The history of V. Bering's voyage on the boat "St. Gabriel" in the Arctic Ocean
Swimming V.I. Bering on the boat "St. Gabriel" - the main content of the First Kamchatka expedition. Therefore, before proceeding to a description 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 (Jonas) Svendsen and Anna Pedersdatten Bering. The newborn was christened Vitus Jonassen. Bering's baptismal certificate has survived to this day in the oldest volume of the collection of church books in the city of Horsens. In 1885, the Danish historian P. Lauridsen reported on the discovery of this church book in the city of Horsens, according to which it was possible to accurately establish the date of Bering's birth. The navigator bore the surname of his mother, the second wife of Svendsen, who came from the Bering family, well-known in Denmark, whose ancestor was a certain Jene Madsen Bering, who lived in the middle of the 16th century. in Viborg (Vibork) - a region of Denmark, occupying part of the districts of Viborg and Aalborg - in his estate Björing, from where the surname Bering originated. Vitus Bering's father Jonas Svendsen was a customs officer. He was born, as they say, in the city of Halmstad, in the then Danish province of Halandia (now it is the territory of Sweden), he was a trustee of the church in the city of Horsens and belonged to the most respected people of the city. Vitus Bering had two brothers, 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 their parents in 1719. It contains a bill of sale, which lists all the property - an old dilapidated yard and cheap home furnishings. After his father's death in 1719, Vitus inherited 30 rigdallers, 4 marks and 6 shillings. This money and the accumulated interest on it (in total for the amount of 139 rigdallers, 1 mark and 14 shillings) Bering later bequeathed to the poor in the city of Horsens. It is also known that he did not make a fortune. His decision to go on long and dangerous journeys was caused by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, an inquisitive mind, a desire to benefit the cause to which he devoted his life. Very little is known about Vitus's 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 of Horsens, there was a small island to which the boys sailed in makeshift boats. Vitus went, most likely, to the school, which was supported 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. The son of Peder L. Dahlhoff Khorlov in 1695 married the sister of Vitus. He served as a fanfare player in the Danish navy. Obviously, conversations about life in the Navy occupied a large place at school, as well as in house number 59, along Söndergade 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 (beginning of the 17th century), as well as about expeditions to about. Greenland and India. Therefore, the arrival of young Vitus on a sea ship was completely natural. Already in childhood, he was fascinated by the sea, quickly comprehended marine sciences, becoming an excellent navigator. Vitus Bering, as well as 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, in 1703 Bering graduated from the naval cadet corps in Amsterdam, which was considered the best in the world, and received an officer's rank. In 1703, in Amsterdam, Vitus met with Vice-Admiral of the Russian Navy K. I. Kruys (Norwegian by birth), who drew attention to a number of qualities of a young man that were very valuable for naval service. With the assistance of Kruys, Bering was enrolled 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 to Russia" under the command of G. Sarychev followed the path that his grandfather had taken 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 victorious battles in the Baltic, 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 assignments (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 the Arkhangelsk shipyards). Peter I included Bering in the number of 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 warship in the Russian fleet - the 90-gun battleship Lesnoye. Peter I ordered this experienced and capable sailor to lead the First Kamchatka Expedition (1725-1730). The name of Bering should be in the first row of outstanding navigators of the first half of the 18th century. Bering's activities were highly appreciated by the high command of the Russian Navy; it is highly valued by famous Russian and foreign sailors and scientists. Documents on the voyage of Captain-Commander V. Bering indicate that he was an outstanding navigator. V. Bering was known and appreciated by the famous admirals who commanded the Russian fleet, the 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 ahead of schedule awarded the rank of captain-commander. But Vitus Jonassen Bering is not famous for his service on the ships of the Russian Navy and not for military merits. Kamchatka expeditions brought him fame. Of the 38 years that Bering lived in Russia, for 16 years he led 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 according to original documents, gives the following assessment to Vitus Jonassen Bering: “If the whole world recognized Columbus as a skillful and famous navigator; 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, opened to the Russians a new and neighboring part of the world, which delivered rich and inexhaustible source of industry." V. V. Bakhtin, who worked with the logbook of Bering's expedition, confirms the high assessment of Bering from the Upper [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 - members of the Kamchatka expeditions, whose names forever entered the history of our country and the national fleet, in the history of geographical discoveries. At the end of the voyage, the commission of the Admiralty Colleges checked the correctness astronomical observations made by V. Bering and his navigators, and highly appreciated the navigational training of V. Bering and the entire command staff of the St. Peter packet boat.The famous English navigator J. Cook 50 years after Bering, in 1778, passing along the same path along the shores of the Bering Sea, checked the accuracy of the mapping of the coasts of northeast Asia, made by V. Bering, and on September 4, 1778 made the following entry in his diary: "Paying tribute to the memory of Bering, I must say that he marked this coast very well, and determined the latitudes and longitudes of its capes with such accuracy that it was difficult to expect, given the methods of definitions that he used." Convinced that the northwestern coast of Asia was put on the map by Bering quite correctly, on September 5, 1778, Cook wrote the following about this: “Having ascertained the accuracy of the discoveries made by the mentioned 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 rating: "Bering did not have the means to make inventories from with the accuracy that is required now; but the line of the coast, simply outlined along its path, would have a greater resemblance to its present 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 current navigator succeeded in making such discoveries as Bering and Chirikov did, then not only all the capes, islands and American bays would receive the names of princes and counts, but even on bare stones he would seat all the ministers and all the nobility; and compliments 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 discovered the most beautiful harbor, named it after his ships: Petra and Paul; a very important cape in America called Cape St. Elijah ... a bunch of rather large islands, which now would certainly receive the name of some glorious commander or minister, he called Shumagin islands because he buried a sailor who died with him on them ". It is significant that even today the successfully operating joint Soviet-American expedition "Bering" was named after the head of the Kamchatka expeditions.
