Carnation "Saint 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 annals of the main events in the conquest of the Great Ocean: he built the first fishing boat "Saint Julian" in Kamchatka.
Before him, fishing went out on shitik, which, as we say, were “sewn” with twigs, whalebone or straps, and Nikiforov built a “carpet”, that is, a ship on nails, with wooden fasteners. The nailers were larger and more reliable, and not thirty industrialists, but twice as many went out to sea on them ...
Nikiforov had golden hands, but there were no golden chervonets, and therefore he was forced to hand over St. Julian" for rent to Nikifor Trapeznikov.
On September 2, 1758, the first fishing boat in the history of Kamchatka went to the open sea. Sailor on "St. Juliana" was Yarensky townsman Stepan Glotov.
Fox Islands
Nizhnekamchatsk, 1762.
“Last September 2, 758, ... entered ... from the Nizhnekamchatsky mouth into the open Pacific Sea on a sea voyage to search for new islands and peoples, safely escorted by this ship Evo Glotov. Precisely at the time of that nautical voyage that had begun, from the beginning autumn weather, on the ninth day, it drifted to the small island of Copper lying near the called Commander Island (k), where, by the grace of God, the bailiff, wintered and contented themselves, firstly, with food, preparing this is for a future voyage to search for distant unknown islands. And then they industrialized beavers, queens and koshlak 83 and blue foxes 1263, which are all covered in clothes and blankets. And later, when sailing from the Kamchatka Estuary, after the ship was thrown out to this Mednaya Island, from the autumn unrest prescribed cruel in the sea, the former two anchors were torn off and carried away to the sea, for which they and other companions by common consent, to save the ship and people, so that in time of the intentional search for islands in the sea not to perish untimely, they took from the Commander Island a broken packet boat of the former Kamchatka expedition of lying iron in a strip and in fact, as if in buots and hooks, weighing 15 pounds and forged, through considerable labor, two anchors, which even now ship, the fact that both of them had one paw during the unrest was torn off. And when wintering on the Medny Island and fishing for food for sea cows, seals and sea lions, preparing dried meat, in the summer of August 759, from the 1st of August, packs entered the sea voyage to search for and end the intended path. And from that August, on the 1st, they sailed, without touching, to the well-known sea Aleutian Islands between north and east, and in that voyage, favorable weather continued even until September 1st. And including, by the gift of the Lord and by the high happiness of her imperial majesty, they arrived on a safe journey on an island lying in the northeast side and, seeing the ship a convenient place to settle, stuck between a stone lying by noon of that island on soft sand without any on the shore of the ship damage. And that island is called by the name of the local peoples Umnak, which they revere over the second near island, the main and first. (These were the largest islands of the Aleutian ridge - Umnak and Unalashka).
“... On these two islands there are animals: sea beavers, black-brown, brown, gray foxes, krestovki and red of various kinds.”
(And that is why they later called this group of islands the Fox Islands. The fishery was successful - 1389 beavers and 1648 foxes worth more than 130 thousand rubles).
“And from that departure of the Maya from August 26 to the 31st of that 762 year back to the Nizhnekamchatka mouth, being on the way, they had great shortages in water and food, so that the last shoes were boiled from their feet and for food used ... "
But what is the result of this voyage, according to one study alone: “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).
Bay Bechevinskaya
While Stepan Glotov was renovating the Nikiforov-Trapeznikov carnation, in Okhotsk, the Irkutsk merchant Ivan Bechevin decided to build a boat "even more densely than Iulian." But while the carpenters got along with a new boat - eleven fathoms (23 meters) along the keel, while the Okhotsk priests illuminated it and called it "Saint Gabriel", Ivan Bechevin himself was tortured on the rack by the notorious auditor in Siberia Krylov, extorting money hidden by the merchant for secret distilling business and tavern fees.
"St. Gabriel, ready to sail, was waiting for the command, settling at the mouth of the Belogolovaya River. Instead of the master's will, an official decree came: "Take the ship to the treasury and send it to fisheries for three years."
Sailor on "St. Gabriel" was appointed Gavriil Pushkarev. What is known about him? Very little. Ordinary member of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. Unsuccessful conqueror (together with Dmitry Paikov) at St. Vladimir" Steller's Lands in 17S8 and 1759. Here, it seems, is all.
