Carnation "St. Julian"

Moscow townsman Ivan Nikiforov, although he did not have his own funds to organize fishing expeditions for beaver fur to the Aleutian Islands, was destined to write a very important page in the chronicle of the main events in the conquest of the Great Ocean: he built the first fishing boat “St. Julian” in Kamchatka.

Before him, people went fishing on shitikas, which, as we say, were “sewn” with rods, whalebone or belts, and Nikiforov built a “nail”, that is, a vessel on nails, with wooden fastenings. The Nailers were larger and more reliable, and it was no longer thirty industrialists who went to sea with them, but twice as many...

Nikiforov had golden hands, but no golden chervonets, and therefore he was forced to surrender “St. Iulian" on loan to Nikifor Trapeznikov.

On September 2, 1758, the first fishing boat in the history of Kamchatka went out to the open sea. Sailor on the "St. Juliana" was the Yarensky townsman Stepan Glotov.

Fox Islands

Nizhnekamchatsk, 1762.

“Last September 758, on the 2nd... we entered... from the Nizhnekamchatka estuary into the open Pacific Sea on a sea voyage to explore new islands and peoples under the escort of this ship Evo Glotov safely. Precisely during the beginning of that voyage, the seaborne voyage from the beginning of the autumn weather drifted on the ninth day to the small copper island lying nearby from the so-called Commander Island (to) where, by the grace of God, the bailiffs spent the winter and contented themselves, firstly, with food, preparing this for a future voyage to search for distant unknown islands. And then they deliberately hunted beavers, queens and koshlaks 83 and blue arctic foxes 1263, which were all covered in clothes and blankets. And while sailing from the Kamchatka estuary, after the ship was thrown onto the Medny Island, from the prescribed severe autumn seas at sea, the former two anchors were torn off and carried into the sea, for which they and the other companions by common consent, to save the ship and people, so that during the search for islands intended in the sea not to die untimely, they took from the Komandorsky Island a broken packet boat of the former Kamchatka expedition with a strip of lying iron and in action, like in buots and hooks, weighing 15 pounds and, through considerable labor, forged two anchors, which even today the ship has that both of them had one paw torn off during the disturbances. And when overwintering on Copper Island and hunting for food for sea cows, seals and sea lions, dried meat was prepared, in the summer of August 759, from the 1st of August, the packs entered the sea voyage to search for and complete the intended journey. And from that August 1st, they sailed, without touching, to the well-known sea Aleutian islands between the north and east, and in that voyage, with favorable weather, they continued until September until the 1st. And also, by the gift of God and by the high happiness of Her Imperial Majesty, we arrived on a safe journey to the island lying in the north-eastern side and, seeing a place convenient for the ship to lay up, landed between a stone lying at noon on that island on soft sand without any damage to the ship on shore. And that island is called after the name of the local peoples Umnak, which they honor above the second nearby island, but the main and first one.” (These were the largest islands of the Aleutian chain - Umnak and Unalaska).

“... On these two islands there are animals: sea beavers, black-brown, brown, gray foxes, crosses and red foxes of various types.”

(And that is why this group of islands was later nicknamed the Fox Islands. The fishery was successful - 1389 beavers and 1648 foxes worth more than 130 thousand rubles).

“And from that departure of the Mayans from August 26 to the 31st of that year 762 back to the Nizhnekamchatka mouth, being on the way, they had great shortages of water and food, so that the last shoes from their feet were boiled and used for food used..."

But what is the result of this voyage, according to just one study: “Glotov’s voyage is one of the most remarkable voyages of that time towards America. Glotov penetrated farther than all other sailors to the east, walked along the entire Aleutian ridge, made remarkable discoveries, described open lands, organized the compilation of maps, while maintaining peaceful relations with the local population.” (Zubikova Z.N. Aleutian Islands. - M., 1948. - P. 24).

Bechevinskaya Bay

While Stepan Glotov was updating Nikiforov-Trapeznikov’s carnation, in Okhotsk the Irkutsk merchant Ivan Bechevin decided to build a boat “even bigger than the Julian.” But while the carpenters were getting along with the new boat - eleven fathoms (23 meters) along the keel, while the Okhotsk priests were lighting it up and calling it “Saint Gabriel,” Ivan Bechevin himself was being tortured on the rack by the notorious auditor Krylov in Siberia, extorting money hidden by the merchant for secret distillery affairs and tavern fees.

"St. Gabriel,” ready to sail, waited for the command, standing at the mouth of the Belogolovaya River. Instead of the owner's will, an official decree came: “Take the ship to the treasury and send it to the fisheries for three years.”

Sailor on the "St. Gabriel" was appointed Gabriel Pushkarev. What is known about him? Very little. An ordinary participant in the Second Kamchatka Expedition. Unlucky conqueror (together with Dmitry Paykov) on “St. Vladimir" Steller Land in 17S8 and 1759. That, it seems, is all.

It's a pity. I would like to know more to understand more. After all, in the words of Z.N. Zubkova (p. 27), “the ship “Gabriel” and its voyage have their own special history. The voyage of "Gabriel" is associated with the strengthening... of the direction in the activities of merchants (industrialists)... who set themselves the goal of conquering the islands by armed force.”

The first, as we remember, in this “activity” were members of the crew of Mikhail Nevodchikov. We also remember how fate punished them for this.

Let us now follow “St. Gabriel."

On August 24, 1760, the boat landed on the shore of one of the bays of Attu Island (the Near Aleutian Islands, discovered at one time by Nevodchikov), but did not stay there and moved on. On September 25, he arrived at Atha (Andreyanovsky Islands). Here Pushkarev met with his old acquaintances - members of the crew of the bot “St. Vladimir." Dmitry Paykov was already preparing to leave the inhospitable island: the day before, the Aleuts, for unknown reasons, killed twelve people. Parish "St. Gabriel" changed the sailor's plans. It was decided to organize a “warehouse company.” This meant that half the people from St. Vladimir" switched to "St. Gabriel” and vice versa. Each vessel subsequently fished independently, and the spoils were divided equally.

In 1761, the ships went east. "St. Vladimir" reached Kodiak Island, where the Russians had not yet been. "St. Gabriel first came to Umnak, but, having met Glotov here, he went further, crossed the Isanot Strait and landed on the hard shore of America - Alaska, which he mistook for a large island. Russian industrialists have also never been here before.

But neither in Kodiak nor in Alaska did the industrialists succeed. I quote Z.N. Zubkova: “Friendly relations with the residents in January 1762 gave way to hostile ones, and again for the old reason of violence against women by the industrialist party, headed by Pushkarev himself. As a result, eight industrialists were killed and the same number were injured. As revenge, the industrialists killed seven Aleutian hostages (amanates). This was the first time hostages were killed. As a result of armed clashes, "Gabriel" weighed anchor and on May 26, 1762 set off on a return voyage. Entering Umnak again, Pushkarev captured at least 20 Aleuts, most of them girls.” With this cargo “St. Gabriel" to Kamchatka, but on September 25 he crashed in one of the bays of the Shipunsky Peninsula, which to this day is called Bechevinskaya.

Pushkarev himself remained alive. Dmitry Paykov also fled from Kodiak. And therefore, everyone who followed them could not count on a good reception from the natives.

Kodiak

Before Glotov had time to put “St. Juliana,” as Solikamsk merchant Ivan Lapin and Lalsky Vasily Popov entrust him with their “Andreyan and Natalia.”

And again the sea, although the difficult trials had just ended, many months of roughness, hunger, scurvy, physical fatigue, longing for his native land, from which he had been torn away for several years... But the passion of the discoverer overcame, and Stepan Gavriilovich directed “Andreyan and Natalia.” Just like the first time, he passed all the hitherto known islands of the Aleutian chain and went far ahead. And if the first time he did not reach the coast, to Alaska, this time he passed by and landed on Kodiak Island.

The natives met the Russians with hostility: they bombarded them with arrows. I had to scare them off with rifle fire. They moved away, but soon they found sulfur and dry grass on the Andreyan and Natalia, pulled ashore - the islanders were preparing to burn the ship. Seeing that they failed in this too, they again attacked the industrialists - more than two hundred people rushed into the attack, covering themselves from bullets with wooden shields. The attack was repulsed, but a month later, under the cover of even thicker shields, the islanders tried to strike again.

In general, it was not in Glotov’s rules to establish relations with local residents with the help of weapons, especially since he had a wealth of experience in dealing with the warlike tribes of Umnaka and Unalaska, where he earned the love and respect of the aborigines.

He began to look for the same way to establish contacts with the residents of Kodiak. By spring, brisk trade began between them.

Glotov returned to Kamchatka in 1766 with a large amount of furs.

Secret expedition

At the very end of his life, the great Mikhailo Lomonosov did everything in his power to prepare a gigantic enterprise.

A month before his death (April 15, 1765), he signed “approximate instructions for naval commanding officers setting out to find a route to the east by the Northern Ocean.” He drew a line on the map of the globe that intersected the meridians at the same angle - a loxodrome. It led to the island of Umnak. This curve outlined the most direct path for the ships: having chosen it, there was no longer any need to change course (Markov S. Earth Circle. - M., 1978. - P. 509).

And here, near the island of Umnak, just discovered by Stepan Glotov, the ships of two expeditions were supposed to meet: V. Ya. Chichagov, who intended to go to the island by the Northern Sea Route from Arkhangelsk through the Bering Strait, and the expedition of P. K. Krenitsyn, departing along route Okhotsk – Nizhnekamchatsk – Umnak.

Chichagov failed to break through the ice of the Icy Sea.

But even greater trials befell the participants of Krenitsyn’s expedition.

The reason for its organization, as follows from official documents, was the discoveries of Stepan Glotov and the map of that fishing expedition compiled by Stepan Gavriilovich’s comrades - the Cossack Ponomarev and the merchant Shishkin, which was received by the Admiralty College. In the capital, it becomes clear that the period of discovery of new islands in the North Pacific Ocean by “simple and unscientific” people is time to end and begin a new stage of exploration.

It must be categorically noted that the Admiralty Board was mistaken in not recognizing the state, sovereign benefit of the fishing activities of their compatriots in the East. The fundamental basis of such activity for many of them was precisely this: survey, description and development of unknown islands as new Russian possessions, and not free profit.

It was this goal, which was set in the capital twenty years after the first fishing voyages of the Russians, that captivated Emelyan Basov and became the cause of his personal tragedy, Andrean Tolstoy, Mikhail Nevodchikov and even Gavriil Pushkarev, although they were so different.

But nevertheless, the Admiralty Board, and even more so the government, thought completely differently.

“Judging by the decree of May 4, 1764 on the organization of the expedition, the government understood that the discoveries of industrial seafarers were largely a consequence of the Bering expedition, that these discoveries were also the fruits of the labor used and the considerable dependency of the past Kamchatka expedition. It was completely logical to equip a new expedition similar to Bering’s expedition. Therefore, the decree proposes that the Admiralty Board “send immediately, according to its own judgment, how many officers and navigators are needed, entrusting the command over them to a senior person whose knowledge of maritime science and diligence in it were known” (Zubkova Z. N. Aleutian Islands. - M ., 1948. – P.36).

Yes, otherwise it turned out that “simple and unlearned” Russian sailors saved the honor of expeditions, the costs of which were many times greater than the results - either a complete failure of the First, or a duplication of what had already been done in 1732 by surveyor Mikhail Gvozdev and navigator Ivan.

And it was not Bering or Gvozdev who built this Asia-America bridge. It was not they who drove the first nails into it, so expensive on the deserted outskirts. It was not their personal example that could inspire others.

Bering was powerless to raise the Russian people by his personal example. The costs he incurred were ruinous. And what can we say? It’s enough to compare the results of the new expedition with the deeds of those who went to the islands “at their own peril and risk.” And then there will be no need to argue.

Captain Pyotr Kuzmich Krenitsyn was appointed commander of the Secret Expedition. Assistant - Lieutenant Mikhail Levashov.

In 1765 they arrived in Okhotsk and began building ships. Four sea vessels were placed at the disposal of the expedition: the brigantine "St. Catherine", the gukor "St. Paul", the galliot "St. Paul" and the boat "St. Gabriel".

In addition, Krenitsyn had at his disposal... 192 people; A huge amount of money was spent on equipment – ​​over 100 thousand rubles.” (Ibid., p. 37).

And what? Not a single ship reached Kamchatka intact.

Krenitsyn was sailing on a brigantine. On October 10, 1766, the flotilla left Okhotsk and three days later the ships became lost in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and each reached Kamchatka on their own. Almost immediately at St. Ekaterina" a leak opened, but they dealt with it and two weeks later they approached the mouth of the Bolshaya. Here they encountered a storm, and the brigantine was thrown ashore 25 versts from Bolshaya at the mouth of the Utka River.

"St. Pavel" Levashov washed ashore 7 versts from the mouth of the Bolshaya. Bot "St. Gabriel" - at the very mouth.

Galiot "St. Pavel" was carried into the Pacific Ocean, to the south, and smashed into chips on the piles of the Seventh Kuril Island. 13 of the 43 crew members survived.

We left Bolsheretsk in the summer of next year on the gukor “St. Paul" and both "St. Gabriel". We only reached Nizhnekamchatsk: the boat was not suitable for further navigation. We spent the winter in Nizhnekamchatsk, preparing the galliot “St. Catherine".

Krenitsyn no longer relied on his own strength and took “simple and unscientific” pioneers with him on the expedition. Among other industrialists, Stepan Glotov walked with him. With Levashov - Gavriil Pushkarev.

On May 1, 1768, the Secret Expedition of Krenitsyn-Levashov finally set off to the east. On board the St. Catherine" there were 72 people. On board the St. Pavel" – 68.

In August, the ships were in the Isanot Strait and took an inventory of the American coast, landing in Alaska.

On September 18, Krenitsyn started “St. Catherine" to one of the bays of Unimak Island, where he spent the winter. Levashov met the winter on Unalaska.

The Aleuts received the Russian people with hostility and were in a militant mood - five years ago here, on the Fox Islands, the crews of four Russian fishing vessels (about one hundred and seventy people) had already died. Therefore, it was necessary to constantly keep guard, be on guard, conduct a survey of the islands and Alaska in large, well-armed groups, so as not to become a victim of the Aleut and Indian warriors, who were constantly looking out for prey in the Russian camp and every now and then showering sailors and industrialists with clouds of arrows.

It was hard to find food.

“Malnutrition soon turned into hunger strike,” we read from Sergei Markov. - The scurvy has started. Whale meat is of no use to Russian people. Sailors claim that the whale even opened wounds. But Levashov’s people had to eat the meat of a whale that was thrown dead onto the shore of the bay.

The winterers lived on the ship and in a yurt. One day such a wind came from the sea that the roof of the yurt rose. Its inhabitants were so frozen that they lost their minds.

Mikhail Levashov, sitting in a cramped cabin of the ship, near a lamp with whale oil, wrote notes.

“About the inhabitants of that island”, “Description of the island of Unalaska”, “About the hunting of various kinds of foxes by Russian people on the island of Unalaska” - these were the names of these scientific works begun by Russian people in the Western Hemisphere. They contained a lot of information about the life of the Aleuts, about their clothes, homes, swift kayaks, about the Aleut “gaiety”, when the Aleuts dance to the sound of tambourines covered with whale skin.

Let us add that many of these Levashov’s notes have not been published to this day and are unlikely to have been read during the author’s lifetime.

The crew members of the St. Catherine." And this despite the fact that among the captain’s assistants was Glotov, and other industrial people who had previously been able to get along with the local residents and find a common friendly language with them.

But frightened by stories about the Aleutian revolt of 176-1763 on the Fox Islands (including Unimak), Krenitsyn seemed to have lost his prudence.

Scurvy was rampant in the Russian camp. People were starving. It’s hard to believe this - after all, sailor Smetanin’s whole herd of reindeer was used for corned beef for the expedition - apparently, they ate everything clean during two winter delays in Kamchatka.

By the spring of 1769, from the crew of “St. Catherine" only half survived - 36 people, of which only twelve remained on their feet. On May 5, Stepan Gavriilovich Glotov died. The glorious sailor was not even forty years old.