In the 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 been fully studied to date, and Bering, again, was the commander of these ships. A great connoisseur of the history of the Kamchatka expeditions, Academician K. M. Baer back in the 19th century. raised the question of the unfair assessment given to Bering by some researchers. “More than all participation,” writes K. M. Baer, “excites Bering to himself, slowly moving across Siberia to Okhotsk in order to be able to manage all the individual expeditions. One cannot but be surprised at his courage and patience, remembering that he had to overcome incredible difficulties, building new ships at the same time in different places, sending huge transports of provisions and ship needs through the desert 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 vastness and difficulty of the enterprise?
In the XVII and in the first half of the XVIII century. The geographical discoveries of Russia in the east of the Asian continent and the seas surrounding it are in no way inferior in their significance and influence on the fate of world history, on 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 those made by V. Bering, occupy an 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 military service, has become 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. sh. did not rise; the limits reached by foreign navigators are shown on the map "Sea voyages and expeditions from the 9th to the 18th centuries." The 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 the side of America, starting from Cape Mendocino - 40 ° N. w. - or at least from m. Blanco (Blanco) - 43 ° N. sh. Numerous attempts by foreigners in the XVI-XVII centuries. to go east beyond the Kara Sea did not give any significant results. So, for example, the Danish king Christian IV at the beginning of the XVII century. decided to search for the Northeast Passage. For this, a ship was sent from Denmark to China across the Arctic Ocean under the command of an experienced navigator Jens Munch. However, the brave attempt ended in tragedy, which even today is evidenced by the records of the logbook 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 well-known Danish writer Thorkild Hansen wrote an exciting book from 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. 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 of the organization of Kamchatka expeditions by Russian people during the XVII - the first quarter of the XVIII century. Siberia was already discovered, a number of specific descriptions of the nature and inhabitants of this country were given. A chain of Russian fortresses and settlements of plowed peasants stretched from the Urals to the Lena. Separate sections of the Northern Sea Route were passed by Russian sailors and explorers, Russian people went to the Pacific Ocean and discovered about. Sakhalin, the 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.
Information about these vast areas was scooped by foreign science from Russian sources. Russian geography also possessed more accurate data than foreign geography about Alaska opposite the Chukchi Peninsula. The borders of the Russian Empire in 1725, i.e., by the beginning of the First Kamchatka Expedition, are shown on the map "Russian Empire by 1725". The first and second Kamchatka expeditions, united by the unity of purpose, deservedly took one of the first places in the history of geographical knowledge. First of all, it was a colossal scientific undertaking, far superior to anything previously known, carried out in such a short time, in such a vast area and with such imperfect technical means as 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 navigate the Northern Sea Route. The successful implementation of the Kamchatka expeditions was facilitated by the widespread use in Russia in the 16th-17th centuries. geographic knowledge and the training of geographers, especially surveyors and sailors. Russian geographers of that time knew the works of Western geographers and cartographers, the expositions of works on the voyage of Columbus, Magellan and others were translated into Russian, geographical globes, atlases and maps were acquired.
A particularly strong point of Russian geography of the pre-Petrine era was its practical orientation. Kamchatka expeditions were preceded by trips of Russian sailors along the northern coasts of Europe and Asia to the east and through 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 the first inventories of the shores of the North Pacific Ocean". Military sailors successfully continued the glorious deeds of sailors.
The navigation of surveyors F. F. Luzhin and I. M. Evreinov along the Kuril ridge, the navigation of V. I. Bering and A. I. Chirikov, and after them the navigation of navigator I. Fedorov and surveyor M. Gvozdev to the strait between Asia and America , campaigns through the Sea of Okhotsk to Japan, across the Pacific Ocean from Kamchatka to America - this is a chronicle of the heroic deeds committed by military sailors in the first half of the 18th century.
The first Kamchatka expedition was called upon to complete and scientifically substantiate the discoveries of explorers and military sailors. Among the participants of the Kamchatka expeditions, sailing together with V. Bering to the shores of America, were A. I. Chirikov, P. A. Chaplin, S. F. Khitrov, D. L. Ovtsyn, I. F. Elagin, X. Yushin and a lot others. All these people, real sailors, selflessly fulfilled their duty; their names and works entered forever into the history of our country and the national fleet, into the history of geographical and ethnographic discoveries.
The Kamchatka expeditions contributed to the strengthening of Russia's position in the Pacific. 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 northeastern 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 and the Aleutian Islands, the northwest coast of America with adjacent islands.