It's a pity. I would like to know more in order to understand more. Indeed, in the words of Z. N. Zubkova (p. 27), “the vessel “Gabriel” and its navigation have their own special history. The voyage of the "Gabriel" is connected 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 the crew members of the Shitik Mikhail Nevodchikov. We also remember how fate punished them for this.
Let's 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 went on. September 25 arrived at Atkha (Andreyanovsky Islands). Here Pushkarev met with his old acquaintances - members of the crew of the boat "St. Vladimir. Dmitry Paikov was about to leave the inhospitable island: on the eve of the Aleuts, for unknown reasons, twelve people were killed in his place. Parish "St. Gabriel" changed the sailor's plans. It was decided to organize a "warehouse company". This meant that half of the people from St. Vladimir" switched to "St. Gabriel, and vice versa. Each vessel subsequently conducted an independent fishery, and the production was divided equally.
In 1761 the ships went east. "St. Vladimir" reached Kodiak Island, where the Russians had not yet been. "St. Gabriel "came first to Umnak, but, having met here with Glotov, he went further, crossed the Isanot Strait and landed on the inveterate coast of America - Alaska, which he mistook for a large island. Russian industrialists have not yet been here either.
But neither in Kodiak nor in Alaska did the industrialists succeed. I quote Z. N. Zubkova: “Friendly relations with the inhabitants in January 1762 were replaced by hostile ones, and again, due to the old cause of violence against women, the party of industrialists, headed by Pushkarev himself. As a result, eight industrialists were killed and as many wounded. In revenge, the industrialists killed seven Aleutian hostages (amanats). This was the first time hostages had been killed. As a result of armed clashes, the "Gabriel" weighed anchor and on May 26, 1762 set off on a return voyage. Going back to Umnak, Pushkarev captured at least 20 Aleuts, most of them girls. With this cargo, "St. Gabriel" to Kamchatka, but on September 25 it crashed in one of the bays of the Shipunsky Peninsula, which is still called Bechevinskaya.
Pushkarev himself survived. Dmitry Paikov also fled from Kodiak. And therefore, everyone who followed them could not count on a good reception from the natives.
Kodiak
Glotov did not have time to put “St. Julian”, as Solikamsk merchant Ivan Lapin and Lalsky Vasily Popov entrust him with their “Andreyan and Natalia”.
And again the sea, although the ordeal had just ended, many months of turbulence, hunger, scurvy, physical fatigue, longing for his native land, from which he had been torn off for several years ... But the discoverer's passion overcame, and Stepan Gavriilovich led "Andreyan and Natalia". Like the first time, he passed all the hitherto known islands of the Aleutian ridge and went far ahead. And if the first time he did not quite reach the coast, to Alaska, then this time he passed by and landed on the island of Kodiak.
The natives met the Russians with hostility: they bombarded them with arrows. I had to scare them off with rifle fire. They retreated, but soon on the "Andreyan and Natalia", pulled ashore, they found sulfur and dry grass - the islanders were preparing to burn the ship. Seeing that they also failed, they again attacked the industrialists - more than two hundred people rushed into the attack, hiding behind bullets with wooden shields. The attack was repulsed, but a month later, under the cover of even thicker shields, the islanders again tried to strike.
In general, it was not in Glotov's rules to establish relations with local residents with the help of weapons, especially since he had the richest experience in dealing with the warlike tribes of Umnak and Unalashki, where he earned the love and respect of the natives.
He began to look for the same way in establishing contacts with the inhabitants of Kodiak. By spring, a 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 "an exemplary instruction to naval commanding officers setting off to find a way to the east by the Northern Ocean." He drew a line on the map of the globe that crossed the meridians at the same angle - the loxodrome. She led to the island of Umnak. This curve outlined the most direct path for the ships: having chosen it, it was no longer necessary to change course (Markov S. Circle of the Earth. - M., 1978. - P. 509).
And here, near the island of Umnak, just discovered by Stepan Glotov, the ships of two expeditions were to meet: V. Ya. Chichagova, who intended to pass to the island by the Northern Sea Route from Arkhangelsk through the Bering Strait, and route Okhotsk - Nizhnekamchatsk - Umnak.
Chichagov failed to break through the ice of the Icy Sea.
But even greater trials befell the members 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 entered 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 unlearned” people is time to end and begin a new stage of development.
It must be categorically noted that the Admiralty Board was mistaken in not recognizing the state, sovereign benefit for the fishing activities of their compatriots in the East. The primary basis for such activities of many of them was precisely this: the survey, description and development of unknown islands as new Russian possessions, and not gratuitous profit.