Krenitsyn and the survivors were doomed to death - they did not have the strength to either equip the ship or push it into the water. And they would have died if not for the Unalaska Aleuts. Levashov nevertheless became friends with one of the leaders, a friend of Stepan Glotov in the recent past, and asked him to find Krenitsyn on the islands. And it was here that Gavriil Pushkarev, the unlucky pilot from “St. Paul,” the conqueror of Alaska and the personal enemy of many Umnak people, was given a lesson in the highest morality by those whom he considered savages unworthy of his pity and respect. A lesson in fidelity to one’s word and the strength of friendship: an Aleut detachment set out to sea on a hundred canoes, fighting its way through the sea possessions of its warlike neighbors. Only two made it to Krenitsyn. The leader gave Krenitsyn the package and immediately went back with a reply letter, despite new dangers, to tell Levashov the good news (for the crew of St. Catherine).

Thanks to the brave Aleuts, two Russian ships were able to meet again in the vast expanse of the ocean, and the “St. Catherine" escaped a tragic fate.

But nevertheless, the price of this expedition was too high for its disinterested followers to be found.

And the fishing wave was hitting the hardened American coast with more and more force.

In the winter of 1725, dank, cold winds blew over St. Petersburg. They raised snow tornadoes in vacant lots, swept over the frozen swamps of the Swamps, and broke into the doors and windows of houses standing on trellises. The rare pedestrians, driven out into the street by chance or necessity, tried to quickly reach the warmth, hiding their noses and ears in their collars as they went. The city lived with anxious anticipation: in his palace, surrounded by the Preobrazhentsy and Semyonovtsy, lay the seriously ill Tsar Peter. Back in the fall, while rescuing sailors from a sinking ship in icy water, the tsar 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 create 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...

So, the question of the expedition was resolved. It entered the history of geographical science under the name of the “First Kamchatka Expedition” and was part of the measures of Peter the Great, which were aimed at strengthening the position of the Russian state in the Pacific Ocean and, in addition, at developing trade with eastern countries.

The expedition set off in early February 1725 - sixty people and a huge convoy, which carried food and materials necessary for building ships.

The path to the shores of the Pacific Ocean was difficult and long. Of the 663 horses, 267 died. There was not enough food, and famine began. “Walking along,” Bering wrote in one of his reports to the Senate, “the whole crew became hungry, and from such hunger they ate dead horse meat, rawhide bags and all sorts of raw leather, leather clothes and shoes.”

Only in July 1727 did the entire expedition gather in Okhotsk. It took another year to deliver cargo to Kamchatka and build the ship. On July 8, 1728, it was launched and given the name “Gabriel.” Soon the ship went to sea. The Gabriel, a twenty-meter vessel built in three months, carried a forty-person crew and a year's supply of food. On July 28, the expedition reached the Anadyr River, beyond which it discovered a bay called Cross Bay. On August 10, the Asian coast turned sharply to the north, and a few days later, when the Gabriel reached 65° north latitude, Bering called the ship's officers to a council. The question had to be resolved: should we sail further?

Two opinions were expressed. Martyn Shpanberg advised going north for three more days and then turning back. Winter is approaching, he said, and the Gabriel could get stuck in the ice. Chirikov had a different opinion. He believed that the goals of the expedition had not been achieved, the strait was not open and that he should sail on. The final decision depended on Bering. After some thought, the head of the expedition took Spanberg’s side.

On August 16, having reached 67°8" northern latitude, "Gabriel" set off on a reverse course. On September 1, the expedition arrived at the mouth of the Kamchatka River, where it spent the winter.

Yes, “Gabriel” walked for six days through the strait, which is now called the Bering Strait. But the head of the expedition did not know this. He also did not know that he was separated from America by some 80 km. If Bering had been more decisive, he would have accepted Chirikov’s proposal, and the question of the existence of a strait between Asia and America would have been clarified in 1728.....

You can buy a kit for building a model of the ship Bot St. Gabriel on a scale of 1:72

The history of V. Bering's voyage on the boat "St. Gabriel" to the Arctic Ocean

Swimming V.I. Bering on the boat "St. Gabriel" - the main content of the First Kamchatka Expedition. Therefore, before moving on to the characteristics of these voyages, it is necessary to dwell on the goals set for the expedition, on the historical situation prevailing in Russia at that time and on the characteristics of the leader and organizer of the expedition, V. I. Bering. Vitus Bering was born on August 12, 1681 in the Danish city of Horsens. His parents were Jonas (Junas) Svendsen and Anna Pedersdatten Behring. The newborn was christened Vitus Jonassen. In the oldest volume of the collection of church books of the city of Horsens, Bering's baptismal certificate has been preserved to this day. In 1885, the Danish historian P. Lauridsen reported the discovery of this church book in the city of Horsens, from which it was possible to accurately determine the date of Bering’s birth. The navigator bore the surname of his mother, Svendsen’s second wife, who came from the famous Bering family in Denmark, whose ancestor was a certain Jene Madsen Bering, who lived in the middle of the 16th century. in Vibork - a region of Denmark, occupying part of the districts of Viborg and Aalborg - on his estate Björing, from where the surname Bering originated. Vitus Bering's father Jonas Svendsen was a customs officer. He was born, it is believed, in the city of Halmstad, in the then Danish province of Haaland (now it is the territory of Sweden), was a trustee of the church in Horsens and belonged to the most respected people of the city. Vitus Bering had two siblings, Iunas (Jonas) and Jörgen, as well as sisters, one of whom was married to Vice Admiral of the Russian Navy T. Sanders. The Bering family was noble, but in the 17th century. already broke. This can be seen from the inventory of the family's property after the death of the parents in 1719. It contains a deed of sale, which lists all the property - an old dilapidated courtyard and cheap home furnishings. After the death of his father in 1719, Vitus inherited 30 rigdalers, 4 marks and 6 shillings. Bering later bequeathed this money and the accumulated interest on it (a total of 139 rigdallers, 1 mark and 14 shillings) to the poor of Horsens. It is also known that he did not make a fortune for himself. His decision to go on long and dangerous journeys was caused by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, an inquisitive mind, and a desire to benefit the cause to which he devoted his life. Very little is known about Vitus' childhood. Next door to Behring's parents lived the funeral director Thomas Petersen Wendelbu, whose son was five years younger than Vitus and was probably his playmate. At that time, in the fiord where the city is located. Horsens, there was a small island to which the boys sailed in homemade boats. Vitus most likely went to school, which was maintained by the future father-in-law of Bering's sister (Anna Katrins Jonasdatter) Peder Lauritzen Dahlhoff. The school was located in Horsens on Smedegade Street. Peder L. Dahlhoff's son Horlov married Vitus' sister in 1695. He served as a fanfarist in the Danish navy. Obviously, conversations about life in the navy occupied a large place at school, as well as in house No. 59, on Søndergade Street, where V. Bering’s family lived. At that time, Denmark actively participated in the conquest of overseas territories, the Danish king sent expeditions to all countries of the world. Undoubtedly, young Vitus knew about the expedition of Jens Munch (early 17th century), as well as about expeditions to the island. Greenland and India. Therefore, the arrival of young Vitus on a sea ship was completely natural. Already as a child, he was fascinated by the sea, quickly mastered marine sciences, becoming an excellent navigator. Vitus Bering, like his cousin Sven and comrade Sivere (the future admiral of the Russian fleet), sailed to the East Indies on a Dutch ship. According to the Danish historian K. Niels, Bering graduated from the naval cadet corps in Amsterdam in 1703, which was considered the best in the world, and received an officer rank. In 1703, in Amsterdam, Vitus met with Vice Admiral of the Russian Fleet K. I. Kruys (Norwegian by birth), who drew attention to a number of qualities of the young man that were very valuable for naval service. With the assistance of Cruys, Bering was enlisted in the Russian navy. It should be noted that the grandson of Vitus Bering - Christian Bering - was also an officer of the Russian fleet and in 1794, on the ship "Glory of Russia" under the command of G. Sarychev, he followed the path that his grandfather took in 1728. V. Bering began his service in the Russian fleet as a 22-year-old non-commissioned lieutenant in 1703, participated in the Azov campaign of Peter I, in the victorious battles in the Baltic, and was in good standing for his excellent knowledge of maritime affairs, diligence and honesty. Peter I personally knew Bering; more than once during the long war with Sweden, Bering carried out his special orders (for example, he led the ship "Pearl" from Copenhagen to Kronstadt, and from the White Sea to Revel, around Scandinavia, the ship "Selafail", built on Arkhangelsk shipyard). Peter I included Bering among the commanders who were to lead the first ships under the Russian flag around Europe from the ports of the Azov Sea to the Baltic, and then approved him as the commander of the then largest combat vessel in the Russian fleet - the 90-gun battleship Lesnoye. Peter I instructed this experienced and capable sailor to lead the First Kamchatka Expedition (1725-1730). Bering's name should be in the first rank of outstanding navigators of the first half of the 18th century. Bering's activities were highly praised by the high command of the Russian Navy; it is highly valued by famous Russian and foreign navigators and scientists. Documents about the voyage of Captain-Commander V. Bering indicate that he was an outstanding navigator. V. Bering was known and appreciated by famous admirals who commanded the Russian fleet - associates of Peter I: vice-admirals K. I. Kruys and T. Sanders, rear admirals I. A. Senyavin, I. V. Bruce. In 1730, V. Bering was awarded the rank of captain-commander ahead of schedule. But Vitus Jonassen Bering is not famous for his service on the ships of the Russian Navy and not for his military merits. Kamchatka expeditions brought him fame. Of the 38 years that Bering lived in Russia, for 16 years he headed the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions, during which, commanding the boat "St. Gabriel" and the packet boat "St. Peter", he sailed to the shores of America and made great geographical discoveries. V. N. Berkh, who analyzed the voyage of V. Bering during the First Kamchatka Expedition using authentic documents, gives the following assessment of Vitus Jonassen Bering: “If the whole world recognized Columbus as a skillful and famous navigator; if Great Britain exalted the great Cook to the height of glory, then Russia owes no less gratitude to its first navigator Bering. This worthy man, having served in the Russian Navy for thirty-eight years with glory and honor, deserves, in all fairness, excellent respect and special attention. Bering, like Columbus, discovered a new and neighboring part of the world for the Russians, which brought a rich and inexhaustible source of industry." V.V. Bakhtin, who worked with the logbook of the Bering expedition, confirms the high assessment of Bering by the Verkh [Bakhtin, "1890, p. 98]. The outstanding Russian navigator of the 18th century. V.I. Bering was one of the most educated sailors of his time . He knew well nautical astronomy, navigation, cartography and other marine sciences. He skillfully led the officers - participants in the Kamchatka expeditions, whose names forever went down in the history of our country and the Russian fleet, in the history of geographical discoveries. At the end of the voyage, a commission of the Admiralty boards checked the correctness astronomical observations that were carried out by V. Bering and his navigators, and highly appreciated the navigational training of V. Bering and the entire command staff of the packet boat "St. Peter".

The famous English navigator J. Cook, 50 years after Bering, in 1778, walking along the same path along the shores of the Bering Sea, checked the accuracy of the mapping of the coasts of northeast Asia carried out by V. Bering, and on September 4, 1778 he made the following entry in his diary: “Paying tribute to Bering’s memory, I must say that he marked this coast very well, and determined the latitude and longitude of its capes with such accuracy that it was difficult to expect, given the methods of determination that he used.” Having made sure that Bering put the northwestern coast of Asia on the map absolutely correctly, Cook wrote down the following about it on September 5, 1778: “Having ascertained the accuracy of the discoveries made by the said gentleman Bering, I turned to the East” [Cook, 1971, p. 378]. F.P. Litke, who 100 years later, in 1828, sailed along the coasts mapped by Bering, checked the accuracy of his navigational, astronomical and other definitions of coastal points and gave them a high assessment: “Bering did not have the means to make inventories with with the accuracy that is required today; but the line of the coast simply outlined along its route would have more similarity with its real position than all the details that we found on the maps.” V. M. Golovnin admired the fact that Bering gave names to the discovered lands not in honor of noble persons, but of ordinary people. “If the modern navigator managed to make such discoveries as Bering and Chirikov made, then not only would all the capes, islands and bays of America receive the names of princes and counts, but even on bare stones he would seat all the ministers and all the nobility; and compliments would have made his own known to the whole world. Vancouver, to the thousand islands, capes, etc., which he saw, distributed the names of all the nobles in England and his acquaintances... Bering, on the contrary, having opened a most beautiful harbor, named it after the names of his ships: Peter and Paul; he called a very important cape in America the Cape of St. Elijah... a bunch of fairly large islands, which today would certainly receive the name of some glorious commander or minister, he called Shumagin Islands because he buried a sailor named after him who died on them ". It is significant that even today the successful joint Soviet-American Bering expedition was named after the head of the Kamchatka expeditions.

In historical literature, a false idea has developed about Bering, his role in organizing and conducting the Kamchatka expeditions, about him as the commander of the ships "St. Gabriel" and "St. Peter". This is due to the fact that the results of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions were treated differently in Russian literature, and Bering was the leader of both expeditions. The positive results of the voyages of the ships "St. Gabriel" and "St. Peter" have not yet been fully studied, and Bering, again, was the commander of these ships. A great expert on the history of Kamchatka expeditions, Academician K. M. Behr back in the 19th century. raised the question of the unfair assessment that some researchers gave Bering. “Everyone is more involved,” writes K. M. Baer, ​​“is attracted to Bering, who slowly moved across Siberia to Okhotsk in order to be able to manage all the individual expeditions. One cannot help but be surprised at his courage and patience, remembering that he had to overcome incredible difficulties, to build new ships at the same time in different places, to send huge transports of provisions and ship needs through deserted wild countries... most of his employees, as can be seen from later reports, accused him of the cruelty with which he persisted in continuing the Northern Expedition ... Fair posterity asks only: Was Bering to blame for the enormity and difficulty of the enterprise?”

In the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries. The geographical discoveries of Russia in the east of the Asian continent and the seas washing it are in no way inferior in their significance and influence on the fate of world history and its course to the geographical discoveries of Western Europe. During the great geographical discoveries of the XV-XVI centuries. America was discovered in 1493, Australia at the beginning of the 17th century, Magellan's voyage marked the beginning of the discovery of the world ocean system. However, the discoveries mentioned above were not completed, but were only the beginning of the study of the world system of land and water spaces, in which the great Russian geographical discoveries, including the discoveries made by V. Bering, occupy the most important place. Great Russian geographical discoveries of the 18th century. were made during the First (1725-1730) and Second (1733-1743) Kamchatka expeditions led by V. Bering. These expeditions contributed to the further development of the Russian centralized state. The reorganized Russian army, created for the first time in Europe on the basis of conscription, became one of the strongest in the world. A powerful navy was built in Russia, its officers were able to solve the tasks assigned to the Kamchatka expeditions.

It should be noted that before the voyage of Bering’s expeditions, no one in the Pacific Ocean was above the parallel of 43° N. w. didn't get up; the limits reached by foreign navigators are shown on the map "Sea voyages and expeditions from the 9th to the 18th centuries." Navigators and cartographers of the ancient world, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Europe did not have any reliable information about the part of the world where Asia almost converged with America, as well as about the northwestern coast of America. In 1720, the “first geographer of the French king” Guillaume Delisle stated that absolutely nothing definite is known about the northern part of the Pacific Ocean from America, starting from Cape Mendocino - 40° N. sh. - or at least from Cape Blanco - 43° N. w. Numerous attempts by foreigners in the 16th-17th centuries. going east further than the Kara Sea did not yield any significant results. For example, the Danish king Christian IV at the beginning of the 17th century. decided to search for the Northeast Passage. To do this, a ship under the command of the experienced sailor Jens Munch was sent from Denmark to China across the Arctic Ocean. However, the brave attempt ended in tragedy, which is still evidenced today by the logbook entries of the ship commanded by Jens Munch.

The ship was crushed by ice and died, but the logbook was preserved and has been kept in the Royal Library in Copenhagen for more than 300 years. The famous Danish writer Thorkild Hansen wrote an exciting book based on the ship's logbook: "Across the North Pole to China." Its author describes the voyage of brave Danish sailors in the Arctic Ocean and the death of their ship. The events and facts in the description of Jens Munch's voyage are supported by extensive cartographic material.

The world owes the expansion and accumulation of information about the eastern tip of Siberia and the adjacent part of North America to Russian geographical science. By the time the Kamchatka expeditions were organized by Russian people during the 17th - first quarter of the 18th centuries. Siberia had already been discovered, a number of specific descriptions of the nature and inhabitants of this country were given. From the Urals to the Lena stretches a chain of Russian fortresses and settlements of arable peasants. Russian sailors and explorers traversed certain sections of the Northern Sea Route, Russian people reached the Pacific Ocean and discovered the island there. Sakhalin, Shantar Islands, part of the Kuril Islands, found a sea route to Kamchatka. For the first time, thanks to Russian works, maps of Siberia and the coast of the Far Eastern seas appeared.