The work of the Kamchatka expeditions led to a more detailed than before description of the Kuril Islands and the coast of northern Japan, the study of Kamchatka, extensive and versatile natural history and historical and geographical studies of the interior of Siberia, and a systematic description and mapping of the coasts of the Arctic Ocean over a vast stretch 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 position of parts of Northeast Asia and Northwest America and the distance between them were significantly refined.
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, inventions. They have the honor of discovering the Pacific coast Asia and North America, the study 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 decision of the government. In organizing and conducting the expedition, a great role and merit 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 on the appointment of an expedition followed, and on January 6, 1725, 3 weeks before his death, Peter I personally wrote an instruction to Bering, consisting of three points. In early January 1725, Peter I handed this instruction to the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, General Admiral F. M. Apraksin.
Here it is: "February 1725 5. Instruction given by the highest fleet to Captain Bering. About opening a connection between Asia and America. 1. It is necessary to make one or two boats with decks in Kamchatka or in another customs place. 3. And in order to look for where it met with America and in order to get to which city of European possessions or if they see which ship European, to visit from him what they call the kust and take it on a letter and visit the shore yourself and take a genuine statement and, putting it on the map, come here.
From the text of the instruction, one can understand that, according to the ideas of Peter I, the continents are connected not far from Kamchatka. He believed that already the land "which goes to the north" from Kamchatka is part of America. According to the king, the expedition was to follow the coasts of Asia and America connecting with it to the nearest European possessions in America or to a meeting with some 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 instructions from the tsar to Bering (1725) and also to Evreinov and Luzhin (1719).
The members of the expedition had no doubt that the instructions of Peter I expressed an opinion about the connection of 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 issue of continuing the expedition was being decided), speaks of the shores along which they sailed to the north: that fits with America." The idea that there was no passage between America and Asia developed in Peter I, probably due to the unreliability of the information at his disposal.
As for the maps drawn up in Russia, on which northeast Asia is washed by the sea (FIGURE OF KAMCHATKA), their compilers could only rely on old Russian drawings and interrogation information that was no longer connected with any proven facts, since the campaign of S.I. Dezhnev was not known in government bodies at that time. Information about the great geographical discovery of Dezhnev was buried in the 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.
It should not be forgotten that Peter I had at his disposal "Drawings of all Siberian cities and lands" by S. U. Remezov, which summarized the vast geographical material accumulated in Russian drawings and travel descriptions by the beginning of the 18th century. In this drawing, in Northeast Asia, an "impassable nose" is stretched into the sea, going 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 looking for the Northeast Passage, as well as ships sent for this purpose by Peter I himself, could give rise to an assumption about the existence of a connection between Asia and America. When compiling the instructions, Peter I probably used the map of I. M. Evreinov he had seen, 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 of 63°N. t., i.e., at a great distance from the northeastern tip of the Asian continent (m. Dezhnev). But not far from Kamchatka, the coast of the Asian continent bends sharply towards America. The end is not shown. Perhaps, about this land, first "going to the north", and then bending towards America, Peter I said that this is America, "they don't know the end of it."
In the historical and geographical literature, the interpretation of the meaning of the instructions of Peter I and the clarification of the true tasks of the expedition turned out to be a difficult and controversial matter. Some researchers argue that the First Kamchatka Expedition was a purely geographical enterprise and set itself the task of resolving 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 is openly expressed in an official document. They believe that its tasks were to establish trade relations in North America and solve a complex set of economic and political problems, including strengthening the defense of the state's eastern borders. V. I. Grekov holds a different opinion. He believes that "the expedition was not entrusted with resolving the geographical problem of connecting or not connecting the continents. It was supposed to resolve issues of national importance: to explore the path to America, adjacent to Asia, and find out who is Russia's closest neighbor on this mainland"
M. I. Belov wrote that, having reached the limits of the Asian continent, the Russians wanted to know, firstly, how far America lies from these places; secondly, is there a sea passage from the "Cold Sea", from the Arctic Ocean, to the "Warm Sea", that is, to the Pacific Ocean; thirdly, is it possible to establish maritime trade relations with the rich Pacific countries, and above all with China; fourthly, is it possible to go by sea to new islands, information about which was received from the local residents of Chukotka and Kamchatka, and from there to continue the geographical discoveries of "new lands".
All these issues were considered in a complex, from the point of view of the economy and state policy. The plan of the expedition was as follows: through Siberia by land and along the 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. In order to notify the Siberian governor of 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, in early February of the same 1725, a second decree was sent, which listed all the types of assistance needed by the expedition. In January 1727 the expedition reached Okhotsk. Even before Bering arrived in Okhotsk, a ship was built here for the expedition in 1725, which was launched in June 1727 and named Fortuna.
On this ship, the expedition members, along with all the equipment on September 4, 1727, moved from Okhotsk to Bolsheretsk, located at the mouth of the river. Large on the western coast of Kamchatka. The sea route from Okhotsk to Kamchatka was discovered by the expedition of K. Sokolov and N. Treska in 1717, but the sea route from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Pacific Ocean had not yet been opened.