It was this goal, which was set in the capital twenty years after the first fishing voyages of the Russians, that fascinated Emelyan Basov and became the cause of his personal tragedy, Andrey Tolstykh, Mikhail Nevodchikov and even Gavriil Pushkarev, although they were so different.
But nevertheless, in the Admiralty Board, and even more so in the government, they thought quite differently.
“Judging by the decree of May 4, 1764 on the organization of the expedition, the government understood that the discoveries of seafarers-industrialists were largely the result of the Bering expedition, that these discoveries are the fruits of the labor used and the considerable dependency of the past Kamchatka expedition. It was perfectly logical to equip a new expedition, similar to Bering's expedition. Therefore, the decree proposes to the Admiralty College “to send immediately, according to its own reasoning, how many officers and navigators are needed, entrusting a command over them to a senior, whose knowledge in marine science and diligence to it would be 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 many times exceeded the results - either the complete failure of the First, or dubbing 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 at all. It was not they who drove the first nails, so expensive on the outskirts of the desert, into him. Only not their personal example could inspire the rest.
Bering was powerless to raise the Russian people with his personal example. Such expenses as he incurred were ruinous. Yes, and what to argue - it is 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 started building ships. Four sea vessels were at the disposal of the expedition: the brigantine "Saint Catherine", the gookor "Saint Paul", the galliot "Saint Paul" and the boat "Saint Gabriel".
In addition, Krenitsyn had at his disposal ... 192 people; Because of the time, a huge sum was spent on equipment - over 100 thousand rubles. (Ibid., p. 37).
So what? Not a single ship reached Kamchatka intact.
Krenitsyn rode on a brigantine. On October 10, 1766, the flotilla left Okhotsk and three days later the ships got lost in the Sea of Okhotsk, and each reached Kamchatka on its own. Almost immediately at St. Ekaterina "a leak opened, but they coped with it and two weeks later they approached the mouth of the Bolshaya. Here we got into a storm, and the brigantine was thrown ashore 25 versts from Bolshaya at the mouth of the Utka River.
"St. Pavel "Levashov was thrown ashore 7 miles from the mouth of the Bolshaya. Boat "St. Gabriel" - at the very mouth.
Galliot "St. Pavel "was carried away to the Pacific Ocean, to the south, and smashed into chips on the kekurs of the Seventh Kuril Island. Only 13 of the 43 crew members survived.
We left Bolsheretsk in the summer of the next year on the gookor “St. Pavel" and both "St. Gabriel". We only reached Nizhnekamchatsk: the boat was not suitable for further navigation. We wintered in Nizhnekamchatsk, preparing galliots “St. Ekaterina".
Krenitsyn no longer relied on his own strength and took with him on the expedition "simple and unlearned" pioneers. Among other industrialists, Stepan Glotov went 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" was 72 people. On board the St. Paul" - 68.
In August, the ships were in the Isanota Strait and surveyed the American coast, landed in Alaska.
On September 18, Krenitsyn started St. Catherine" to one of the bays of Unimak Island, where he spent the winter. Levashov met winter on Unalashka.
The Aleuts received the Russian people hostilely, they were belligerent - 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 guards, to be on the alert, to survey the islands and Alaska in large, well-armed groups, so as not to become a victim of the Aleutian and Indian warriors, who constantly looked for prey in the Russian camp and now and then showered sailors and industrialists with clouds of arrows.
It was hard with food.
“Malnutrition soon turned into a hunger strike,” we read from Sergei Markov. - The scurvy has begun. Whale meat is not good for Russian people. Sailors claim that whales even opened wounds. But Levashov's people had to eat the meat of a whale thrown dead on the shore of the bay.
The winterers lived on the ship and in the yurt. Once 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 the cramped cabin of the ship, at the lamp with whale oil, wrote notes.
“About the inhabitants of that island”, “Description of the island of Unalashka”, “On the hunting of Russian people on the island of Unalashka for various kinds of foxes” - these were the names of these scientific works begun by a Russian man in the Western Hemisphere. They provided a lot of information about the life of the Aleuts, about their clothes, dwellings, 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 notes by Levashov have not been published to this day and are unlikely to have been read during the author's lifetime.
Even greater difficulties were experienced by the crew members of the St. Catherine." And this despite the fact that among the assistants to the captain was Glotov, and other industrial people who knew how to get along with the locals before, to find a common friendly language.