Foreign science obtained information about these vast areas from Russian sources. Russian geography also had more accurate data than foreign ones about Alaska, opposite the Chukotka Peninsula. The borders of the Russian Empire in 1725, i.e. at the beginning of the First Kamchatka Expedition, are shown on the map "The Russian Empire by 1725". The First and Second Kamchatka expeditions, united by a unity of purpose, deservedly took one of the first places in the history of geographical knowledge. It was, first of all, a colossal scientific undertaking, far superior to anything previously known, carried out in such a short time, over such a vast space and with such imperfect technical means that the researcher had at his disposal in the first half of the 18th century.

At the same time, it was also the most important state event, the purpose of which was to determine the northern and eastern borders of the country, search for sea routes to Japan and America, create a correct geographical map and navigational study of the Northern Sea Route. The successful implementation of the Kamchatka expeditions was facilitated by the widespread use in Russia in the 16th-17th centuries. geographical knowledge and training of geographers, especially surveyors and sailors. Russian geographers of that time knew the works of Western geographers and cartographers; summaries of the works on the voyages of Columbus, Magellan and others were translated into Russian, and geographical globes, atlases and maps were acquired.

A particularly strong point of Russian geography of pre-Petrine times was its practical orientation. The Kamchatka expeditions were preceded by the campaigns of Russian sailors along the northern shores of Europe and Asia to the east and across the northern part of the Pacific Ocean to Anadyr, Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, to the mouth of the Amur. The results of the discoveries made by Russian explorers are shown on the map "Russian discoveries and first inventories of the shores of the North Pacific Ocean." Military sailors successfully continued the glorious deeds of seafarers.

The voyage of surveyors F.F. Luzhin and I.M. Evreinov along the Kuril ridge, the voyage of V.I. Bering and A.I. Chirikov, and after them the voyage of navigator I. Fedorov and surveyor M. Gvozdev to the strait between Asia and America , campaigns across the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to Japan, across the Pacific Ocean from Kamchatka to America - this is the chronicle of heroic deeds performed by military sailors in the first half of the 18th century.

The first Kamchatka expedition was intended to complete and scientifically substantiate the discoveries of explorers and military sailors. Among the participants of the Kamchatka expeditions who sailed with V. Bering to the shores of America were A. I. Chirikov, P. A. Chaplin, S. F. Khitrov, D. L. Ovtsyn, I. F. Elagin, Kh. Yushin and a lot others. All these people, real sailors, selflessly fulfilled their duty; their names and works are forever included in the history of our country and the Russian fleet, in the history of geographical and ethnographic discoveries.

The Kamchatka expeditions contributed to strengthening Russia's position in the Pacific Ocean. They contributed to the development of economic and trade relations with the Pacific countries. The work of the Kamchatka expeditions (1725-1743) proved the existence of a strait between Asia and America, mapped the entire north-eastern coast of Asia from Kamchatka to the Bering Strait, opened a sea route from Kamchatka to Japan, completed the discovery of all the Kuril Islands, discovered the Commander Islands and the Aleutian Islands, the northwestern coast of America with adjacent islands.

The work of the Kamchatka expeditions led to a more detailed than previously described description of the Kuril Islands and the coast of northern Japan, the study of Kamchatka, extensive and diverse natural history and historical-geographical studies of the interior regions of Siberia, and a systematic description and mapping of the coasts of the Arctic Ocean over a vast distance from the Kara Sea to the Chukotka Peninsula, as well as the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea from Cape Lopatka to Cape Dezhnev. The previously very vague and fragmentary information about the relative location of parts of Northeast Asia and Northwest America and the distance between them was significantly clarified.

Noting the role of the navy in the discovery and development of new lands, Pravda wrote: “The Russian fleet has glorious traditions. Our people have always loved maritime affairs. Russian sailors have enriched science with major discoveries, research, and inventions. They have the honor of discovering the Pacific coast Asia and North America, exploration of the most diverse parts of the Pacific Ocean."

The first Kamchatka expedition 1725-1730. occupies a special place in the history of science. It was the first major marine scientific expedition in the history of Russia, 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. On December 23, 1724, a decree was issued on the appointment of an expedition, and on January 6, 1725, 3 weeks before his death, Peter I personally wrote instructions to Bering, consisting of three points. At the beginning of January 1725, Peter I handed this instruction to the commander-in-chief of the navy, Admiral General F. M. Apraksin.

Here it is: “February 5, 1725. Instructions given by the highest orders to Captain Bering of the fleet. On the opening of a connection between Asia and America. 1. One or two boats with decks are to be built in Kamchatka or another customs place. 2. On these boats, sail near the land , which goes to the north, and according to hope (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 meets America and to get to which city of European possessions or if they see which ship European, to find out from him what this suit 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.”

From the text of the instructions it can be understood that, according to the ideas of Peter I, the continents are connected near Kamchatka. He believed that the land “that goes north” from Kamchatka is part of America. According to the king, the expedition was supposed to follow the coast of Asia and America connecting with it to the nearest European possessions in America or until they met any European ship that could provide information about the countries reached by the expedition. K. M. Baer claims that Peter I believed in the connection of the Asian and American continents. As evidence, he cites the tsar's instructions to Bering (1725), as well as to Evreinov and Luzhin (1719).

The expedition members had no doubt that the instructions of Peter I expressed an opinion about connecting the continents. A note dated August 13, 1728 by A. 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, what is in common with America." Peter I developed the idea that there was no 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 northeast Asia is washed by the sea (FIGURE KAMCHATKA), their compilers could only rely on old Russian drawings and questioning information, no longer associated with any proven facts, since the campaign of S.I. Dezhnev was not known to government agencies at that time. Information about Dezhnev’s great geographical discovery was buried in Siberian archives for a long time. Scientists in Russia and Western Europe did not have a clear idea of ​​whether Asia was connected to America or whether there was a strait between them.

We should not forget that Peter I had “Drawings of all Siberian cities and lands” by S. U. Remezov, which summarized the enormous geographical material accumulated in Russian drawings and descriptions of travel by the beginning of the 18th century. In this drawing, in Northeast Asia, an “impassable prow” is stretched into the sea, extending beyond the frame of the drawing, which meant the possibility of connecting here with another land. At the same time, the experience of numerous unsuccessful voyages of English and Danish ships searching for the Northeast Passage, as well as ships sent for this purpose by Peter I himself, could give rise to the assumption of the existence of a connection between Asia and America. When drawing up the instructions, Peter I probably used the map of I.M. Evreinov, whom he remembered in December 1724, shortly before signing the decree on the expedition. The king’s demand to find Evreinov turned out to be impossible, since the latter was no longer alive. Evreinov’s map is cut off at the parallel 63° N. i.e., at a great distance from the northeastern tip of the Asian continent (Cape Dezhneva). But not far from Kamchatka, the coast of the Asian continent bends sharply towards America. Its ending is not shown. Perhaps Peter I said about this land, first “going north” and then bending towards America, that this is America, “before it they don’t know the end.”

In the historical and geographical literature, interpreting the meaning of Peter I’s instructions and clarifying the true objectives of the expedition turned out to be difficult and controversial. Some researchers argue that the First Kamchatka Expedition was a purely geographical enterprise and set as its task the resolution of only one scientific problem - the question of connecting Asia with America.

However, some prominent experts, recognizing the geographical goals of the First Kamchatka Expedition, consider its tasks to be much broader than the only motive that was openly expressed in the official document. They believe that its objectives were to establish trade relations in North America and solve a complex set of economic and political problems, including strengthening the defense of the eastern borders of the state. V.I. Grekov has a different opinion. He believes that “the expedition was not entrusted with resolving the geographical problem of connecting or not connecting continents. It was supposed 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.”

M.I. Belov wrote that, having reached the borders of the Asian continent, the Russians wanted to know, firstly, how far America was from these places; secondly, is there a sea passage from the “Icy Sea”, from the Arctic Ocean, to the “Warm Sea”, i.e. to the Pacific Ocean; thirdly, is it possible to establish maritime trade relations with rich Pacific countries, and above all with China; fourthly, is it possible to travel by sea to new islands, information about which was received from local residents of Chukotka and Kamchatka, and from there continue the geographical discoveries of “new lands”.

All these issues were considered in a comprehensive manner, from the point of view of economics and state policy. The plan of the expedition was as follows: through Siberia by land and along rivers to Okhotsk, from here by sea to Kamchatka and then sailing on ships in search of the strait. On January 24, 1725, the expedition members left St. Petersburg. To notify the Siberian governor about the expedition and oblige him to provide assistance, on January 30, 1725, a decree of the empress was sent to Siberia, which contained some unclear points. For this reason, at the request of Bering, at the beginning of February of the same 1725, a second decree was sent, which listed all types of assistance needed by the expedition. In January 1727, the expedition reached Okhotsk. Even before Bering’s arrival in Okhotsk, a ship was built here for the expedition in 1725, which was launched in June 1727 and named “Fortune”.

On this ship, the expedition members, along with all their equipment, moved from Okhotsk to Bolsheretsk, located at the mouth of the river, on September 4, 1727. Bolshaya on the western coast of Kamchatka. 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.

Therefore, sailing around Kamchatka through the First Kuril Strait, which had not been explored, was dangerous. Cross the peninsula along the Bolshaya river, its tributary Bystraya and the river. Kamchatka also failed: Shpanberg, sent with property on 30 ships, was caught in the cold. For these reasons, already in winter, it was necessary to deliver materials and provisions by dogs from Bolsheretsk to the Nizhnekamchatsky prison with great difficulties. Many researchers unreasonably criticize him for the fact that Bering made all these transportations not by sea, but by land. However, this criticism is unfair.

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. In 1729, Bering made a second voyage on the same ship and, without returning to Kamchatka, arrived in Okhotsk the same year. Bering's return to the capital took eight months. In 1730 the expedition returned to St. Petersburg.

Analysis of Bering's voyages on the boat "St. Gabriel" is impossible without studying and using documents about the voyage of this ship. In 1730, after the end of the First Kamchatka Expedition, Bering presented reporting materials: the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel", the Final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition, a report on the results of the expedition's activities, "Catalogue of cities and notable places in Siberia, marked on the map ...", "Table showing the distances in Russian versts to cities and notable places...". Apart from the listed documents, there are no other solid sources by which one can judge the results of the voyages of the boat "St. Gabriel" during the First Kamchatka Expedition. There was no representative of the Academy of Sciences on the ship who could describe these voyages; none of the ship's crew members kept any personal diaries. The logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" is of primary importance for covering Bering's voyages during the First Kamchatka Expedition. Special expedition logs were not issued to Russian ships of the 18th-19th centuries going on sea expeditions - they were replaced by watchmen. Logbooks of expeditionary ships until the beginning of the 19th century. were kept as secret documents and were inaccessible even to scientists of the Academy of Sciences. That is why many discoveries of Russian people did not become the property of world science. Foreign navigators, sailing much later than the Russians, gave their names to the already discovered lands and, thus, perpetuated them. In the middle of the 19th century. The situation changed and extracts from the logbooks even began to be published in the press.

However, this did not last long, and by the end of the 19th century. logbooks as sources of scientific knowledge were forgotten again. Until now, not only the logbooks of Bering's ships, but also many other logs have not been used to analyze the voyages of Russian naval expeditions. The TsGAVMF alone stores more than 100,000 logbooks of ships of the Russian fleet, of which only two have been fully used by researchers. Like other logs, the log of the boat "St. Gabriel" in the 18th century. was classified. Academician G. F. Miller, the first historiographer of Bering's voyage, was not familiar with this document when in 1753-1758. on behalf of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he compiled a description of the voyages of the First Kamchatka Expedition. There are known reproductions of a number of pages of the magazine in the 19th century, and the use with significant distortions of individual passages by V. N. Verkh, F. P. Litke, V. V. Bakhtin.

But in general, the main document - the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" - remained poorly studied, which, undoubtedly, was one of the main reasons for the incomplete, and in some cases incorrect description of voyages, and many errors in the analysis of specific geographical discoveries of 1728-1729. From 1890 to the present time, no publications have been found about the logbook of the Bering expedition. In the historical and geographical literature, there is an opinion that the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" is lost. Some researchers even doubted whether a logbook was kept at all during Bering's voyages in 1728-1729. The original logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" was discovered in 1973 in the Central State Archives of the USSR Navy in Leningrad by the author of the published work. Logbook during the voyage of the boat "St. Gabriel" in 1728-1729. was filled out systematically, entries were made in it hourly. This journal was conscientiously kept by the navigators of the bot "St. Gabriel" Lieutenant A. Chirikov and midshipman P. Chaplin. Some researchers have suggested that Bering underestimated the fact that his expedition was scientific. However, the logbook of the bot "St. Gabriel" refutes this opinion. The rules for keeping log books required that astronomical observations be carried out once a day, recording the calculated latitudes and longitudes with an accuracy of the minute. Bering and his navigators understood that their ship was an expedition ship. Astronomical determinations on the ship were made two, and sometimes (when weather conditions permitted) three times a day. The values ​​of latitudes and longitudes were recorded in the logbook with an accuracy of one hundredth of a minute. Bearings (directions) to coastal landmarks were taken not in bearings (as was customary in the 18th century), but in degrees, and their readings were recorded with an accuracy of one minute. In the 18th century the time of taking bearings was indicated in hours, A. Chirikov and P. Chaplin recorded the time of direction finding in the journal accurate to the minute. All observations were carefully recorded in the logbook. During the voyage to the Bering Strait (1728) and then along the coast of Kamchatka (1729), the ship's commander and his navigators described the coast, making geographical discoveries every day. The inventory was carried out systematically, carefully and conscientiously. On some days, sailors took bearings of up to 8 landmarks. The recordings of bearings to the sighted coastal objects in the logbook are so detailed that they make it possible to reconstruct with sufficient accuracy what geographical discoveries were made. Most of these discoveries remained unknown, as did the records of the St. Gabriel's voyage through the strait between Asia and America.

Geographical discoveries and research are always accompanied by cartography, so the map is one of the main sources of the history of discoveries. Materials relating to the First Kamchatka Expedition mention three maps presented by 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 J. N. Delisle’s consideration of “Captain Bering’s map of Russia.” The second map, compiled by V. Bering and P. Chaplin depicting the route from Tobolsk to Okhotsk, was sent from Okhotsk in June 1727. The third (final) map of the expedition was attached to Bering’s report. We became aware of the fourth map only in 1971. The authentic map of V. Bering and P. Chaplin following the expedition was discovered by A. I. Alekseev in 1969 in the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts, and later it was published by A. V. Efimov.

This map shows the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition. The map of V. Bering and P. Chaplin of 1729 provided valuable information about the northeastern tip of Siberia and formed the basis for cartographic works, starting with the atlas of I.K. Kirillov, and had a huge influence on world cartography. The final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition became known to researchers soon after the end of the expedition. This document proves that during the First Kamchatka Expedition, for the first time, the coast of northeast Asia from the mouth of the river was completely correctly mapped. Hunting to Cape Kekurny (Chukotsky Peninsula). It is enough to compare the map of I. Goman of 1725 (see Fig. 1), reflecting the achievements of geographical science at the beginning of the First Kamchatka Expedition, with the map of V. Bering and P. Chaplin of 1729 (Fig. 3) to be convinced that the North -East Asia was first explored and mapped by Bering and his assistants. The final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition was widely disseminated in Russia and abroad and was used in the compilation of maps by J. N. Delisle (1731, 1733, 1750, 1752), I. K. Kirillov (1733-1734), Zh. Dugald (1735), J. B. D'Anville (1737, 1753), I. Gazius (1743), authors of the Academic Atlas (1745), A. I. Chirikovsh (1746) , G. F. Miller (1754-1758) [Kushnarev, 1976, pp. 130-137]. The first historical maps of the voyage of the St. Gabriel", compiled by A.I. Nagaev and V.N. Verkh. The coastline of the northeastern part of the Asian continent on the Final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition and on modern maps is in many ways similar. The map shows the discoveries made by Bering during his voyage 1728: the Ozernoy, Ilpinsky, Olyutorsky peninsulas, capes Nizky, Kamchatsky, Opukinsky, etc. The Gulf of Anadyr with its entrance capes Navarin and Chukotsky is well shown.In this gulf, the ship’s commander and his navigator correctly marked the Gulf of the Cross, Cape Thaddeus, Gabriel Bay, Cape Otvesny, Preobrazheniya Bay, etc. The outlines of the Asian coasts north of the Gulf of Anadyr are also shown quite accurately on the map: capes Chukotsky, Kygynin, Chaplin, Tkachen Bay, etc.