Therefore, sailing around Kamchatka through the First Kuril Strait, which was not explored, was dangerous. Cross the peninsula along the rivers Bolshaya, its tributary Bystraya and along the river. Kamchatka also failed: Spanberg, sent with property on 30 ships, was overtaken by frost. For these reasons, already in the winter, with great difficulty, it was necessary to deliver materials and provisions by dogs from Bolsheretsk to the Nizhnekamchatsky prison. For the fact that Bering made all these transportations not by sea, but by land, many researchers unreasonably criticize him. However, this criticism is unfair.
On April 4, 1728, a boat was laid down in the Nizhnekamchatsky prison under the leadership of Bering, which in June of the same year was launched and named the "Holy Archangel Gabriel". On this ship, Bering and his companions in 1728 sailed through the strait, which was later named after the head of the expedition. In 1729, Bering made a second voyage on the same ship and, without returning to Kamchatka, arrived in Okhotsk in the same year. Bering's return to the capital took eight months. In 1730 the expedition returned to St. Petersburg.
An analysis of Bering's voyages on the boat "St. Gabriel" is impossible without the study and use of documents on the voyage of this ship. In 1730, after the end of the First Kamchatka Expedition, Bering presented reporting materials: the watch (shock) log of the boat "St. Gabriel", the Final map of the First Kamchatka expedition, a report on the results of the expedition, "Catalogue of Siberian cities and noble places, put on the map ...", "Table showing the distances in Russian versts to cities and noble places ...". In addition to 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. Of paramount importance for the coverage of Bering's voyages during the First Kamchatka expedition is the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel". On Russian ships of the 18th-19th centuries, going on sea expeditions, special expeditionary magazines were not issued - 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 the scientists of the Academy of Sciences. That is why many of the 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 XIX century. the situation changed and extracts from logbooks even began to be published in the press.
However, this did not last long, and by the end of the XIX century. logbooks as sources of scientific knowledge were again forgotten. Until now, not only logbooks of Bering's ships, but also many other logbooks have not been used to analyze the voyages of Russian sea 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 watch logs, the log boat "St. Gabriel" in the XVIII century. was classified. Academician G.F. Miller, the first historiographer of the Bering 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. Reproductions of a number of pages of the magazine in the 19th century are known, the use of certain passages with significant distortions by V. N. Verkhom, F. P. Litke, V. V. Bakhtin.
But in general, the main document - the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" - remained little studied, which undoubtedly served as one of the main reasons for the incomplete, and in some cases incorrect description of the voyages, many errors in the analysis of specific geographical discoveries of 1728-1729. From 1890 to the present, there are no publications about the logbook of the Bering expedition. In the historical and geographical literature, there was an opinion that the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" was lost. Some researchers even questioned whether a logbook was kept at all during Bering's voyages in 1728-1729. The authentic logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" was discovered in 1973 in the Central State Archive 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. filled systematically, entries in it were made hourly. This journal was conscientiously kept by the navigators of the St. Gabriel boat, Lieutenant A. Chirikov and midshipman P. Chaplin. Some researchers suggest that Bering underestimated the fact that his expedition was scientific. However, the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" refutes this opinion. The rules for keeping watch logs required to perform astronomical observations once a day, recording the calculated latitudes and longitudes to the nearest minute. Bering and his navigators understood that their ship was an expedition ship. Astronomical determinations on the ship were made two, and sometimes (when the weather conditions allowed) three times a day. The values of latitudes and longitudes were recorded in the log book with an accuracy of a hundredth of a minute. Bearings (directions) to coastal landmarks were taken not in points (as was customary in the 18th century), but in degrees, and their readings were recorded with an accuracy of one minute. In the XVIII century. the time of taking bearings was indicated in hours, A. Chirikov and P. Chaplin recorded the time of bearing finding in a log with an accuracy of up to a minute. All observations were carefully recorded in the logbook. During the voyage to the Bering Strait (1728) and then along the coasts of Kamchatka (1729), the ship's commander and his navigators described the coast, making geographical discoveries every day. The inventory was made systematically, carefully and conscientiously. On some days, sailors took bearings of up to 8 landmarks. The records of bearings for the sighted coastal objects in the logbook are so detailed that they make it possible to restore with sufficient accuracy what geographical discoveries were made. Most of these discoveries remained unknown, as did records of the St. Gabriel's voyage across the strait between Asia and America.
Geographical discoveries and research are always accompanied by mapping, so the map is one of the main sources of the history of discoveries. The 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 refers to the consideration by J. N. Delisle of "Captain Bering's map about 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. Based on the results of the expedition, the original map of V. Bering and P. Chaplin was discovered by A. I. Alekseev in 1969 in the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts, 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 in 1729 provided the most valuable information about the northeastern tip of Siberia and formed the basis of cartographic works, starting with the atlas of I.K. Kirillov, and had a huge impact 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 in 1725 (see Fig. 1), reflecting the achievements of geographical science by the beginning of the First Kamchatka expedition, with the map of V. Bering and P. Chaplin in 1729 (Fig. 3), to make sure that the North -East of Asia was first explored and mapped by Bering and his assistants. The final map of the First Kamchatka expedition was widely used in Russia and abroad and was used in the preparation 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 navigation charts "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 largely similar. The map shows the discoveries made by Bering during the voyage 1728: Ozernoy, Ilpinsky, Olyutorsky peninsulas, capes Nizky, Kamchatsky, Opukinsky, etc. Anadyr Bay with its entrance capes Navarin and Chukotsky is well shown. Gabriel's Bay, Cape Ovesny, Preobrazheniya Bay, etc. The outlines of the Asian shores to the north of Anadyr Bay are also shown quite accurately on the map: capes Chukotsky, Kygynin, Chaplin, Tkachen Bay, etc.
