered, the determination of longitude by the Perova Kamchatka expedition, taking into account the conditions in which they were made, can be considered satisfactory, which was noted by D. Cook (Cook a. King, 1785). To establish longitude, the expedition, in particular, made observations of lunar eclipses twice: in Ilimsk - October 10, 1725 (Bakhtin, 1890, p. 78) and in Kamchatka.

Calculating the distance traveled was also important.

P. A. Chaplin’s map of 1729 was of great ethnographic significance, since it indicated the areas where various nationalities inhabited

eastern part of Siberia. The importance attached to the ethnographic materials of the map can be seen from the fact that on the back of the copy stored in the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts (Cartogr. Library of the Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs, f. 192, Maps of the Yakutsk province, No. 7) and without a name, marked: “Map indicating the nomadic pastures of the Ostyaks, Tungus, Yakuts and other peoples.” On some copies that went abroad, valuable images were made that correctly convey the types of nationalities, their clothing, occupations and household items (Fig. 11).

New data about the extent of Siberia quickly gained recognition. I. Delisle used them already in 1727, aOn November 10, 1730, he reported to the Academy of Sciences that, based on the observations of V. Bering, Kamchatka should be placed much further to the east than shown on the maps of contemporary geographers (Minutes of meetings..., 1897, p. 32). I. Delisle, apparently, was the first to use the map of P. A. Chaplin for his map of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, compiled in 1731 when developing the project of the Second Kamchatka Expedition.

According to G. Kaan (Cahen, 1911, p. 174), a copy of P. A. Chaplin’s map was sent by I. Delisle to the famous geographer d’Anville, who already in 1732 compiled “Carte des pays traverses par le captin Bering”, which, in his words, was a “Bering map”, reduced by him to a small scale (d" Anville, 1737 a, page 4). Copy of the card II. A. Chaplin was published by DuGald (Halde, 1735) together with a detailed retelling of “A Brief Report on the Siberian Expedition” by V. Bering. In 1737, d'Anville printed his map in his published atlas of China (Anville, 17376).

P. A. Chaplin’s map was also used by d’Anvil to check the determinations of the position of the mouth of the Amur made by the French Jesuits living in China. He noted that “although on the excellent map of Stralenberg between Tobolsk and Okhotsk the distance is 65 °, and on the map of the Great Tatars Delili (Guillaume. - V.G.) is even smaller; Bering’s map shows this distance as 74°, which is consistent with the Jesuit data about the mouth of the Amur" (d" Anville, 1737 a, page 32).

In relation to publicly available publications, abroad, as already mentioned, many copies of the final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition were kept in various collections, the acquisition of which was greatly facilitated by the ambassadors of foreign powers.

The discoveries of the First Kamchatka Expedition became widely known after the publication of the “General Map of Russia” (1734) by I.K. Kirilov, who also used the map of P.A. Chaplin.

Recognizing the positive significance of the First Kamchatka Expedition, M.V. Lomonosov noted in 1763 that “Bering was not in vain in thinking that he had followed the instructions given to himself. One thing is a pity that, going back, he followed the same road and did not go further to the east, which, of course, could have spotted the shores of northwestern America.

The reports of V. Bering and the journals of the expedition participants also contained valuable data about the country’s population and its economy, which contributed to the emergence of correct ideas about Siberia, although, of course, the expedition participants did not have time to become closely acquainted with the life of local peoples.

Source---

Grekov, V.I. Essays on the history of Russian geographical research in 1725-1765 / V.I. Grekov.- M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1960.- 425 p.

The first Kamchatka expedition 1725-1730. occupies a special place in the history of science. She
was the first major scientific expedition in the history of the Russian Empire, undertaken by government decision. In organizing and conducting the expedition, a large role and credit belongs to the navy. The starting point of the First Kamchatka Expedition was the personal decree of Peter I on the organization of the “First Kamchatka Expedition” under the command of Vitus Bering, December 23, 1724. Peter I personally wrote instructions to Bering.

The sea route from Okhotsk to Kamchatka was discovered by the expedition of K. Sokolov and N. Treski in 1717, but the sea route from the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to the Pacific Ocean had not yet been discovered. It was necessary to walk across the mainland to Okhotsk, and from there to Kamchatka. There, all supplies were delivered from Bolsheretsk to the Nizhnekamchatsky prison. This created great difficulties in the delivery of materials and supplies. It is difficult for us to even imagine the incredible difficulty of the journey across the deserted thousand-mile tundra for travelers who do not yet have organizational skills. It is interesting to see how the journey proceeded and in what form people and animals arrived at their destination. Here, for example, is a report from Okhotsk dated October 28: “Provisions sent from Yakutsk by dry route arrived in Okhotsk on October 25 on 396 horses. On the way, 267 horses disappeared and died due to lack of fodder. During the journey to Okhotsk, people suffered great hunger; due to lack of food, they ate belts,
leather and leather pants and soles. And the horses that arrived ate grass, getting out from under the snow; due to their late arrival in Okhotsk, they did not have time to prepare hay, but it was not possible; everyone was frozen from deep snow and frost. And the rest of the ministers arrived on dog sleds to Okhotsk.” From here the goods were transported to Kamchatka. Here, in the Nizhnekamchatsky fort, under the leadership of Bering, on April 4, 1728, a boat was laid down, which in June of the same year was launched and named “St. Archangel Gabriel.”

On this ship, Bering and his companions sailed through the strait in 1728, which was later named after the leader of the expedition. However, due to dense fog, it was not possible to see the American coast. Therefore, many decided that the expedition was unsuccessful.

Results of the First Kamchatka Expedition

Meanwhile, the expedition determined the extent of Siberia; the first sea vessel on the Pacific Ocean was built - “Saint Gabriel”; 220 geographical objects have been discovered and mapped; the existence of a strait between the continents of Asia and America has been confirmed; the geographical position of the Kamchatka Peninsula has been determined. The map of V. Bering's discoveries became known in Western Europe and was immediately included in the latest geographical atlases. After the expedition of V. Bering, the outlines of the Chukotka Peninsula, as well as the entire coast from Chukotka to Kamchatka, take on a form on maps that is close to their modern images. Thus, the northeastern tip of Asia was mapped, and now there was no doubt about the existence of a strait between the continents. The first printed report about the expedition, published in the St. Petersburg Gazette on March 16, 1730, noted that Bering reached 67 degrees 19 minutes north latitude and confirmed that “there is a truly northeastern passage there, so that from Lena ... by water to Kamchatka and further to Japan, Hina
(China) and the East Indies it would be possible to get there.”

Of great interest to science were the geographical observations and travel records of the expedition participants: A.I. Chirikova, P.A. Chaplin and others. Their descriptions of coasts, relief,
flora and fauna, observations of lunar eclipses, ocean currents, weather conditions, observations about earthquakes, etc. were the first scientific data on the physical geography of this part of Siberia. The descriptions of the expedition participants also contained information about the economy of Siberia, ethnography, and others.

The first Kamchatka expedition, which began in 1725 with the instructions of Peter I, returned to St. Petersburg on March 1, 1730. V. Bering presented to the Senate and the Admiralty Board a report on the progress and results of the expedition, a petition for promotion in rank and rewarding officers and privates.

Sources:

1. Alekseev A.I. Russian Columbuses. – Magadan: Magadan Book Publishing House, 1966.

2. Alekseev A.I. Brave sons of Russia. – Magadan: Magadan Book Publishing House, 1970.

3. Berg A. S. Discovery of Kamchatka and Bering’s expedition 1725-1742. – M.: Academy Publishing House
Sciences USSR, 1946.

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