The Final Map shows that the Chukotka Peninsula (its easternmost point is Cape Dezhnev) is not connected to any land; in the Bering Strait the Diomede Islands are plotted, the island is correctly shown. St. Lawrence. The huge archipelagos that we see on Academic maps are absent on this map; The three northern Kuril Islands, the southeastern and southwestern coasts of Kamchatka are correctly mapped.

An important source of materials about the outcome of the voyages is the General Map of the Maritime Academy of 1746, which became well known only in recent decades. On the map of the Maritime Academy, the northeastern coast of Asia from the mouth of the river. The hunt to Cape Kekurny is based on the Final Map of the First Kamchatka Expedition and, in general, the achievements of the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions are quite correctly summarized. Bering's report to the Admiralty Boards contains a very brief and schematic description of the expedition's work and is undoubtedly a secondary source, as well as the appendix to it - "Catalogue" and "Table".

There is an erroneous opinion that Bering, in addition to the report, also submitted a “Brief Report on the Siberian Expedition...” to the Admiralty Board in April 1730. This misunderstanding arose because Bering’s original report did not have a title and in the copy of the report taken from the original, a note was made: “A brief report on the Siberian expedition...”. For about a hundred years since the end of the expedition, Bering's report has not been published in full. During this time, individual authors published in print a number of extracts from both the original report and a copy, giving the said document their own names: short report, report, brief report, etc.

V. Bering, along with a report on the results of the expedition, also presented to the Admiralty Board a “Catalogue of the cities and notable places of Siberia, put on the map, through which the route was, in what width and length it was, and the length is calculated from Tobolsk.” In addition to these main documents, there are also extracts from the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel", written proposals by Shpanberg and Chirikov and Bering's resolution on these proposals for further voyage on August 13, 1728.

These sources contain partial information about the First Kamchatka Expedition and do not reproduce a complete and objective picture of Bering’s voyages in 1728-1729. Their analysis will be given when describing Bering's voyage in 1728.

It must be taken into account that a number of documents about the voyages of "St. Gabriel" in 1728-1729. does not reflect the true state of affairs. This applies to such documents as “Report on the Kamchatka Expedition, compiled by the Admiralty Collegium, October 5, 1738.” and some others. Such documents require a critical approach, comparison with real facts, other documents, etc.

A review of documents and sources about Bering’s voyages during the First Kamchatka Expedition shows that many were interested in this issue, but none of the researchers thoroughly studied and analyzed the main documents - the logbook and maps. One of the reasons for the different approaches to assessing the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions is that much less is known about Bering’s voyages during these expeditions than about the expeditions as a whole. We know about V. Bering’s voyage in 1728 only from the few surviving sources, which do not make it possible to fully evaluate its results.

The lack of documents on the voyage at the disposal of researchers led to the fact that the assessment of the Kamchatka expeditions was given not according to the results of the activities of the expedition vessels, but according to sources revealing preparations for the voyages. Bering's voyages occupied a short period of time throughout the entire expedition. The first Kamchatka expedition lasted 5 years, and the voyage itself on the boat "St. Gabriel" lasted three months. The rest of the time was taken up by preparatory activities: the transition from St. Petersburg to Kamchatka, the procurement of provisions and building materials, the construction of ships, and the return. The second Kamchatka expedition lasted 10 years, and the voyage of the packet boat "St. Peter" itself lasted six months. For four years, the expedition members traveled from St. Petersburg to Okhotsk through the Siberian roadless taiga wilds; it took another four years to build expedition ships suitable for ocean navigation; the rest of the time is swimming and returning to St. Petersburg. It is quite clear that in 4 years and nine months many more sources were collected than in 3 months; just as in 9.5 years, significantly more documents have been accumulated than in six months.

For more than 250 years, a significant fund of fundamental research, reviews, scientific articles, publications on various aspects of the work of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions and on the great Russian geographical discoveries in the first half of the 18th century has been accumulated. Sources for the history of Kamchatka expeditions are quite numerous. They are most fully characterized by A.I. Andreev in the “Review of the materials of the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions” and in the essay “Proceedings and materials of the academic detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition”. Among the archival sources, a significant place is occupied by materials from the current office work of institutions related to the preparation, organization and conduct of the Kamchatka expeditions, including correspondence between Bering and other officials of the expedition with the Supreme Privy Council, the Senate, the Admiralty Board, the Academy of Sciences, the Siberian Prikaz, local Siberian offices.

The nature of the documents is extremely diverse: decrees, job descriptions and other official documents, reports and denunciations, extracts, replies, statements, cartographic materials, etc. A small part of these documents has been published and used by scientists, but many of them continue to be stored in state archives, mainly in TsGVIA, TsGADA, AAN. Some of the documents are stored in the TsGAVMF. Many documents from the Kamchatka expeditions remained in Tobolsk, and their fate is still unknown. In the Central State Archive of the Navy, documents about the Kamchatka expeditions were deposited mainly in the archival funds of the Admiralty Collegiums, V. Bering, N.F. Golovin, Hydrography, the Military Maritime Commission, the Office of Apraksin and Chernyshev, and the Central Cartographic Production. The collection of the Admiralty Collegiums contains materials from the central naval institution of Russia from the 20s to the 50s. XVIII century - Admiralty boards concerning expeditions of the first and partly the second half of the XVIII century. The collections of V. Bering and the Admiralty Boards primarily contain materials from both Bering expeditions. Some of the documents are kept in the collection of N. F. Golovin, who during the Second Kamchatka Expedition headed the Admiralty Board and was in active correspondence with many participants in this expedition. The funds of the TsGAVMF contain “Protocols to the decrees and instructions of the Senate and the Admiralty Collegiums of the Capt. Com. Bering...” (f. 216, on. 1, d. 87, l. 1-286); "Journals sent by Captain Bering from February 12, 1728 to March 20, 1730." (f. 216, op. 1, d. 110, l. 1-211); "Protocols of reports submitted by Captain Bering to the Admiralty Board for 1725-1727." (f. 216, op. 1, d. 88); “Instruction of the Senate to Cap. Com. Bering... 1738” (f. 216, he. 1, d. 27); “Inventory of papers, files and maps for 1732-1745...” (f. 216, op. 1, d. 105); “Journal of outgoing documents” (f. 216, op. 1, d. 112); “Inventory of the affairs of Captain-Commander Bering” (f. 216, op. 1, d. 118) and many other files. The Military Scientific Archive Fund of the Central State Military Historical Archive (TSGVIA) contains mainly cartographic materials about the Kamchatka expeditions.

Many documents about the preparation for the voyages of Bering, Chirikov and other participants of the Kamchatka expeditions are stored in the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts (TSGADA) in the funds of the Senate, State Archives, Miller (“Miller portfolios”), etc. These funds contain “Cases on Bering’s Kamchatka Expeditions (1725-1741)" (f. 130, op. 1, d. 34); "On Bering's expeditions (1725-1741)" (f. 199, op. 1, d. 3180); “Cases on the participants of the Second Kamchatka Expedition of Bering...” (f. 7, op. 1, d. 9466), etc. The Archives of the Academy of Sciences in funds 3 and 21 contain files relating to the Second Kamchatka Expedition and its participants; Fond 3 contains manuscripts written by G.V. Steller. Some of the materials from the Kamchatka expeditions are stored in other archives: AVPR (Foundation of Siberian Affairs), etc. The work used materials stored in the central archives of the country: TsGAVMF, f. 216, op. 1, d. 1, 4, 14, 15, 20, 29, 34, 54, 87, 88, 110; f. 913, op. 1, d. 1,2, 4, 5; "TsGVIA, f. VUA, d. 20227, 20265, 20289, 23431, 23466, 23469, 23470, 23471. TsGADA, f. 130, op. 1, d. 34, 36, 151, 192, 435; f." Siberian affairs", no. 1.

Many archival documents shed light on Bering’s relationship with the Siberian authorities, as well as on the dishonest actions of individual members of the expedition, prone to denunciations, quarrelsomeness, etc. By persistently demanding assistance from local commanders, the expedition found itself in very difficult relations with the local authorities. First of all, complaints arose against Bering for interfering in matters that were allegedly not subject to his handling. Correspondence on this issue reached the Senate. The number of denunciations from the localities against Bering grew with every day of his stay in Yakutsk and Okhotsk. It is worth mentioning at least some of the cases on this issue stored in the Central State Military Marine Fleet: “On the accusation by Skornyakov-Pisarev of Captain-Commander Bering, Captain Shpanberg and Chirikov... 1737-1745,” f. 216, op. 1, d. 29, l. 1-332; “On the reports of Skornyakov-Pisarev on Bering, Shpanberg and Chirikov... 1733-1753,” f. 216, op. 1, d. 34, l. 1-269; “On the quarrel between Skornyakov-Pisarev and Captain Shpanberg... 1734-1737,” f. 216, op. 1, d. 20, l. 1-595; “On the consideration of complaints and denunciations against captain Shpanberg and Chirikov... 1733-1737,” f. 216, op. 1, d. 14, l. 1 - 132; “On the investigation of Lieutenant Plautin’s complaints against Capt. Commander Bering... 1735-1740,” f. 216, op. 1, no. 15, l. 1 - 158; "Documents on the Kamchatka investigative commission... 1740-1743", f. 216, op. 1, d. 54, l. 1-127.

Materials about endless denunciations against Bering and other leaders of the expedition by the Siberian authorities and individual members of the expedition are also available in other files of f. 216 (nos. 58, 61, 62, 68, 69, 74, etc.). Each of these cases is no less in volume than those listed. These denunciations, as a rule, have no basis, and most of them cannot be taken into account; these materials create a false and very unsightly picture of the progress of the Kamchatka expeditions; they played a negative role in the assessment of the Kamchatka expeditions and their leaders: Bering, Chirikov and others.

Numerous archival sources generally reveal the organizational and preparatory periods of the expedition in sufficient detail and in many ways. The number of historical sources directly relating to the voyages on the boat "St. Gabriel" and the packet boat "St. Peter", i.e. the main and final result of all many years of work, is very limited.

The disproportion in the composition and use of published and archival sources left a deep imprint on the analytical work of researchers, most of whom gave a scientific assessment of expeditions using secondary sources. For the same reason, a lot of significant errors, conflicting opinions, tendentious assessments have penetrated into the scientific literature when describing the voyages of expeditions and analyzing the reliability of certain Russian geographical discoveries. When studying Bering's voyages, it is necessary to take into account that the assessment of the results of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions by frequently changing government cabinets was biased. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna spoke out against the foreigners who ruled Russia under Empress Anna Ioannovna. The government of Elizaveta Petrovna was hostile to foreigners who served in the navy, civil service or in the Academy of Sciences. Since Bering was a foreigner, the reaction against foreigners extended to him. Academician K. M. Baer claims that the main reason for excessive criticism of Bering’s shortcomings is that he was a foreigner, and he also accuses A. P. Sokolov of this. In the 18th century Very little was done to publish the results of the Kamchatka expeditions. The imperial decree of September 23, 1743 put an end to any activities related to the research activities of the Kamchatka expeditions. During Elizabeth's reign, nothing was done to publish the results of the extensive and expensive research carried out under Bering's direction or to improve the reputation of the researchers. The reports of Bering and his employees, which amounted to a mountain of manuscripts, were buried in the archives of small Siberian administrative centers or in the archives of the Admiralty. Only from time to time scant and usually incorrect news leaked out and became known to the general public.

Many leaders of the Kamchatka expeditions died soon after its completion. V.I. Bering died before the end of the expedition; A.I. Chirikov was forced to wait in Siberia for four years, and then he returned to the capital to appear with a report, but died two years later. Along with the change of governments during the work of the Kamchatka expeditions, the composition of the Admiralty Boards also changed, and among its members from October 1739 there were people who believed that the huge funds spent were not justified by the modest benefits that the expedition had brought so far, that it was working very slowly, etc. These sentiments existed in the first years of the expedition, but only five years later they received expression in the judgments of the country's central government agency, the Cabinet.

By 1742, views in government circles on the significance of the Kamchatka expeditions had completely changed. A. I. Osterman was in exile, and N. F. Golovin, who remained at the head of the Admiralty Boards, lost his former influence. Some of the enemies acquired by the leadership of the expedition in Siberia and Kamchatka were rehabilitated, returned from exile to St. Petersburg and took high positions. They, of course, tried to present the expedition in black. In this regard, a detailed note submitted to the Senate by G. Fick, who was in exile in Yakutia for over 10 years, is characteristic. In it, he points out the harm caused by the expedition, on which a lot of money is spent and which imposes an unbearable burden on the local population. A “Brief Extract about the Kamchatka Expedition” also appeared without a date or indication of the author’s surname, attributed to G. G. Skornyakov-Pisarev, in which, with great distortion, the results of the activities of the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions are summed up and speaks of “the ruin of Bering and the comrades of the best Siberian the edges".

The TsGAVMF keeps several files started as a result of denunciations by V. Kazantsev, who presents all the files of the Second Kamchatka Expedition in black. Among them is the case “On the analysis of the points of the former captain-lieutenant Kazantsev about the unprofitability of the Bering expedition for the state... 1736-1747.”

At the end of 1742, the Senate began to persistently demand from the Admiralty Boards information about the activities of expeditions. The collected data showed that the results of the Kamchatka expeditions were very significant. Despite this, the Senate, in a report presented to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in September 1743, took the side of the expeditions’ ill-wishers. The aforementioned “Brief Extract” was attached to the report. The assessment of the results of the Kamchatka expeditions by government agencies during the time of Elizabeth Petrovna was too short-sighted. The history of Kamchatka expeditions has not attracted due attention for a long time. When studying Bering's Kamchatka expeditions, important material is contained in the works of Russian, Soviet and foreign historians and geographers, which in one way or another relate to the problem of Bering's voyages during these expeditions. In the description of the voyages of Bering's ships, the same picture is observed, which A.G. Tartakovsky writes about as typical. “Very often, when conducting research, the lines between what has been precisely established and what has not yet been definitively clarified, or that has been clarified only in the most general terms and needs further substantiation, are blurred. Knowledge, which in a given state of science has a speculative nature, is given the meaning of irrefutable truths that is not characteristic of it... .gaps in factual data are filled in by a chain of his own conclusions... unreliable and unverified information sometimes coexist on an equal footing with true knowledge. In other words, we are talking about a logically untenable substitution of the proven for the unproven. It is precisely with the lack of the proper level of evidence that the consumer approach to the source is associated ...and ultimately, the unresolved nature of many controversial issues in historical science."

After the end of the First Kamchatka Expedition, Bering presented documents on the results of the expedition to the Admiralty Board. However, the study of the main documents (the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" and the Final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition) was not done for unknown reasons.

As a result of preliminary acquaintance with the documents about Bering's voyage, it was concluded that Bering's expedition proved the existence of the Northeast Passage. Based on this conclusion, a short printed message about the First Kamchatka Expedition was published in the St. Petersburg Gazette dated March 16, 1730. It stated with sufficient certainty that Bering reached 67° 19 "N" and then he invented , that there is a truly north-eastern passage, so that from Lena, if ice did not interfere in the northern country, by water, to Kamchatka and then further to Japan, Hina and the East Indies, it would be possible to get there, and besides He also learned from the local residents that before 50 or 60 years a certain ship from Lena arrived in Kamchatka.”

Bering's message should be considered the world's first published document asserting the existence of a strait between Northeast Asia and Northwest America as a result of its actual passage carried out by qualified sailors using modern scientific methods of observation. It also conveys Bering’s conviction about the possibility of a sea route from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific, based on the news that existed in Siberia about the 1648 campaign of Dezhnev and Popov.

A report about Bering's expedition was published the same year in the Copenhagen newspaper Nye Tidender. Judging by the content of this message in P. Lauridsen's broadcast, 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. The publication in the newspaper could not appear without the knowledge of government agencies.

Consequently, the opinion that Bering provided sufficient evidence of the existence of a strait between Asia and America was initially widespread in official circles.