But frightened by the stories of the Aleutian rebellion of 176-1763 on the Fox Islands (including Unimak), Krenitsyn seems to have lost his reason.
Scurvy was rampant in the Russian camp. People were starving. It is hard to believe this - after all, a whole herd of reindeer of the sailor Smetanin went to 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's, only half survived - 36 people, of which only twelve were able to stand 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 equip the ship or push it into the water. And they would have died if not for the Unalashka Aleuts. Levashov nevertheless became friends with one of the leaders - in the recent past, a friend of Stepan Glotov, and asked him to look for him on the Krenitsyn Islands. And it was here that Gavriil Pushkarev, the unfortunate pilot from the St. Paul, the conqueror of Alaska and the personal enemy of many Umnaks, 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 the given word and the strength of friendship: an Aleut detachment went out to sea on a hundred canoes, fighting its way through the maritime possessions of warlike neighbors. Only two made it to Krenitsyn. The leader handed over the package to Krenitsyn and immediately went back with a reply letter, despite the new dangers, to inform Levashov of the joyful (for the crew of St. Catherine) news.
Thanks to the brave Aleutians, two Russian ships, and the St. Ekaterina" escaped a tragic fate.
But nevertheless, the price of this expedition was too high to find its disinterested followers.
And the fishing wave ran on the seasoned American coast with new and new force.
A colorfully designed box made of hard cardboard is visually in no way inferior to the whales of well-known foreign brands and just asks for your hands. And having taken it, without even having time to look inside, you understand that you will not return it to the shelf. Here it is the long-awaited continuation of the Russian Sailboats series, or rather the second model of a domestic vessel, on the box of which it says “Made in Russia”. What kind of woodenkit does a domestic manufacturer offer us?A bit of history:
The boat "St. Gabriel" served in the Pacific Ocean for 27 years, until 1755. In the documents of that time it was called differently: "Saint Gabriel", "Gabriel" and even "Gabriel" or "Gabriel". Many discoveries and glorious historical events are associated with them. Such, for example, as the navigation 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 foundation of a new Nizhne-Kamchatsky 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 the Russian Far East - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
Buying information from the manufacturer:
vendor code MK0301
Dimensions: length 350 mm, width 150 mm, height 300 mm
Internet price: 3960 rub.(I would like to note that the price is very competitive given the excellent quality of the contents of the set)
Laser-applied malka on frames.
Special housing design that compensates for the deformation of materials.
Step-by-step photo instructions, drawings and recommendations for assembling the model
Laser cutting of each board of a covering and details. Double cladding. The level of difficulty declared by the manufacturer: 2 on a five-point system.
It's time to open the box.
First of all, attention is drawn to the abundance of printed materials, which the manufacturer has prepared to help the modeler. Here is the list:
1. Assembly instructions
2. Photo assembly instructions
3. Specification
4. Layouts of parts on plates
5. Drawings (patterns) of sails
6. Drawings
7. Rigging table
8. Schemes of knitting of the main rigging elements
Detailed and most importantly in Russian, the instruction not only reflects the assembly steps step by step, but also gives a lot of useful tips.
The details of the power structure are placed on 4 sheets of plywood 1.6 and 3 mm thick.
For the manufacture of other elements of the hull and spars, the following types of wood were used: walnut, mahogany, pear, linden, boxwood, anegri tree, fan line.
The kit also includes
pumps - 2 pieces measuring 4x17 mm. 12 parts each, wood and brass etched
Windlass assembly 6.4x6 2mm. - counted 50 parts
Semi-gallery oars 90mm - 8 pcs.
Metal parts are placed on 4 brass etched plates.
For sails, cotton fabric is offered, although its size provides for only one attempt to sew worthy sails.
For rigging polyester threads with a diameter of 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.6 0.8
Set of fabric flags.
Anchors by Artesania Latina
That's like all. If you are interested in learning more about the contents of the box, I advise you to purchase.
Happy assembly!!!