The Final Map shows that the Chukotka Peninsula (its extreme eastern point - Cape Dezhnev) is not connected to any land; in the Bering Strait, Diomede Islands are plotted, about. St. Lawrence. The huge archipelagos that we see on Academic maps are not on this map; the three northern Kuril Islands, the southeastern and southwestern coasts of Kamchatka are correctly plotted.
An important source of materials on the results of the voyages is the General Chart of the Naval Academy of 1746, which has become well known only in recent decades. On the map of the Maritime Academy, the northeastern coast of Asia from the mouth of the river. Hunting to Cape Kekurny is based on the Final Map of the First Kamchatka Expedition and, on the whole, the achievements of the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions are summed up quite correctly. Bering's report of the Admiralty Collegiums contains a very brief and schematic description of the work of the expedition and, undoubtedly, is 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, in April 1730 also presented to the Admiralty Board "A Brief Report on the Siberian Expedition ...". This misunderstanding arose because Bering's original report did not have a title, and in a copy of the report taken from the original, an addition was made: "A brief report about the Siberian expedition ...". About a hundred years after the end of the expedition, Bering's report was not published in full. During this time, individual authors have published in print a number of extracts from both the original report and the copy, giving the specified document their own titles: short report, report, short report, etc.
V. Bering, along with a report on the results of the expedition, also submitted to the Admiralty Board a "Catalogue of Siberian cities and noble places, put on the map, through which they had a tract, in what width and length it was, and the length is calculated from Tobolsk." In addition to these basic documents, there are also extracts from the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel", written proposals by Spanberg and Chirikov, and Bering's resolution on these proposals for the 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 in the description of 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 the "Report on the Kamchatka Expedition, compiled by the Admiralty Board, 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 people 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 approach to the assessment of 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 the voyage of V. Bering in 1728 only from the few sources that have survived, which do not make it possible to fully evaluate its results.
The absence of documents about the voyage at the disposal of the researchers led to the fact that the assessment of the Kamchatka expeditions was given not on the basis of the results of the activities of the expedition ships, but on the basis of sources revealing the preparation for voyages. Bering's voyages occupied a short period of time throughout the expedition. The first Kamchatka expedition lasted 5 years, and the voyage itself on the boat "St. Gabriel" - three months. The rest of the time was occupied by preparatory activities: the transition from St. Petersburg to Kamchatka, the procurement of provisions and building materials, the construction of ships, and the return back. 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; another four years were spent on the construction of expeditionary ships suitable for sailing on the ocean; the rest of the time - swimming and returning to St. Petersburg. It is quite clear that in 4 years and nine months much more sources were collected than in 3 months; just as in 9.5 years, much more documents have been accumulated than in six months.
For more than 250 years, a significant fund of fundamental research, reviews, scientific articles, publications has been accumulated 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. Sources for the history of the Kamchatka expeditions are quite numerous. They are most fully characterized by AI Andreev in the "Review of 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 archival sources, a significant place is occupied by materials of the current office work of institutions related to the preparation, organization and conduct of the Kamchatka expeditions, including the correspondence of Bering and other officials of the expedition with the Supreme Privy Council, the Senate, the Admiralty College, the Academy of Sciences, the Siberian Order, local Siberian offices.
The nature of documents is extremely diverse: decrees, job descriptions and other official documents, reports and reports, 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, AAS. Some of the documents are stored in the TsGAVMF. Many documents of 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 Colleges, V. Bering, N. F. Golovin, Hydrography, the Military Naval Commission, the Office of Apraksin and Chernyshev, and the Central Cartographic Production. The fund of the Admiralty Collegiums contains materials from the central naval institution of Russia in the 1920s-1950s. XVIII century - Admiralty Boards concerning the expeditions of the first and partly the second half of the XVIII century. The collection of V. Bering and the Admiralty Collegiums primarily contains materials from both of Bering's expeditions. Some of the documents are kept in the fund of N. F. Golovin, who during the years of the Second Kamchatka Expedition headed the Admiralty Board and was in a lively correspondence with many members of this expedition. The funds of the TsGAVMF store "Protocols to the Decrees and Instructions of the Senate and the Admiralty Collegiums of the Commander-in-Chief Bering ..." (f. 216, he. 1, d. 87, l. 1-286); "Journals sent by Captain Bering from February 12, 1728 to March 20, 1730." (f. 216, op. 1, case 110, sheets 1-211); "Minutes of the reports submitted by Capt. Com. Bering to the Admiralty Board for 1725-1727." (f. 216, op. 1, file 88); "Instruction of the Senate to Capt. Comm. Bering... 1738" (f. 216, on. 1, d. 27); "Inventory of papers, deeds and maps for 1732-1745 ..." (f. 216, op. 1, file 105); "Journal of outgoing documents" (f. 216, op. 1, file 112); "Inventory of the cases of Captain-Commander Bering" (f. 216, op. 1, file 118) and many other cases. The Fund of the Military Scientific Archive 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 members of the Kamchatka expeditions are stored in the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts (TSGADA) in the funds of the Senate, the State Archives, Miller ("Miller's portfolios"), etc. These funds contain the Cases of Bering's Kamchatka expeditions (1725-1741)" (f. 130, op. 1, file 34); "On the expeditions of Bering (1725-1741)" (f. 199, op. 1, file 3180); "Files about the participants of Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition..." (f. 7, op. 1, file 9466), etc. The Archives of the Academy of Sciences in funds 3 and 21 contain files concerning the Second Kamchatka Expedition and its participants; Fond 3 contains manuscripts written by G. V. Steller. Part of the materials of the Kamchatka expeditions is stored in other archives: AVPR (Siberian Affairs Foundation) and others. 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", d. 1.