In addition, the initial positive assessment of the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition by official circles is also seen in the fact that the Admiralty Board and the Senate awarded Bering and his assistants. Returning from the First Kamchatka Expedition in August 1730, V.I. Bering was, by the highest order, out of turn promoted to captain-commander. His assistants also received promotions. M.P. Shpanberg received the rank of captain of the third rank, A.I. Chirikov - captain-lieutenant. All of them received not just another title, but “for distinction.” In addition to the rank, Bering, “in honor of the great difficulty and distance of the expedition” with the rank of captain-commander, received, on the recommendation of the Admiralty boards, a double monetary reward, i.e. 1000 rubles.

A positive assessment of Bering’s activities as the head of the First Kamchatka Expedition should also be seen in the fact that in 1732 he was appointed head of the much larger Second Kamchatka Expedition. After the mentioned newspaper report about the discovery of the Bering Strait, the First Kamchatka Expedition was forgotten in official circles. The expedition materials were buried in the Admiralty archives, where they remained virtually inaccessible to researchers for many years. In Western Europe, no information about Bering appeared for 17 years, with the exception of the publication in 1735 in Paris of a map compiled by Bering and Chaplin in 1729. Again, the question is about the results of the expedition of 1725-1730. was raised in 1738 in connection with preparations for the Second Kamchatka Expedition. A re-evaluation of the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition is expressed in a number of sources, including in a document called: “Report on the Kamchatka Expedition, compiled by the Admiralty Board, October 5, 1738.” The report states that Bering, during the First Kamchatka Expedition, did not fulfill the tasks assigned to him, that is, he did not prove the existence of a strait between Asia and America.

The authors of the 1738 report believe that the documents presented by Bering cannot be trusted. The reason for this, in their opinion, is that the expedition only reached 67° N. latitude, and the coast from 67° N. w. “he (Bering.- /!. S.) put it according to the previous maps and statements, and the tax rates on the non-connection for authenticity are doubtful and unreliable...”. The staff of the Admiralty Boards apparently had doubts that “according to the previous maps and statements” not only the coast was located north of 67° N. sh., but also to the south, from metro Dezhnev to metro Chukotsky.

The second accusation that was brought against Bering was that he had not studied the possibilities of sailing in the Arctic Ocean from Cape Dezhnev to the mouths of the Ob and Lena: “... and also about the route near the land by sea from the Ob river to the Lena and It is as if partly near that shore is impossible, and about some places nothing is known, and for this reason it is impossible to assert, because there are no reliable not only maps, but also statements.” G. F. Miller points out that the Admiralty Board changed its mind and questioned the existence of the Northeast Passage in 1736-1738. This corresponds to the time the report was compiled in 1738. Both accusations against Bering are unfounded; we will dwell on this when describing the voyage of the boat "St. Gabriel" in 1728. The assessment of the work of the First Kamchatka Expedition in the report of 1738 was biased. The first Kamchatka expedition made great geographical discoveries. However, the 1738 report on the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition indicated only two geographical discoveries made by the participants of this expedition: the discovery on August 6, 1728 of the “small bay” (Preobrazheniya Bay), and on August 16, 1728 - the “islands” ( one of the Diomede Islands).

It should be noted that Bering, in a report submitted to the Admiralty Board on February 10, 1730, lists his discoveries made during the expedition too modestly. Bering's report lists the same geographical discoveries that the 1738 report treats. But Bering presented to the Admiralty Board as evidence of his discoveries not only the report, but also the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" along with the Final Map of 1729. According These documents could provide a deeper understanding of the results of the expedition. However, the officials of the Admiralty Collegiums, who compiled a report to the government on the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition (report of 1738), did not bother analyzing the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" and the Final Map of the First Kamchatka Expedition. They rewrote Bering's report of February 10, 1730 almost word for word, and with this they completed their work of collecting materials about the results of the expedition. The Admiralty Board, which had the map and journal of the First Kamchatka Expedition, did not analyze these documents, and the main positive results of the expedition of 1725-1730. were not published. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the historians of the voyages of the boat "St. Gabriel" (who did not even have at their disposal the full text of Bering's report of February 10, 1730) were far from the true meaning of the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition. The literature of the 18th century devoted to the description of the voyages of the boat "St. Gabriel" and the packet boat "St. Peter" is of very little value, since the main documents about the voyages of Russian expeditionary ships, as noted above, were classified at that time and inaccessible to researchers . After the first reports of Bering's voyages during the First Kamchatka Expedition, his name became known not only in Russia, but also in Europe. A previously unknown pastor from the Bering family, also Vitus, published a genealogy of his family in 1749. Interest in the results of the Kamchatka expeditions was very great, as evidenced, for example, by the correspondence of foreign scientists with the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. But, despite this, the discoveries of the Kamchatka expeditions remained closed for a long time, and only accidental ones went abroad.

1st Kamchatka expedition of V. Bering by decree of Peter the Great

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PATRIARCH OF KAMCHATKA SEASHIP

The history of Kamchatka is rich in the names of ships that glorified the Russian fleet and science, and were participants in great geographical discoveries and historical events. This is "Vostok", which paved the sea route from Okhotsk to Kamchatka in 1716, participated in the voyage along the Kuril ridge in 1721 as part of the first scientific expedition in Russia; "St. Peter" and "St. Paul", sailing in 1741 to the shores of northwestern America; "Glory to Russia", in 17901791. explored the Aleutian chain and Alaska; "Juno" and "Avos", sailing in 1806-1807. to California and defeated Japanese military posts in the Southern Kuril Islands and Sakhalin; ships participants in Russian voyages around the world in 1803–1850s. (there are about forty of them); "Aurora", which played a decisive role in repelling the attack of the Anglo-French landing on Petropavlovsk in 1854; "Vityaz", held in the 1860s. oceanographic research in the North Pacific Ocean; "Taimyr" and "Vaigach", in 19111914. those who paved the northern sea route, and dozens of others.

But a special place among these famous Russian ships is occupied by the boat "St. Archangel Gabriel" - the first sea vessel, built in 1728 in Kamchatka from local forest. Before St. Gabriel, only two Russian ships sailed in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, but they were built in Okhotsk: Vostok in 1716 and Fortuna in 1727. In the 18th century. Several nomads were built, capable of walking on the sea near the shores on which S. Dezhnev, F. Popov, M. Stadukhin and others sailed.

"St. Gabriel" served in the Pacific for 27 years, until 1755. In documents of that time, he was called differently: "St. Gabriel", "Gabriel" and even "Gabrila" or "Gabriel". Many discoveries and glorious historical events are associated with them. Such, for example, as the voyage of the first European ship beyond the Arctic Circle in the Chukchi Sea in 1728, the discovery of Alaska in 1732, participation in the survey of the southwestern coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the Shantar Islands in 1730, participation in the suppression of the Itelmen uprising and the founding of the new Lower Kamchatka fort, the first Russian visit to Japan in 1739, the exploration of Avachinskaya Bay and the founding in 1740 of one of the oldest cities in the Russian Far East Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Such famous Russian navigators as V.Y. Bering, A.I. Chirikov, M.P. Shpanberg, P.A. Chaplin, K. Moshkov, J. Gens, I. Fedorov, M. S. Gvozdev, V. Valton, I. F. Elagin and others.

Documents of the First (1725-1730) and Second (1733-1743) Kamchatka expeditions, as well as the campaigns of A.F. Shestakov and D.I. Pavlutsky (1727-1746) allow us to trace the main stages of the activities of “St. Gabriel" from the moment of its laying until the end of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. Unfortunately, it is not possible to trace his further fate using the documents available to us.

1. "SAINT GABRIEL" IN THE FIRST KAMCHATKA EXPEDITION

On December 23, 1724, Peter I signed a decree of the Admiralty Board on the organization of the First Kamchatka Expedition, and two weeks later, on January 6, 1725, shortly before his death, he wrote instructions on its tasks. It said: “It is necessary in Kamchatka... to make one or two boats with decks. 2. On these boats [sail] near the land that goes to the north... 3. And in order to look for where it came into contact with America, and to get to what city of European possessions; or if they see what kind of European ship, check from it, as this bush is called, and take it to the letter, and visit the shore yourself, and take the original statement, and, putting it on the map, come here.”

The idea of ​​the expedition arose from Peter I in the last months of his life as part of grandiose geographical research. Peter I planned to establish direct maritime relations with India, for which he was going to send an expedition to explore the sea route from Arkhangelsk to the Pacific Ocean. But for this it was necessary to clarify the question: is there a strait separating Asia and America.

The story of the “mechanic and turning art teacher” A.K. Nartov has been preserved: “At the beginning of January 1725, in the very month when the fate of the Almighty determined the end of the life of Peter the Great, and when His Majesty already felt painful attacks in his body, his still tireless spirit worked for the benefit and glory of the fatherland, for he composed and wrote with his own hand the order of the Kamchatka expedition, which was to inspect and find by navigation whether Asia was connected to the northeast with America... I, being then constantly with the sovereign , saw with my own eyes how His Majesty was in a hurry to compose instructions for such an important undertaking, as if foreseeing his imminent death, and how calm and satisfied he was when he finished. Having handed over the instructions to the Admiral General who was called to him, he said the following: “Bad health forced me to stay at home; These days I remembered something that I had been thinking about for a long time and that other things prevented me from doing, that is, about the road across the Arctic Sea to China and India."

The 43-year-old captain Vitus Jonansen Bering was appointed head of the expedition, and his assistants were lieutenants Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg and Alexey Ilyich Chirikov. It consisted of 60 people. lower ranks. The navigator was midshipman Peter Chaplin, promoted to midshipman during the voyage. The expedition included surveyor Grigory Putilov, boat and boat craftsman Fedot Fedotovich Kozlov.

By 1727, the expedition reached Okhotsk, where the single-masted ship Fortuna was built (ten years later, S.P. Krasheninnikov arrived in Kamchatka on it V.A. ). On August 22, 1727, the expedition left Okhotsk on the Fortuna under the command of Bering and on the old boat Vostok, built in 1716, led by Chirikov. On September 4, she arrived in the Bolsheretsky prison, where it was decided to spend the winter. At that time, no one had yet sailed around Cape Lopatka, especially in the autumn.

Bering counted fourteen households of Russian settlers in Bolsheretsk. From here it was decided to send the expedition's property in the fall to the Nizhnekamchatsky fort along the Bolshaya, Bystraya and Kamchatka rivers, and in the winter on dogs. By the spring of 1728, all cargo was transported to Nizhnekamchatsk.

On May 11, 1728, Bering reported to the Admiralty Board: “...on the 4th morning of September we arrived at the mouth of the Bolshaya River and wanted to fulfill our intention in order to go around the Nose (Cape Lopatka V.A. ), but only hampered by fierce nasty winds and rain. And they reasoned that the time here was late and the place was unknown, since no one had ever been to such ships before. And they found a way to transport materials and transport along the Bystraya River. And on the 18th day, Lieutenant Spanberch and with him, loaded with materials and pravianta, 30 one-wood boats, which are locally called bahts, were sent up the designated river. And before the lieutenant had reached the top of the Kamchatka River, sixty versts away, he unloaded the materials and materials from the battalions, leaving him on guard until the spring, and ordered Lieutenant Shpanberkh to go to the Lower Kamchadal fort to make scaffolding for the boat building.

On January 13, 728, he and a few people from Bolsheretsk rode on dogs to the Upper Kamchadal prison, and some of them went with me to the village. And under Bolsheretsky, he left the rest to be sent to Praviant in winter time to Upper Lieutenant Chirikov...

Tenth day (March V.A. ) having arrived at the Ushki tract, sixty miles short of reaching the Lower Fortress, where my team of craftsmen are preparing the forest for construction...

On April 4, one boat was laid down... And we found tar to sit on the structure of the ship near the local forests and we hope to be satisfied with this tar, and we also hope for God’s mercy and we will get fish supplies, then we will prepare to go to sea this summer.”

Midshipman Chaplin also reports about the laying of the bot: “April. Thursday 4. Arrived at the building. And the student reported on the bot case (F. F. Kozlov V.A. ), which, when working, ensures that the forest is all ready for laying the bot. At 9 o'clock in the morning, having gathered all the ministers and craftsmen, said a prayer and laid down the boat; and then Mr. Captain gave everyone plenty of wine."

The ship was built according to the drawings of the best warships. The parts were fastened with iron nails. Sixteen Yenisei and Irkutsk carpenters, four blacksmiths and two caulkers took part in its creation. On June 9, that is, two months after being laid, the boat was launched without a deck and christened in honor of the Holy Archangel Gabriel, whose day was celebrated. They decided not to build the second ship (galiot), but to send it from Bolsheretsk in the spring (“Fortuna” V.A. ). Shitik "Fortune" with the remains of the expedition's equipment under the command of the navigator K. Moshkov arrived from Bolsheretsk on June 6. This was the first voyage of a sea vessel around the Kamchatka Nose (Cape Lopatka). Due to insufficient time to prepare the Fortuna for a long voyage, it was decided not to take the second ship.

The completion of "St. Gabriel" was completed on July 6. The ship had a keel length of 18.3, a beam of 6.1 and a draft of 2.3 m, a cargo hold, a crew quarters, officer cabins and a galley.

Bot "Holy Archangel Gabriel"

Midshipman Chaplin reports readiness for sailing: "Servants on board: Mr. captain 1, lieutenant 1, doctor 1, navigator 1, midshipman 1, quartermaster 1, sailors 13, drummer 1, soldier 6, carpenter foreman 1, carpenters 4, 1 caulker, 1 sailboat, 2 interpreters. A total of 35 people. Officers' servants 6 people. Provisions provided: flour 458 pounds 29 pounds, crackers 116 pounds 25 pounds, cereal 57 pounds, meat 70 pounds, salted fish 10 barrels 21 knittings, fish oil 2 barrels, salt 2 pounds, beef lard 7 pounds 20 pounds, gunpowder 7 pounds 27 pounds, water 35 barrels, kvass 2 barrels, peas 2 pounds, 5 or 6 fathoms of firewood.

On July 13, 1728, "St. Gabriel" left the mouth of the Kamchatka River into the sea and headed north. The voyage lasted until September 2. The sailors did not have any navigational charts, and none of them had experience sailing in polar waters. They walked along the shore and determined their place using a magnetic compass. On July 30, the boat was in the Gulf of Anadyr, where it discovered the Gulf of the Holy Cross. On August 8, the participants of the campaign saw the Chukchi for the first time, talked with them and found out that there were islands in the sea opposite their land.

“At seven o’clock after midnight,” wrote A.I. Chirikov, “we saw a boat rowing from the ground towards us, on which eight people were sitting. And, rowing close to our boat, they asked where we came from and what for. "They told themselves that they were Chukchi. But when we began to call them to the ship for a short time, they did not dare to dock. Then they landed one person on bladders made of seal skin and sent them to us to talk."

To the question: “Where is the Anadar River?” The Chukchi replied: “We passed the Anadar River and are far behind us. How did you come so far here? Before this, no ships came here.” “Do you know the Kolyma River? “We don’t know the Kolyma River, we only heard from the Alena Chukchi that they go to the river with earth and say that Russian people live on that river; and this river is the Kolyma or another, we don’t know about that.” “Isn’t there any Nose stretching from your land into the sea?” sea ​​of ​​what islands or land?! “There are islands not far from the land, and if it weren’t for fog, then you could see. But on that island there are people, but we don’t know any more land, only all our Chukotsky land.” On August 10, the island was actually discovered, which received the name St. Lawrence.

The logbook, or logbook, was supposed to record astronomical location determinations in the ocean at least once a day, and when sailing in sight of the shores, precise bearings to noticeable landmarks. For this, primitive instruments were used: a compass, an hourglass, a log in the form of an oak plank, weighted with lead, attached to the end of a thin line, marked with knots at regular intervals. The speed was determined by how many knots were unwound on a lagline thrown overboard in half a minute. Depth was measured by lot. Corrections for wind were made by eye.

All these measurements on the St. Gabriel were made by navigators Chaplin and Chirikov. They, together with the surveyor Putilov, compiled a navigation map. Half a century later, in 1778, the great navigator James Cook sailed in these places, using maps compiled by the navigator of the St. Gabriel. He writes: “I must say that he (Behring V.A. ) very well marked this coast, and determined the latitudes and longitudes of its capes with such accuracy that it was difficult to expect, given the methods of determination that he used."