Many archival documents shed light on Bering's relationship with the Siberian authorities, as well as on the dishonorable actions of individual members of the expedition, prone to denunciations, squabbling, etc. Persistently demanding assistance from local commanders, the expedition got into very difficult relations with local authorities. First of all, Bering was criticized for interfering in cases that were supposedly not subject to his conduct. Correspondence on this issue reached the Senate. The number of denunciations from the field against Bering grew with each day of his stay in Yakutsk and Okhotsk. At least a part of the cases on this issue, stored in the TsGAVMF, should be named: "On the accusation by Skornyakov-Pisarev of Captain-Commander Bering, Captain Shpanberg and Chiriko-va ... 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 bickering 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 the complaints of Lieutenant Plautin against Capt. Commander Bering... 1735-1740", f. 216, op. 1, d. 15, l. 1 - 158; "Documents on the Kamchatka Commission of Inquiry... 1740-1743", f. 216, op. 1, d. 54, l. 1-127.
Materials about the endless denunciations of Bering and other leaders of the expedition by the Siberian authorities and individual members of the expedition are also available in other files f. 216 (d. 58, 61, 62, 68, 69, 74, etc.). Each of these cases is no less than those listed. These denunciations, as a rule, have no grounds, and most of them cannot be taken into account; these materials create a false and very unsightly picture of the course of the Kamchatka expeditions; they played a negative role in assessing the Kamchatka expeditions and their leaders: Bering, Chirikov, and others.
Numerous archival sources as a whole reveal the organizational and preparatory periods of the expedition in sufficient detail and in many ways. The number of historical sources directly related to the voyages on the boat "St. Gabriel" and the packet boat "St. Peter", that is, 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 from secondary sources. For the same reason, a lot of significant errors, conflicting opinions, and tendentious assessments in describing the voyages of expeditions and analyzing the reliability of certain Russian geographical discoveries have penetrated into the scientific literature. When studying Bering's voyages, it must be taken into account that the evaluation of the results of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions by the frequently changing government offices was biased. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna opposed the foreigners who ruled Russia under Empress Anna Ioannovna. The government of Elizaveta Petrovna was hostile to foreigners who served in the navy, public service or in the Academy of Sciences. Since Bering was a foreigner, the reaction against foreigners extended to him. Academician K.M. Baer argues that the main reason for excessive criticism of Bering's shortcomings is that he was a foreigner, and he accuses A.P. Sokolov of the same. In the XVIII 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 the reign of Elizabeth, nothing was done to publish the results of extensive and costly research conducted under the direction of Bering, or to establish the reputation of researchers. The reports of Bering and his collaborators, 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 scanty and usually incorrect news leaked out, becoming the property of the general public.
Many leaders of the Kamchatka expeditions died shortly 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 Colleges also changed, and among its members since October 1739 there were people who believed that the huge amounts of money spent were not justified by the modest benefits that the expedition had brought so far, that it was working very slowly;
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 Colleges, 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 occupied high posts. They, of course, tried to put the expedition in black. In this regard, a detailed note submitted to the Senate by G. Fik, who spent more than 10 years in exile in Yakutia, is characteristic. In it, he points to the harm caused by the expedition, which spends a lot of money and which imposes an unbearable burden on the local population. There was also a "Brief extract about the Kamchatka expedition" without a date and indicating the name of the author, attributed to G. G. Skornyakov-Pisarev, in which the results of the activities of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions are summed up with great distortions and it is said about the "ruin from Bering with comrades Samogo Lutchago Siberian the edges".
The TsGAVMF keeps several cases initiated as a result of denunciations by V. Kazantsev, who presents all the cases 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 for the state of the Bering expedition ... 1736-1747."