When the Asian coast turned sharply to the west, Bering violated the instructions that ordered him to sail along the coast without losing sight of it. On August 13, Bering gathered a council to decide how to sail further. Shpanberg proposed going north for three days to 66 degrees north latitude, and then turning back. Chirikov advised sailing west along the coast to the mouth of the Kolyma: “And if the earth tilts further N, then on the 25th of this month, in these places, we must look for a place where we could spend the winter, and especially opposite Chyukotsky Nos on land on which, according to the request received from the Chyukochs through Pyotr Tatarinov, there is a forest.”

Chirikov meant information about Alaska reported by the Chukchi who came to the Anadyr fort in 1718. They said that not far from the Chukchi Nose there is an island, and from “that island beyond the sea there is a large Land, which can be seen from the said island... they are shoveling onto this Land Chukchi in canoes in calm weather from this island in one day", the forests there are "great", and the people live "toothed" (that is, Eskimos V.A. ). Similar information was presented to the Anadyr prison by the Yakut serviceman P.I. Popov back in 1711. Local residents informed him that “before, their Russian people, the Chukchi, were kochs by sea” (apparently, we are talking about the kochs of F.A. Popov and S.I. Dezhnev in 1648 V.A. ). From the “nose” Chukchi Makachkins, I learned that against “the Anadyr Nose on both sides from the Kolyma Sea and from the Anadyr Sea there is a de-meaning island,” which was called the “Big Land”, on it there are large forests, a variety of animals, “toothed people, and faith de, and any other custom, and the language is not theirs, Chukotskov’s, special.”

Bering accepted Spanberg’s proposal: “Having examined the submitted opinions, I put down my resolution: if we now linger any longer in the northern regions, it is dangerous so that on such dark nights and in the fogs we do not come to such a shore from which it will be impossible to move away due to adverse winds, and speaking about the circumstances of the ship... it is difficult for us to look in these parts for places where to spend the winter, rather than any other land than Chukotskaya, where the people are not peaceful and there is no forest. But in my opinion, it is better to go back and look for a harbor in Kamchatka for wintering."

In a report to the Admiralty Board on March 10, 1730, V. Bering wrote: “15 days (August 1728 V.A. we reached the northern width of 67°19' and the length from the mouth of the Kamchatka River 30°14', but in the right country along our course from the island I did not see any land, and the land no longer extends to the north and slopes towards the west, and then, I reasoned that He fulfilled the decree given to me and returned back."

By this time the expedition was seventy miles from Cape Dezhnev. On the way back she discovered the island of Diomede. On September 2, the sailors entered the mouth of the Kamchatka River. During the winter in Nizhne-Kamchatsk, they received a decree from the Admiralty Board dated December 2, 1728 on the need to describe and draw up a detailed map of Kamchatka: “... you have been ordered to describe the Kamchatka Nose both inside and on the shore, showing cities and notable places and tracts again and, having made a lantkarta, send it to the College."

After wintering on June 5, 1729, the boat went out to sea and went “to the east to look for land, since we heard from the Kamchatka residents that there was land in the vicinity opposite the Kamchatka mouth.”

Not finding land (Commander Islands V.A. ), which Bering assumed was America, the boat turned south and, calling on Bolsheretsk on July 3, arrived in Okhotsk on July 23, 1729, where Bering handed over the St. Gabriel to the port commander against receipt.

This ended the participation of "St. Gabriel" in the First Kamchatka Expedition. On March 1, 1730, Bering, Shpanberg and Chirikov returned to St. Petersburg. Although the expedition did not finally resolve the question of the existence of a strait between Asia and America, nor did it find America, its geographical discoveries and rich ethnographic material were of great scientific importance. The northeastern coast of Asia was mapped from Cape Lopatka to Cape Kukurny in the Bering Strait, and an inventory of this coast and the islands of St. Lawrence and Diomede was made.

This was the first scientific expedition in history to high latitudes. Her main scientific activity lasted only three months, and four years and nine months were spent on preparatory activities and completion: the transition from St. Petersburg to Kamchatka, the procurement of provisions and building materials, the construction of an expedition ship, and the return.

Historian A. A. Sopotsko calculated that the participants of the First Kamchatka Expedition on the St. Gabriel made 155 territorial and 18 oceanographic discoveries, and mapped 66 geographical objects.

All members of the expedition were promoted in rank. V. Bering was awarded one thousand rubles and, out of turn, on August 14, 1730, promoted to captain-commander (a rank corresponding to the rank of rear admiral). M. P. Shpanberg received the rank of captain of the third rank, A. I. Chirikov captain-lieutenant, and in 1732 captain of the third rank, P. A. Chaplin non-commissioned lieutenant. According to the proposal of V. Bering, on September 7, 1730, 25 other participants in the voyage on the St. Gabriel were promoted to rank.

2. TO THE SHORES OF THE "BIG LAND"

The further fate of "St. Gabriel" is connected with the expedition of A.F. Shestakov D.I. Pavlutsky, created in 1727 to search for and develop new lands and islands. The report of the Senate to Catherine I about the organization of the expedition spoke of the need for the final approval of Russian possessions in Kamchatka and on the islands: “... having truly learned about them, what kind of peoples are on such islands and under whose possessions, and whether they trade with whom and what, about everyone should write to the Siberian governor and the Senate."

In the decree of April 10, 1727, the expedition was ordered to “...send from the Admiralty College a surveyor, who would have a thorough map of the islands when they were at sea. And for the sea voyage, from the Admiralty, send a navigator, a co-navigator, and a good ten sailors , having chosen from the Siberians, and with them ten or fifteen compasses with accessories, so that these navigators and sailors in the western and eastern seas could, in necessary cases, sail on the ships that they now have or will build in the future, with the designated service people...”

The expedition included four detachments: Anadyr, Kamchatka, Okhotsk and Marine. Surveyor Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev, navigator Jacob Gens, navigator Ivan Fedorov, boating apprentice I. G. Speshnev, sailors A. Ya. Bush, I. I. Butin, K. Moshkov, N. were sent to the naval detachment (admiralty group). M. Cod and ten sailors.

In 1730, "St. Gabriel" was placed at the disposal of the expedition, the leadership of which, after the death of A.F. Shestakov, which followed on March 14, 1730 in a battle with the Chukchi near the Penzhina River, was taken over by Major Dmitry Ivanovich Pavlutsky. "St. Gabriel" played a leading role in maritime exploration. In the summer of 1730, under the command of I. Shestakov (nephew of A.F. Shestakov), “St. Gabriel” sailed from Okhotsk to Bolsheretsk, then went to describe the western coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, went to the mouth of the Uda and Amur rivers, to the Shantar Islands, where Hydrographic measurements were carried out and drawings were made.

In the fall of 1730, D. I. Pavlutsky ordered J. Gens and I. Fedorov “with the available servicemen from Kamchatka on a sea-going boat, which was built for the navy by captain Mr. Bering (“St. Gabriel” V.A. ), ... to the Anadyr mouth to explore the sea islands ... take with you the apprentice Speshnev and the surveyor Gvozdev."

After wintering at the mouth of the Bolshoi River, "St. Gabriel" arrived on July 9, 1731 at the mouth of the Kamchatka River. Due to the illness of Gens and Fedorov, the bot was actually commanded by M. S. Gvozdev during the transition. It was planned to immediately, after replenishing food supplies and taking interpreters on board, go to the Anadyr mouth, as D.I. Pavlutsky ordered. The departure to sea was scheduled for July 20. But on this day, the Itelmen uprising began under the leadership of the Elovsky toyon Fyodor Kharchin. The rebels burned Nizhnekamchatsk and killed many Russians.

The crew of "St. Gabriel" had to take part in suppressing the uprising and eliminating its consequences. I had to spend the winter in a destroyed prison in the most difficult conditions, as reported by I. Fedorov: “And now in the winter I have fish food and have nothing or anything. Also, now I still live on the boat “Gavril” very hard, I am sick in my right leg , even now I can’t control myself and can’t walk, but now the cold winter time is coming, and I can’t stand such cold and filth in my illness without warm peace and without a veil, which is especially harmful to my illness and is even worse for repairers, and service people and the rest of the Vaters took over everything.”

On February 11, 1732, D. I. Pavlutsky sent J. Gens a new order to transfer command of the expedition to surveyor M. S. Gvozdev, “we already know that you are now very blind and sick in your legs and it is impossible to send the work entrusted to you.” Gvozdev was instructed to go “... on the boat Gavril to the Anadyr mouth and against the Anadyr Nose, which is called Bolshaya Zemlya, the islands were explored, a great number of them, and on those islands there were people to inspect and again look for and take yasak from those from which yasak had not been collected ".

On July 23, 1732, "St. Gabriel" left the mouth of the Kamchatka River. The sick Gens remained on the shore. On board were M. S. Gvozdev, I. Fedorov, navigator K. Moshkov, four sailors, thirty-two servicemen and interpreter Egor Buslaev. On August 5, the sailors approached the Chukotka nose and until August 15 sailed along the coast, landing in several places, trying to make contact with local residents. They were looking for islands.

Only on August 17, the expedition saw the island (now Ratmanov Island), but was unable to approach it due to strong winds and returned to the Chukotka coast. Two days later she managed to approach the northern tip of the island. M. S. Gvozdev with sailor Petrov and ten servicemen landed on the shore, where a skirmish occurred with local residents. Gvozdev examined two wooden yurts, saw a spruce and pine forest, and “from that island they saw the mainland.”

This is how Russian people saw Alaska for the first time. Then “...we went near the same island to the southern end... and here there were about twenty yurts..., and the island was a mile and a half in length, a mile in width.” On the morning of August 20, we anchored off the second island (Krusernshtern Island V.A. ), and between the first and second islands, a distance of a mile and a half, we saw an island no larger than the first island, less.”

They also landed on this island. Thus, the sailors of "St. Gabriel" were the first Russian people to visit the islands of Ratmanov and Kruzernstern.

The next day, August 21, 1732, can be considered historical. The first Europeans reached the northwest coast of America. This happened nine years before Bering's voyage. M. S. Gvozdev reports this as follows: “On August 21 in the afternoon at the third hour the wind began to blow, and we went to the mainland and came to that land and anchored about four versts from the ground.” From the southern end to the western side, the sailors saw yurts - housing about a mile and a half, "and it was impossible to get close to these yurts due to the wind, and they went near the ground on the southern side, and it became a shallow place, they abandoned the lot, depths seven and six fathoms, and from that place they returned back and began to maneuver near the Great Land in order to approach the land, and there began to be a great wind from the opposite land... And such a great wind blew away from that Great Land, and the wind was north-northwest. fourth de island (King's Island V.A. ) brought the Chyukcha to the boat in the small yalych, according to them they call it kukhta...” To questions about the Great Land, the Chyukcha answered that “... their own Chyukchi live on it, and there is a forest, and also rivers, and about animals he said that there are wild red deer, martens, and foxes, and determined beavers.”

Serviceman Ilya Skurikhin, who was on the St. Gabriel voyage and interrogated on April 8, 1741, spoke about this somewhat differently in the office of the port of Okhotsk. Approaching the Great Land, “...they saw that it was not an island, but a great land, a shore of yellow sand, housing in yurts along the shore and a lot of people walking on that land; there was a great larch forest on that land, a spruce and poplar forest. And they went near that land to left side. We walked for about five days, but we didn’t reach the end of that land.”

The land to which the St. Gabriel approached was Cape Prince of Wales on the Seward Peninsula. A strong north wind blew the ship south. Provisions were poor, fresh water was running out, the crew was tired and barely had time to pump out the water. The servicemen submitted a petition to Gvozdev and Fedorov, “to whom, having announced their many needs, they asked that for those needs and the lateness of the time, they would return from that voyage to Kamchatka.” On September 28, 1732, "St. Gabriel" returned to Nizhnekamchatsk for the winter.

Unfortunately, the details of this historical voyage remain unknown, since the original documents logbook and maps have not been preserved. On December 19, 1732, Gvozdev sent D.I. Pavlutsky to the Anadyr prison a detailed report about the campaign and “proper inventories,” but Pavlutsky was not there at that time, he was in Yakutsk. A copy of the logbook (logbook) was attached to the report. The original lagbook was sent in the summer of 1733 to the office of the port of Okhotsk, but without a map. Gvozdev explained that the map of the campaign was not drawn up due to lack of agreement with navigator Fedorov, who believed that his job was to compose a sea map, and the surveyor’s job was to compose land maps, that is, land maps.

Fedorov himself died in Nizhnekamchatsk in February 1733, and M. S. Gvozdev remained in Kamchatka until the summer of 1735, carrying out instructions “in the construction of new forts.” In 17351738 he was under investigation for a false denunciation, and after his release he performed various duties during the Second Kamchatka Expedition.

It is unknown why neither Pavlutsky nor the office of the port of Okhotsk informed either the Admiralty Board, or the Tobolsk provincial and Irkutsk provincial offices about the results of the voyage of "St. Gabriel" to the mainland. Apparently, they did not attach much importance to the results of the expedition.

Only in 1738 did information about this voyage reach the Admiralty Board. It happened like this. In 1735, sailor L. Petrov, a participant in the voyage on the St. Gabriel, accused the expedition leaders J. Gens, M. S. Gvozdev and I. G. Speshnev of state crimes, for which they were all arrested and imprisoned in Tobolsk prison. The denunciation turned out to be false, and Petrov himself ended up in Kronstadt prison. Here he submitted a report to the commander of the Kronstadt port about the voyage to the shores of America in 1732 and about the extraordinary fur wealth of the land they discovered. This message interested the Admiralty Board. On February 14, 1738, she made a decision to release M. S. Gvozdev and J. Gens from prison and to immediately send Gens to St. Petersburg with journals, inventories and maps. But Gens was no longer alive; he died in prison on October 23, 1737.

On April 22, the Siberian Provincial Chancellery sent a decree on the immediate sending to the Admiralty Board of all materials from the voyage of “St. Gabriel” in 1732, since no papers related to the voyage were found in the property of J. Gens after his death. In December 1738, there was a new decree from the Admiralty Board to the Siberian authorities to search for and send inventories, journals and navigation maps to St. Petersburg. They were never found again. Only in 1743 M.P. Shpanberg discovered a journal that I. Fedorov unofficially kept during the voyage. By order of Shpanberg, M. S. Gvozdev compiled a map of the voyage of 1732 in October 1743. The original map was delivered by Shpanberg to the Irkutsk chancellery and was also lost. Only a copy sent to the Admiralty Board has survived.

Later, other maps were compiled based on oral descriptions of the voyage.

The question of the discovery of M. S. Gvozdev arose in 1741 in connection with the testimony of I. Skurikhin, a participant in the voyage, given by him in April 1741 in the office of the port of Okhotsk. Gvozdev himself was interrogated there in 1743. In 1741, the commander of the Okhotsk port, A. Divier, proposed sending the Bering expedition on small ships to explore the islands against the Chukotka Nose. In 1743, it was planned to send Gvozdev there, but in the same year the Second Kamchatka Expedition completed its activities.

In 1791, G. A. Sarychev, examining the Diomede Islands (Ratmanov and Kruzernstern), gave them the name “Gvozdev Islands”.

3. TO THE SHORE OF JAPAN

Russian sailors were representatives of the fifth European country to reach the shores of Japan. Europeans first learned about Japan at the end of the 13th century. from the diary of Marco Polo: “The people of the island of Jipangu are very rich. Very rich in gold. The roof of the imperial palace is covered with gold sheets. The ceilings of the house, as well as the windows, are decorated with gold, and inside the rooms there are tables made of pure gold.”

In 1459, the island of Dzipangu appeared on the Italian map, standing alone somewhere in the eastern sea. In 1542, the Portuguese reached the island of Tanegashima (148 km south of the island of Kyushu). In 1584, the Spaniards arrived in Japan and began to spread Christianity among the inhabitants of the islands. In 1600, the Dutch reached the shores of Japan, and in 1609 they began trading with Japan. In 1613 the British arrived here. In 1638 the Europeans were expelled. Only the Dutch managed to maintain friendly relations and the right to trade with Japan. In 1639, Japan passed a law prohibiting contact with foreigners (the “Closing of Japan”), which remained in effect for more than 220 years.

In Russia, the first information about Japan appeared at the end of the 17th century. The Cosmography of 1670 provides information about its geographical location, climate, natural resources, morals and customs of the Japanese, their religion and occupations.

The idea of ​​finding a sea route from Kamchatka to Japan was born to Peter I in 1702 after a conversation with the Japanese Denbei Tatekawa, brought by V. Atlasov to Moscow from Kamchatka. In the same 1702, the Siberian order on behalf of the tsar ordered the Yakut voivodeship office to send “willing people” to Kamchatka to explore the route to Japan through the Kuril Islands in order to “make considerable trades with the Japanese state ....”

In October 1705, teaching the Japanese language began at the St. Petersburg navigation school. The same Japanese Denbei, who was baptized and named Gabriel, was appointed teacher.

In 1712, the Siberian Order again instructed the Yakut governor to collect information about Japan, to find out “what routes to this land there are, whether its inhabitants can have friendship and trade with the Russians.” However, it was possible to explore the route to Japan only in 1739. This was done by the naval detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition under the leadership of M.P. Shpanberg. The detachment of four ships included the St. Gabriel, which was distinguished by the fact that its sailors were the first Russians to set foot on Japanese soil on June 19, 1739.

The detachment of M.P. Shpanberg was one of the eight detachments of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. Five detachments were formed to survey the coast of the Arctic Ocean, an Academic detachment for a comprehensive study of Kamchatka and two naval detachments by V.I. Bering to open the sea route from Kamchatka to America and M.P. Shpanberg.

By decree of the Senate of December 28, 1732, Spanberg’s detachment was ordered: “For the sake of observation and exploration of the route to Japan... to build on the Kamchatka River one boat with a deck and two snipe boats with 24 oars each with a deck and, having built and armed, proceed in the direction shown voyage to Captain Spanberch... If the boat left over from the previous expedition is found in such a condition that it will be possible and safe to go on a voyage (we are talking about “St. Gabriel” V.A. ), then do not make the bot shown again...".

The bot, “left over from a previous expedition,” turned out to be in normal condition. After returning from a voyage to the mainland in 1732, he was in Nizhnekamchatsk until September 1733 during the “construction of a new prison.” In 17331735 By order of the commander of the port of Okhotsk G. G. Skornyakov-Pisarev, “St. Gabriel” made voyages under the command of J. Gens as a “carrying vessel” between Kamchatka and Okhotsk, delivering people and various cargoes. So, in October 1733, he brought to Kamchatka the Marching Investigation Office, headed by Major V.F. Merlin and D.I. Pavlutsky, sent to punish those responsible for the Itelmen uprising of 1731.

On August 4, 1735, "St. Gabriel" set off on its last voyage as the lead ship of the Shestakov-Pavlutsky expedition. The participants of the 1732 voyage to the mainland, M. S. Gvozdev, boating apprentice I. G. Speshnev, and sailor L. Petrov, who together with J. Gens were summoned to Irkutsk “on important business,” also departed on it. Before being sent to Irkutsk, J. Gens handed over “St. Gabriel” to M.P. Shpanberg for sailing to Japan as part of the Second Kamchatka Expedition.

The Decree of the Senate to M.P. Shpanberg further prescribed: “And first go to those islands that went from the Kamchatka midday Nose to Japan ... and if further to Japan itself there are islands or lands subject to the Japanese Khan or other Asian rulers, also inspect the same and seek friendly treatment with the peoples living on those islands and lands... And at the same time, inquire about their condition and other things that are relevant... and, having been here, follow to the very Japanese shores and there, for the same reason, explore the dominion, oh ports, can they deal with it amicably?

The instruction of the Admiralty Board of February 28, 1733 set the same tasks for Spanberg’s detachment.

In 1737, the Okhotsk flotilla of the Second Kamchatka Expedition was formed. It included the "St. Gabriel" and the ship "Fortune", repaired in 1736, as well as the brigantine "Archangel Michael" and the three-masted double-sloop "Nadezhda" built under the supervision of M.P. Shpanberg. The brigantine was launched on July 7, 1737, and the double sloop on July 19. Due to a lack of provisions, the expedition had to be postponed until the spring of 1738.

Bot "Holy Archangel Gabriel". Reconstruction. Hood. A. S. Garistov

On June 16, 1738, Shpanberg reported to the Admiralty Board: “And since the beginning of sowing spring, three sea vessels, which are prepared by construction and repair for the voyage shown to me, namely: the brigantine “Archangel Michael”, the boat-boat “Nadezhda” and the boat " Gabriel "caulked, scraped, tarred and corrected with other small crafts and equipped with the proper rigging."

On June 18, 1738, the detachment left Okhotsk and arrived in Bolsheretsk on July 6. Here the teams were fully staffed, food and fresh water supplies were replenished. On July 15, three ships set sail from Bolsheretsk to Japan. "Archangel Michael" was commanded by M.P. Shpanberg, "Nadezhda" by Lieutenant Vilim (William) Shelting. Four days later, “St. Gabriel” lagged behind the detachment, and on July 24, “Nadezhda”. Shpanberg alone reached the Frieza Strait, rounded the island of Urup and on August 18 returned to Bolsheretsk. Spanberg reached 45 degrees N. sh.: “And I alone didn’t dare to go beyond that degree... no one from the Russian people has ever been there except us.”

V. Walton managed to reach 43°19‘N on August 11, 1738. sh.: saw the earth from NNW To WtN, “which seemed like seven islands, the northernmost part with very high mountains...”.

This was the northern tip of Matemai Island (Hokkaido). "St. Gabriel" returned to Bolsheretsk on August 6, "Nadezhda" on August 24. At the beginning of September, due to the absence of a “carrying vessel” (the “Fortune” shitik, on which S.P. Krasheninnikov arrived in Kamchatka in October 1737, on that voyage “everything was broken completely at the Bolsheretsk mouth” V.A. ) it was decided to send "St. Gabriel" to Okhotsk to transport the teams of the Marching Investigation Office of V.F. Merlin and yasash furs. "Gabriel" was supposed to return that same fall, but ran aground near the Krutogorovsky fort and was forced to winter there under the protection of a guard of eight people.

Since the expedition after the death of “Fortuna” did not have a light vessel “for traveling to the islands,” it was decided to build a sixteen-oared sloop “Bolsheretsk” from timber harvested along the Bolshaya and Bystraya rivers. This was the second sea vessel after the St. Gabriel, built in Kamchatka. "Bolsheretsk" had a length of 17.5, a width of 3.9, a hold depth of 1.6 m. It sailed until 1744, until it was thrown ashore in the area of ​​the Bolshoy River. For comparison: “Archangel Michael” had dimensions of 21, 6.3 and 2.6 m, respectively, “Nadezhda” 24.5, 6 and 1.8 m, “St. Gabriel” 18.3, 6, 1 and 2.3 m. (The dimensions of Bering's packet boats were: 24.4, 6.7 and 2.9 m). "Archangel Michael" and "Nadezhda" crashed in 1753.

On May 23, 1739, a flotilla of four ships set off again for Japan. During the voyage, Shpanberg changed the commanders of Nadezhda and Gabriel. V. Valton began to command the boat. Midshipman Vasily Ert was appointed commander of Bolsheretsk.

On June 14, on the approach to the island of Honshu, "St. Gabriel" fell behind and continued sailing on its own. All four ships approached the Japanese coast on the same day, June 16. Spanberg's ships cruised along the Japanese coast until June 22, reaching 37 degrees N. w. (area of ​​the modern city of Iwaki). "St. Gabriel" was off the coast of Japan until June 24 and went to 34°30', that is, to the Tokyo Bay area.

Spanberg did not dare to put people ashore, “fearing that the Japanese would not be deceived by an accidental attack or flattery.” On June 22, the sailors received many Japanese on board. There was a brisk barter trade going on. The Japanese offered the Russians fish, rice, fruits, vegetables, tobacco, and accepted gifts and treats from them.

In his reports, Shpanberg provides interesting observations about Japanese ships, nature, settlements, agriculture and fishing, and describes the appearance of the Japanese and their clothing. “Notable people” came to the Archangel Michael, whom Shpanberg presented with Russian coins. In the book of the Japanese historian S. Nakamura, “The Japanese and the Russians,” it is specified that this happened in Chishirohami Bay near the village of Isomura. An official, Chiba Kansichiro, was sent from the city of Sendai to Isomura, who, accompanied by three local officials, arrived on board the Archangel Michael. The Japanese were accompanied by three Ainu translators, but they did not know Russian. Therefore, the meeting ended without results. The Japanese bowed politely. Shpanberg treated them to vodka, gave them furs and coins, and showed them Russia and other countries on the map. He allowed the Japanese to inspect the ship and take notes on what they saw.

Chiba Kansichiro reported his visit to the Russian ships to the Principality of Sendai. This caused concern among the authorities and they began to mobilize military units and began preparing the defense of the coast from the port of Ishinomaki to the Ojika Peninsula. The Japanese fisherman Kisabee, who was the first to meet the Russian sailors, received playing cards from them as a gift, which he gave to the headman Dzembee. Silver coins and playing cards were delivered to the capital. The government turned to the Dutch trading post in Nagasaki for advice. The Dutch explained that paper cards are not banknotes, as the Japanese thought, but playing utensils, and the coins were minted in the “state of Muscovy” (Orosia, that is, Russia).

Shpanberg reports on the design of Japanese ships: “And they, the Japanese, arrived on sharp-nosed trays, and the sterns were blunt, and on top the boards were lowered about four feet, sharp, about four fathoms long, and the bows of those trays were lined with many of them with green copper. And Their large trays are built in the same way as the small ones, and their rudders have a tray, two curved oars, rowed standing, obliquely, placing the oars on the oarlocks, and the handles are tied with a rope; and these trays are sewn with copper, and the anchors are V.A. ) they have four horns, made of iron. And those trays with decks, and boxes for water were made on them, and on the deck there were stoves, in which they had cauldrons for cooking porridge, and they smelled the sea. And there were seventy-nine of the above-mentioned trays around the circle, and there were ten, twelve or more people on each of them.”

Shpanberg also reports about fishing among the Japanese: “...two Japanese trays passed a mile of our vessel, and after sailing they caught fish and came to us, and, having been with the ship for a short time, they went to catch more fish... and we also sent from a boat of his own ship, on it were three servants and one interpreter for fishing for fish, which this interpreter, according to the Kuril custom, stabbed with a knife and towed to us, and, having towed it, brought it onto the ship... and then she was still alive, and what is her rank? a fish, it is impossible to describe due to ignorance, only large and flat, a round voice, two large flippers on the head, with round grooves on the upper and lower sides. And this fish weighs more than nine pounds, this fish has a white body, the skin on it is thick, and pink and prickly. Also from 43 to 37°, in the place where we went, we saw many different fish playing, which are not seen in our sea."

Shpanberg provides interesting information about the appearance of the Japanese. “These Japanese people are of medium height and small. Their dresses are very similar to the Tatar ones. They walk barefoot, no one has pants or trousers. From the half of the head down to the forehead, the hair is cut and glued with glue, tied at the back with a bush that sticks up. Their hats are large , grass, flat, some wear those hats tied under their beards, and those who don’t have hats tie their heads with rafts. V.A. ), made of paper... And the body of these Japanese, some are white, some are darker, their eyes are small, their hair is black, they shave their beards. And in addition to those Japanese, a Japanese tray was rowing close to our ships, on which there were six people, and it is clear from the dress and from the persons that they are the children of noble fathers. And in their hands they had fans from the sun, only from what kind of material, it is unknown, but it is only clear that the color is white. And these Japanese are white and young people."

Apparently, the sailors of “St. Gabriel” saw the same thing, which passed along the coast of the island of Honshu from 38°29‘ to 34°30‘. Lieutenant Walton notes that they came across many Japanese ships and they met Japanese on board their ship. Twice, on June 19 and 22, the Russians landed on the shore, which M.P. Shpanberg did not dare to do.

V. Walton reports that on June 16 they saw land at 38°29‘N. w. On June 17, we approached closer to the shore, “they saw that thirty-nine Japanese ships without flags had gone from the shore to the sea, and each of them was the size of our galley or more, and the sails on them were on each ship one and those were straight, made from Chinese mothers (Chinese light yellow paper fabric V.A. ) blue, with white stripes, and on others all white, which I followed in ships along the shore to find their harbor, but only these ships were divided into villages, and they are not in the harbor. And from the 18th day they lay at anchor near their ship... On the morning of the 19th day of June, a Japanese ship rowed towards us... and there were eighteen people on it, with whom we did not have any conversations, for lack of an interpreter in their language, only they had a mutual understanding with their hands, and it is significant that they called us to the shore, for which reason I sent the boat and on it the navigator Kazimerov, and the quartermaster Cherkashenin, and six soldiers to bring water to our boat, who was given several gift items from me so that you can get around them in a friendly manner. And that same day, navigator Kazimerov returned safely from the shore and brought 1 1/2 barrels of water."

Kazimerov said that when they began to approach the shore, about one hundred and fifty small rowing ships headed towards them, “on which there were about fifty people or more (? V.A. ) in a long Chinese dress... And the rowers on those ships were all naked, except for their shame, and they were rowing so close to the yawl that our rowers could row in need.”

The Japanese showed gold coins to the Russians, expressing their desire to trade. Kazimerov concluded that there is a lot of gold in Japan: “...they showed us gold from the ships, and they admit that they have a fair amount of gold... And when he began to land on the shore with his boat..., there were men on the shore “A large number of people and the inhabitants... were very glad to see me and bowed to me as is their custom, and when they saw two empty barrels on the yalbot, the residents took them and carried them to one yard, and filled one and a half barrels with water, and took them back to the yalbot.”

According to S. Nakamura, all this happened in the village of Amatsumura (Nagasaki County, Awa Province, Chiba Prefecture), located at 35°10' N. w. Kazemerov further says: “... he came to the same house where water was being poured, and the owner of that house met him at the door with great courtesy and brought him into his chambers and, having seated him, treated him and the servants who were with him to grape wine from porcelain dishes. And he set them snacks on porcelain dishes - sheptalu (dried apricots or peaches) V.A. ), soaked butto in molasses and chopped radishes. Then he placed tobacco and Chinese pipes in front of him, and Kazimerov, after sitting in that house and thanking the owner, went to another house, and the owner of that house brought him in the same way, and sat him down next to him, and served them snacks, and finished off with grape wine, and they brought Sorochinsky millet (rice V.A. ) Varenova... And after sitting in the indicated house, he went out and walked around the settlement, in which, for example, there are about 1500 courtyards, and the buildings in this settlement are wooden and stone chambers, and are built along the shore near the sea... about three miles. And the inhabitants of that settlement have clean houses and flower beds in porcelain cups, and also shops in their houses with goods, in which he saw among paper and silk, and he saw brocades... They have livestock, horses, and cows, and chickens , but apparently they have no bread except millet and peas; Vegetables they have are grapes, oranges (oranges) V.A. ), whisper and radish."

“Seeing on the shore two people with sabers, of which one had two, then on the shore he did not hesitate for an hour and, having come to the boat, rolled away from the shore and rowed to the boat. Then many of these ships rolled away from the shore after them. And from those ships one ship came up and took a tug from the yalbout, which towed our yawlboat to our boat, and the other ships all followed them to watch... And with him, Kazimerov, a Japanese nobleman went with such a small ship..., whom we recognized as the voivode, because we escorted him from the shore with more than a hundred ships, and on each ship there were many people, about fifteen people, whom I received with all pleasantness and treated him and the people who were with him to the water and Kamchatka wine, which drank without reluctance. Also, the aforementioned Japanese nobleman brought with him to us on Botrenskov (Rhenish V.A. ) Belov, about a quarter of a bucket, with which he fed us evenly, except that there were no conversations with him. And although these people seemed favorable to us, I did not dare to stand there for a long time, for a great number of their ships surrounded our boat and, moreover, they had even left the shore without number. For this reason, I began to weigh anchor, and the aforementioned noble man, meanwhile, said goodbye to us in a friendly manner, and went to his ship and cellar to the shore...

And on June 20th we came to the island and lay at anchor to look for water, only we saw that there was nowhere to land the boat on the shore, since the great waves were moving. On the same June 21, we raised anchor and went between the islands to the Japanese coast, where two small ships met us. And as these ships rowed close to our boat, I, through reasoning with those people with my hands, since there was no one to talk to them due to ignorance of their language, pointed out to them that we needed firewood and water for the ship, and somehow they saw, immediately as friendly people, without making any excuses, rowed ashore and brought water and firewood. And for their work I gave them one pound of beads and a piece of needles, and they called us to the harbor, and because there was such a depth in that place that it was impossible to anchor, and also the wind was small, for this reason these two ships took our boat towed and towed.