From the end of 1742, the Senate began to insistently demand from the Admiralty Boards information about the activities of the expeditions. The collected data showed that the results of the work of the Kamchatka expeditions were very significant. Despite this, the Senate, in a report presented in September 1743 to Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, took the side of the ill-wishers of the expeditions. The mentioned "Brief extract" was attached to the report. The assessment of the results of the Kamchatka expeditions by the government authorities during the time of Elizabeth Petrovna was too short-sighted. The history of the Kamchatka expeditions did not attract due attention for a long time. When studying the Kamchatka expeditions of Bering, important material is contained in the works of Russian, Soviet and foreign historians and geographers, in one way or another concerning 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 a study, the boundaries between the precisely established and not yet finally clarified or clarified only in the most general terms and in need of further justification are erased. Knowledge, which has a conjectural character in a given state of science, is given an uncharacteristic value of irrefutable truths ... .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. ... and, ultimately, the unresolved many debatable issues of 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 a preliminary acquaintance with the documents on Bering's voyage, it was concluded that Bering's expedition proved the existence of the Northeast Passage. Based on this conclusion, a short printed report about the First Kamchatka Expedition was published in the "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" dated March 16, 1730. It stated with sufficient certainty that Bering had 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 so on to Japan, Khina and the East Indies, it would be possible to get there, and besides he also informed the local inhabitants that before 50 or 60 years a certain ship from Lena had arrived in Kamchatka.
Bering's report must be considered the world's first document published in the press, 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 campaign of 1648 by Dezhnev and Popov.
The message about Bering's expedition was published in the same year in the Copenhagen newspaper "Nye Tidender". Judging by the content of this message in P. Lauridsen's program, it was an abbreviated summary of a note from Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti. These newspaper information became the property of the educated society of Europe. The publication in the newspaper could not appear without the knowledge of government bodies.
Consequently, the opinion that Bering provided sufficient evidence of the existence of a strait between Asia and America was at first also 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 promoted out of turn to captain-commander by the highest order. 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 another title, but "for distinction." In addition to the rank, Bering, "in respect for the great difficulty and range of the expedition," by the rank of captain-commander, received, on the proposal of the Admiralty Colleges, a double monetary reward, that is, 1000 rubles.
A positive assessment of the activities of Bering 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 this report in the newspapers about the discovery of the Bering Strait, the First Kamchatka Expedition was forgotten in official circles. Expeditionary materials were buried in the archives of the Admiralty, where they remained virtually inaccessible to researchers for many years. In Western Europe, for 17 years, no information about Bering appeared, with the exception of the publication in 1735 in Paris of a map compiled by Bering and Chaplin in 1729. Again the question of the results of the expedition of 1725-1730. was raised in 1738 in connection with preparations for the Second Kamchatka Expedition. A reassessment of the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition is expressed in a number of sources, including in a document called as follows: "A report on the Kamchatka expedition, compiled by the Admiralty Board, October 5, 1738." The report says 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 compilers 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 reached only 67°N. sh., and the coast from 67 ° N. sh. "he (Bering. - /!. S.) laid down according to the previous maps and according to the statements, and the taxes on the non-connection of the authentic approver are doubtful and unreliable ...". The employees of the Admiralty Collegiums, apparently, had a doubt that "according to the previous maps and according to the statements" not only the coast north of 67 ° N was laid. sh., but also to the south, from metro Dezhnev to metro Chukotsky.
The second accusation that was brought against Bering was that he did not study the possibility of sailing in the Arctic Ocean from Cape Dezhnev to the mouths of the Ob, Lena: "... moreover, about the path near the land by sea from the Ob River to the Lena and distant, as if partly near that shore, is impossible, and nothing is known about some places, and for this reason it is impossible to confirm, because there are no reliable maps, but there are no records either. 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 when 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 report of 1738 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 a "small bay" (preobrazheniya bay), and on August 16, 1728 - "islands" ( one of the Diomede Islands).
It should be noted that Bering, in the 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 report of 1738 interprets. 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. these documents could give a deeper idea 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 to analyze the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" and the Final Map of the First Kamchatka Expedition. They almost verbatim rewrote Bering's report of February 10, 1730, and with this they completed their work on collecting materials on the results of the expedition. The Admiralty Board, which had a map and a journal of the First Kamchatka expedition, did not analyze these documents, and the main positive results of the expedition of 1725-1730. have not been 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 on the voyages of expeditionary Russian ships, as noted above, were then classified 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 clan, also Vitus, published in 1749 a genealogy of his family. 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 random
This is my fourth model on which I worked from 09/10/2014 to 07/22/2015.For a long time I decided to take or not to take this model, the manufacturer was embarrassed. But after I started assembling, I realized that I was not mistaken. The quality is top notch. All details are clearly in place without backlash, even with an interference fit. The model was artificially aged, the sails too, spied on Zhdan. Changed the boat, nagel. Brass Bleck blackened brass. I bought Gutermann threads from which I twisted ropes. Materials are standard, dark walnut, boxwood, ramin, linden. There was more than enough material.
In my free time, I began to read about this bot and was amazed how it was possible to walk there on such a fragile ship !!! Vet this is not Hawaii. The Great Northern Expedition (the First Kamchatka Expedition of 1728-1729) was organized according to the plan of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great. The expedition consisted of seven independent detachments with a total number of five thousand people. The research areas of the coast of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans were distributed between the detachments, the task of the navigators was to map the coasts of the Russian state.
The expedition was led by Captain-Commander Vitus Bering. In addition, he was supposed to lay the Northern Sea Route from Arkhangelsk past the Siberian shores of the Arctic Ocean to Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, Japan and America.Thanks to polar navigators, previously unknown peninsulas and islands appeared on the map of Russia: Taimyr, Yamal, Alaska, Aleutian, Commander and many others. For more than ten years, brave sailors have drawn the outlines of the coast of the country, overcoming all difficulties - in those years even the chronometer had not yet been invented. It appeared only in 1772. But already in 1746. a complete map of the northern Russian coasts was compiled. Until now, when printing maps of the Arctic, materials from the Great Northern Expedition are used.It must be said that the seafaring officers themselves supervised the construction of sailing ships, on which they went on an expedition. And they gave them euphonious names: “Expedition”, “Ob”, “Tobol”, “Yakutsk”, “Irkutsk”, “Pallas”, “Yasashna”, “Ob Postman” and others. A special place among the most famous Russian ships is boat "Saint Gabriel". Built in 1728 in Kamchatka, a small (even for those times) vessel, served Russia faithfully for 3 decades."The Holy Archangel Gabriel" entered his name not only in the history of geographical and oceanographic discoveries and research, but also made a significant contribution to the development of Russian statehood and politics.
At different times, 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. Walton, I.F. Elagin and others. I take my hat off to these people.
I mustered up the nerve and decided to apply for participation in the ship modeling competition, which was held in the city of heroes of Kerch from August 15 to 17, 2015. And what was my surprise that at the box office of C-8 models my bot took first place with a sum of points 93.33.
“1) One or two boats with decks should be made in Kamchatka or in another customs place.
2) On these boats, sail near the land that goes to the north and by 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 she met with America.
Peter ordered the captain of the fleet Vitus Bering to command the expedition, Alexei Chirikov and Martyn Shpanberg were appointed his assistants.
At the end of January, Tsar Peter died ...
So, the issue of the expedition was resolved. It entered the history of geographical science under the name of the “First Kamchatka Expedition” and was part of those 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.
Difficult and long was the way to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Of the 663 horses, 267 died. There was not enough food, famine began. “Walking the way,” Bering wrote in one of his reports to the Senate, “the whole team was starving, and from such hunger they ate dead horse meat, rawhide bags and all sorts of raw skins, leather dresses and shoes.”
Only in July 1727 did the entire expedition gather in Okhotsk. Another year was spent on delivering cargo to Kamchatka and building a ship. July 8, 1728 she was launched and given the name "Gabriel". Soon the ship went to sea. Forty-man crew and a year's supply of food were carried by the "Gabriel", a twenty-meter ship built in three months. On July 28, the expedition reached the Anadyr River, beyond which they 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 to be decided was: should we go further?
Two opinions were expressed. Martyn Spanberg advised to go north for another three days, and then turn back. Winter is coming, he said, and the Gabriel might get stuck in the ice. Chirikov was of a different opinion. He believed that the goals of the expedition had not been achieved, the strait was not open, and that it was necessary to sail further. The final decision depended on Bering. On reflection, the head of the expedition took the side of Spanberg.
On August 16, having reached 67 ° 8 "North latitude, "Gabriel" lay down on the return course. On September 1, the expedition arrived at the mouth of the Kamchatka River, where it wintered.
Yes, the Gabriel sailed for six days along the strait, which is now called the Bering Strait. But the head of the expedition did not know this. He 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 .......
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You can buy a kit for building a model of the ship Boat St. Gabriel on a scale of 1:72, you can
Set features
The Russian company "Master Korabel" has developed this model, which stands out for its high quality and detailed study of the model itself and details, laser application of the line for processing the edges of the frames. Special hull design to compensate for deformation of materials, laser cutting of every board and parts, double skin, photo-etched brass parts, patterns and fabric for making sails. Even a novice modeler will be able to assemble this model, thanks to step-by-step, detailed photo instructions, drawings and recommendations for assembling the model.
Drills required for the construction of this model - with a diameter of 0.9 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.5 mm, 4.0 mm (tools not included in the set)
History reference
A special place in the history of Kamchatka, famous for Russian ships, is occupied by the boat "Saint Archangel Gabriel" - the first sea vessel built in 1728 from the local forest. Boat "St. Gavriil" served in the Pacific Ocean for 27 years, until 1755. Many discoveries and glorious historical events are associated with him: 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 south - the western coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Shantar Islands in 1730, participation in the suppression of the Itelmen uprising and the founding of a new Nizhnekamchatsky prison, the first visit by Russians to Japan in 1739, the exploration of Avacha Bay and the founding in 1740 of one of the oldest cities in Russian Far East - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Such famous Russian navigators as V. I. Bering, A. I. Chirikov, M. P. Shpanberg, P. A. Chaplin and others sailed on the St. Gabriel. December 23, 1724 Peter I signed a decree of the Admiralty Board on the organization of the First Kamchatka Expedition. The idea of the expedition came to 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 documents of the First (1725-1730) and Second (1733-1743) Kamchatka expeditions, as well as the campaigns of A.F. Shestakov and D.I. 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 according to the documents available to us.