Meanwhile, not allowing Havana (Shimoda V.A. ), they met a ship on which there were fifteen people with sabers, and they ordered the said two ships to stop towing our boat, and I, fearing, because so as not to show opposition to them, they turned away from the shore and went out to sea from the northern widths 34° and 30' had a course between OtZ And ZO.

On the same June 22nd day, we came to the island and anchored at a depth of 12 fathoms, and sent a boat to find water, but it was impossible to get just water there, because the water was a long distance from the shore. Just then, the doctor Diaghilev drove off from the boat, brought from there various herbs and, moreover, announced that he had seen on the said island Japanese inhabitants in white linen clothes and cattle, namely horses with brown and brown hair and black cows. Yes, he, Diaghilev, brought a branch of a walnut tree..., and a pine branch, and two pearl shells... On the 23rd of June, the inhabitants of the said island came ashore and shouted to us, and it is significant that they called us to the shore, but because of the great excitement, send a yalbot It was impossible to go there, and besides, the shore was rocky and it was impossible to stand at anchor. On the 24th day of June, they raised anchor and followed back to the sea, but kept to the more eastern side in order to inspect whether there was any other land on that side, they had a course between N And O, but they didn’t see any land until they arrived near Avachenskaya Bay and began to be 52°28’ wide, and from there they followed between Lapatka and the first Kuril Island to the Big River. July 23 days entered the mouth of the Bolshaya...”

On July 26, the boat "Bolsheretsk" arrived there, having fallen behind Shpanberg near Kunashir Island on July 3. The supplies on the ships were running out and, after waiting at the mouth of the Bolshaya River until August 7, it was decided to go to Okhotsk, believing that Shpanberg was already there. In addition, V.F. Merlin and D.I. Pavlutsky, who had been stuck in Bolsheretsk since last year, demanded to be sent to Okhotsk.

A week after the departure of "St. Gabriel" and "Bolsheretsk", the "Archangel Michael" arrived at the mouth of the Bolshoi River and also soon set off for Okhotsk. "Nadezhda" arrived in Bolsheretsk only on August 31 and was forced to spend the winter here. The voyage of the Nadezhda was accompanied by casualties: eleven people died, and “the rest could barely walk.” "St. Gabriel" and "Bolsheretsk" lost one person each.

Thus ended this historic voyage, which opened the sea route from Kamchatka to Japan and the Southern Kuril Islands. Shpanberg's report and materials from the voyage, but for some reason without Walton's log and map, were received at the Admiralty Board. On November 19, 1739, Shpanberg was ordered to go to St. Petersburg “with all haste, day and night... without stopping anywhere, it is imperative to appear in the office of the High Commander.” But Shpanberg received this decree only on April 10, 1740, at the very time of the mud. Shpanberg was able to leave Yakutsk only on June 13, but soon a new decree was received, which proposed that Bering go to St. Petersburg, and Shpanberg take command of the Kamchatka expedition.

The instructions drawn up for Shpanberg prescribed that in the spring of 1740 Chirikov and I. Endogurov on two ships should head to America, and Shpanberg, Walton and Chikhachev should go to Japan. But the preparation of a new expedition to the shores of Japan dragged on until September 1741, so it was only possible to describe the mouth of the Uda and the Shantar Islands. Only on May 23, 1742, a detachment of four ships (instead of the St. Gabriel there was the St. John) left the Bolsheretsk mouth.

On the way, the ships got lost and only one “St. John” under the command of Spanberg approached the shores of Japan (41°15‘N). Having no small ships to survey the Japanese coast, having discovered a leak, Shpanberg, having reached latitude 39°35' on June 30, decided to return to Kamchatka without ever seeing Japan. "Nadezhda" under the command of Shelting took part in this voyage off the coast of Sakhalin to the La Perouse Strait (45°34' N).

The voyage of Russian navigators in 1739 to the shores of Japan and their discovery of the southern Kuril Islands in Europe became known at the beginning of 1740: on January 13, 1740, an Amsterdam magazine published a letter from the Dutch resident in St. Petersburg, Schwartz, who reported that Spanberg managed to reach the eastern coast Japan.

In Russia, a version appeared that Shpanberg and Walton only reached the shores of Korea. A special commission was created, which, in a report dated May 20, 1746, “without any doubt” admitted that “Captain Walton, by all circumstances, was truly off the eastern shores of the island of Japan, and not off the land of Korea.” G. F. Miller, who also doubted at first, subsequently came to the following conclusion: “Evidence began to multiply that our navigators ... were not mistaken; and now no one doubts this, for the glorious French geographers Anville, Buache and Bellin on their maps they believe there is as much or even more difference in longitude between Kamchatka and Japan than Spanberg and Walton.”

4. STUDY OF AVACHI BAY AND FOUNDATION OF PETROPAVLOVSK

In the summer of 1740, “St. Gabriel” once again reminded itself. It became the first sea vessel in history to enter Avacha Bay. Its crew, under the command of navigator midshipman Ivan Fomich Elagin, compiled a map of Avachinskaya Bay, determined the site for construction and laid the first buildings of one of the oldest cities in the Russian Far East.

The first Russian people visited the Avacha Bay area in 1703. It was a detachment of yasak collectors under the command of Rodion Presnetsov. In 1707, Ivan Taratin and Afanasy Popovtsov visited the bay, in 1711 and 1715. I. P. Kozyrevsky, in 1712 D. Ya. Antsiferov. We also know about the first sea voyage from Avachinskaya Bay. In 1715, I.P. Kozyrevsky sent a detachment of Fyodor Baldakov from here on kayaks to collect yasak on the Kuril Islands. In 1726, Kozyrevsky met with Bering in Yakutsk and gave him his own “Drawing of the Kamchadal Nose and Sea Islands,” which for the first time depicted the outlines of the Avacha Bay. Apparently, Bering could have learned more detailed information about the lip from Kozyrevsky.

While in Bolsheretsk in 1727, Bering collected information about the Kamchatka coast. He made a request to the customer of the Bolsheretsky fort, A. Eremeev: “... all around the Nose (Cape Lopatka V.A. ) by canoes or by dry route along the shore to the mouth of the Kamchatka River, have there been such people who have been and how long they walked, and what kind of places they have there, and is it possible for sea vessels to go around the Nose to the mouth of the Kamchatka River." Ereemeev answered: "From the Bolsheretsk mouth It takes five days to walk to Lopatka on foot, and the ground is soft, and the same amount of time to row with canoes; from Lopatka to the Avacha River, it takes ten days to row with canoes, but there is no walking, because the lips and sherlops (rocks) are buried V.A. ), and the cliffs are great, and from Avacha to Kronotsky Nose is ten days on foot, and from that Nose to the Kamchatka mouth is five days..., and to Lopatka there was a serviceman Andrei Taramygin, and on the other sea there were servicemen Andrei Voronin canoing to Avacha , Pyotr Gornastaev, and from Avacha to Kronotsky Nos there was a service man Fedot Slobodchikov, and from Kronotsky Nose to the Kamchatka mouth there was a service man Grigory Kudarinsky."

In June 1728, from Bolsheretsk to the mouth of the Kamchatka River, the ship "Fortune" sailed for the first time around Cape Lopatka under the command of the navigator K. Moshkov, delivering to Bering the cargoes of the First Kamchatka Expedition that remained in Bolsheretsk. This was the first sea vessel to pass near the entrance to Avachinskaya Bay. And in June 1729, Bering twice, on June 27 and 29, passed at a short distance from the mouth of Avachinskaya Bay. On June 27 at noon, the high Avachinskaya Mountain was revealed to the sailors of the St. Gabriel. On June 29, the navigator of the "Gabriel" took bearings twice on the Avacha hill. Bering and his companions saw the coast of Kamchatka from Cape Mayachny to Cape Nalychev (that is, Khalaktyrsky beach V.A. ), located fifteen miles from the coast. Cape Povorotny, the southwestern entrance cape of Avachinsky Bay, was also clearly visible.

On the final map of the voyage in 1729, the location of Avacha Bay is quite accurately determined, and the entrance capes of Avacha Bay are indicated: Shipunsky and Povorotny, the Avacha River and Avachinsk Sopka. However, Bering could not see the inner waters of Avacha Bay. But in July of the same year, while staying at the mouth of the Bolshaya River, Bering sent the first builder of the “St. Gabriel,” boat apprentice F. Kozlov, to these places, who had visited some “small island near Avachin.”

But only the Second Kamchatka Expedition began to closely explore Avachinskaya Bay. In 1737, M.P. Shpanberg sent second lieutenant surveyor I. Svistunov and navigator E. Rodichev from Okhotsk to Kamchatka on the ship “Fortune” to find the Bolshaya and Kamchatka rivers, as well as Avachinskaya Bay, and to build lighthouses there. Bering reports about this: “And the second lieutenant in charge of the geodetic post, Ivan Svistunov (who was with navigator Rodichev to measure this lip back in 737 last year) ... announced with a report that he, Svistunov, described and measured this lip alone, ... in which the report and description of that lip are attached."

But Bering was not satisfied with Svistunov’s description, “for Svistunov had a description on the shore.” The reason for this was that in the fall of 1737, the Fortuna, on which Svistunov and Rodichev were supposed to conduct research on the Avachinskaya Bay, was thrown ashore by a storm at the mouth of the Bolshoy River and was broken. At the same time, many instruments were lost. Therefore, Svistunov limited himself to geodetic observations. A map of the bay was drawn up and a place was chosen for the construction of a pier at the mouth of the Avachi River. In 1738, construction of a lighthouse, barracks and housing for officers began there. But due to the lack of sufficient timber, only a lighthouse and a barn were built.

Wintered in 17381739. in Bolsheretsk, M.P. Shpanberg was going to go here himself to speed up construction work, but because he was busy preparing for the voyage to Japan, he decided to send his son Andrei: “... you should go to that Avacha River to take a plan and the situation there and to inspect Ovachenskaya sea bay and a proper description of convenient and safe places where you can be in Havana, and other notable places... And to assist you in your task, soldiers Vasily Spirin and Pyotr Kopotilov have been appointed from us, and for interpretation of foreign speeches, interpreter Alexey Mutovin."

However, a month later, on April 16, 1739, Shpanberg drew up new instructions for one soldier, Kopotilov, limiting his tasks only to logging and building housing on Avach. Whether A.M. Shpanberg was on Avach, as well as Kopotilov’s activities, is not reported in the expedition documents.

“St. Gabriel” took part in the further exploration of Avachinskaya Bay and the preparation of a wintering base for V. Bering’s expedition. Upon returning from a voyage to Japan, the boat arrived in Okhotsk on August 22, 1739. The commander of the port of Okhotsk, G. G. Skornyakov-Pisarev, demanded it at his disposal to transport yasak collectors and “merchant people” to Kamchatka. However, V. Bering, conferring with A.I. Chirikov and Lieutenant S. Vaksel (Shpanberg left with a report on the voyage to Japan in Yakutsk), decided: “not to hand over the boat “Gavrila” to the Okhotsk administration, but to send this boat away from the expedition and The commander was to appoint navigator Elagin, who was sent on the same September 29th day, and with him navigator Vasily Khmetevskoy, herdemarin... Yagan Sint (Johann Sindt V.A. ), sailor and other ranks nine, twelve people in total."

In a report to the Admiralty Board on September 10, 1793, Bering defined the purpose of the expedition as follows: “... as is known, in Kamchatka, except for the Avachinskaya Bay, there are no safe places for seagoing vessels to settle, and there is no real news about that, but in what depth is it located and is it possible for the packet boats built for our voyage to enter that bay from the sea with ships... Moreover, at this bay there should be a building for housing, as well as for luggage, right for shops, and from the Big River to the said bay The seashore has not yet been described."

“And for the above-mentioned navigator Elagin... in order to arrive at the big river, the boat “Gavril” entrusted to his command was placed in a convenient place, ... in winter time he should sail from the Big River along the shore to Avachinskaya Bay and describe that shore, and if the person comes against the shore of the island, those put it on the map... And he, Elagin, according to the description of that shore, from Avachenskaya Bay will return again to the Big River... and go on a boat to Avachenskaya Bay and that lip will die out and describe with the circumstance whether it is possible to enter that lip by packet boats in winter winter without danger."

I. F. Elagin, having arrived in Bolsheretsk in the fall of 1739, began to carry out Bering’s instructions. Navigator V. Khmetevetsky was sent by him “to measure the mouth of the Kamchatka River, and he, Elagin, from the Bolsheretsk mouth along the seashore to Lopatka ... described the coast. And from that Kamchatka corner (Lopatki V.A. ) to Avachinskaya Bay near the sea along the eastern shore, it is impossible to compose an inventory by dry route, since there are great mountains and stone cliffs that cannot be passed by a person on foot or, according to local custom, on dogs.

The second report from him, Elagin, announced on September 20th: he, Elagin, set off from the Bolshaya River on a boat on May 16th of the same year 740 to Ovachinskaya Bay and arrived in that bay on June 10th safely. At which point Kamchatka servicemen and Yasash foreigners built five residential quarters in one cluster, three barracks, and three barns with two apartments. Also in the said bay the depth of the water died out. And with that report he attached a map in which the coast of Kamchatka land was laid out from the mouth of the Big River, lying south to the Kuril Lopatka or to the southern Kamchatka corner, measuring the Kuril Islands with the first, second and third islands and with the straits existing between them, which in the said I happened to see his path in passing, and put it on the map from bearings. And from the Kuril Lopatka along the eastern shore of the Kamchatka land to Avachinskaya Bay and with the inner harbor in it, which has a harbor and a structure near it, and what kind of forest there is at Avachinskaya Bay, I attached a map... And the above-mentioned harbor is very capable of settling sea vessels in winter, and for this reason, we arrived in this harbor in two packet boats with the entire crew of the same 740th October 6th day safely, where we spent the winter. And this harbor was named by us as Saints Apostle Peter and Paul."

View of the Peter and Paul Bucket. 18th century engraving

It is difficult to add anything to these words of V.Y. Bering from his report to the Senate dated April 22, 1741, that is, a month and a half before sailing to the shores of America. From the report it is clear that I. F. Elagin exactly followed the instructions given to him by Bering.

It should be noted that "St. Gabriel" became the first sea vessel to enter Avachinskaya Bay. This happened on June 10, 1740. The passage of “St. Gabriel” from Bolsheretsk around Cape Lopatka and Avacha Bay was the sixth in the history of navigation in Kamchatka waters. The first of them performed the shitik “Fortune” in 1728, the other five “St. Gabriel” (in 1729, 1731, 1733 and 1739).

Unfortunately, the documents of the Second Kamchatka Expedition do not mention the further fate of “St. Gabriel”. Probably until the end of her long life (dismantled in 1755), she served as a transport vessel for the Okhotsk chancellery, delivering goods and people from Okhotsk to Kamchatka and back.

"St. Gabriel" had worthy successors. In 1758, the wealthy Irkutsk merchant Ivan Bechevin developed a plan for exploring the sea route from Kamchatka to the polar part of Siberia and searching for new islands in the Eastern Ocean. With his own funds, he built in Okhotsk the largest fishing vessel at that time, the “Holy Archangel Gabriel,” whose length was 62 feet (about 20 m) and could accommodate 60 fishermen. Typically, fishing vessels of that time accommodated 35 x 40 people.

In 1759, an investigation was launched against Bechevin, and “Gabriel” ended up at the disposal of the Kamchatka administration and was sent in 1760 to the Aleutian Islands. The ship was commanded by Quartermaster Gavriil Pushkarev, who sailed in 1741–1742. with Bering on the "St. Peter" to the shores of America, having survived the winter on the island. Bering.

Winter 17601761. "Gabriel" spent on about. Atha, and in the spring “we set off from this Atha island to the second one, called Alaska, on May 26th,” Pushkarev wrote in his report. Thus, "Gabriel" was the first Russian ship to reach the shores of the American continent after Bering and Chirikov. On the way back, "Gabriel" crashed off the Kamchatka coast in a bay at the base of the Shipunsky Peninsula, which was named Bechevinskaya after the name of its former owner.

In 1766, for the expedition of P.K. Krenitsyn M.D. Levashov, four ships were built in Okhotsk, including the boat "Gabriel". On October 10, the squadron left Okhotsk. Only one "Gabriel" safely reached the mouth of the Bolshoy River, the rest of the ships were wrecked, and one died. But the next year, during the passage from Bolsheretsk to Nizhne-Kamchatsk, the boat developed a leak and was declared unsuitable for further sailing to the Aleutian Islands and Alaska.