History reference:
"Boat "St. Gabriel" served in the Pacific Ocean for 27 years, until 1755. In the documents of that time he was called differently: "Saint Gabriel", "Gabriel" and even "Gabriel" or "Gavril". Many discoveries and glorious historical events are associated with them Such as, for example, the voyage of the first European vessel 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 uprising Itelmens and the foundation of a new Nizhne-Kamchatsky 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 the Russian Far East - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
The creation of "Saint Gabriel" was destined by Peter I
“... in the very month when the fate of the Almighty determined the end of the life of Peter the Great, [...] 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. [...] To the general-admiral called to himself [F.M. Apraksin], handing the instruction, said the following: "I remembered these days what I thought about for a long time and that other things prevented me from doing it, that is, about the road through the Arctic Sea to China and India" (A.K. Nartov)
The 43-year-old captain Vitus Jonansen Bering was appointed head of the expedition, and his assistants were lieutenants Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg and Alexei Ilyich Chirikov.
(Peter I personally knew Bering, who was in good standing for his excellent knowledge of maritime affairs, diligence and honesty, more than once during the long war with Sweden carried out special assignments for Peter I, and later was appointed commander of the then largest warship in the Russian fleet - 90 -cannon battleship "Lesnoye".)
The navigator was determined midshipman Peter Chaplin, who was already promoted to midshipman during the expedition.
The expedition also included “boat and boat work of Fyodor Fedotov’s son Kozlov’s student ... send 4 carpenters with him with their tools that would be younger ...” a machtmakor student, a carpenter’s foreman, three carpenters, two gunners, two sailboats and blacksmith
Kozlov's detachment was to become the ancestor of the shipbuilders of Kamchatka. They had to independently, not counting on the help of the Admiralty Board, create a shipyard on the distant shores of the Pacific Ocean and build “one or two deck boats” on it.
On January 24, 1725, the expedition members left St. Petersburg.
The government ordered the Siberian governor, Prince M.V. Dolgoruky, to provide all possible assistance and assistance to the expedition in all cities and prisons along its route. In Yeniseisk and Irkutsk, sixty "good carpenters" were assigned to the expedition.
In January 1727 the expedition reached Okhotsk. Even before Bering's arrival in Okhotsk, here in 1725 a ship was laid down for the expedition, which was launched in June 1727 and named "Fortuna".
On August 22, 1727, the expedition left Okhotsk on the "Fortune" and the old boat "Vostok", built in 1716. On September 4, they arrived in Bolsheretsky prison, where it was decided to spend the winter. From here, the property of the expedition was sent to the Nizhnekamchatsky prison along the rivers Bolshaya, Bystraya and Kamchatka, and in winter - on dogs.
By the spring of 1728, all the goods were transported to Nizhnekamchatsk.
Meanwhile, Fyodor Kozlov, sent forward in the valley of the Kamchatka River near the tract Ushki, chose a place for the first shipyard in Kamchatka. By the time the main forces of the expedition arrived at the place, the shipyard was ready, a bending production and a forge were deployed. Also, the preparation of parts for the hull set was basically completed.
It should be noted here that all the equipment, parts and materials not only for future ships, but also for the shipyard itself were delivered to Kamchatka from St. Petersburg.
The receipt of property (“in strict accordance with the staff and of the best quality”) in the Admiralty warehouses of St. Petersburg was led by Lieutenant A. Chirikov, with the active participation of F. Kozlov.
On April 4, 1728, a solemn ceremony of laying the boat was held on the banks of the Kamchatka River: and then Mr. Captain favored everyone with enough wine ”(P. Chaplin)
It would be useful to remind once again that the type of vessel and the requirements for it were determined by Peter I: a small draft, so that shallow waters do not become an insurmountable obstacle for the expedition; high maneuverability, allowing you to maneuver confidently; good seaworthiness; relatively small dimensions, but at the same time sufficient carrying capacity is an important requirement for an expedition ship.
In addition, as mentioned above, the boat had to be equipped and equipped in strict accordance with the existing regulations - so that in the event of a meeting with foreign ships, it would look like an exemplary vessel and adequately represent the Russian Navy.
The boat was built in strict accordance with the drawing developed by the St. Petersburg Admiralty according to the drawings of the best warships.
The architecture of the boat corresponded to the regulations of that time for ships of this class: three compartments - a cockpit for the crew, a hold for cargo, officers' cabins and a hook chamber.
The vessel had a length along the keel of 18.3, a width along the midship frame - 6.1 and a draft of 2.3 m.
On June 9, that is, two months after the laying, the boat was launched without a deck and baptized in honor of the holy archangel Gabriel, whose day was celebrated.
Fedor Kozlov's team did an excellent job. Despite the fact that the building was built in the shortest possible time, this did not affect its quality at all. Moreover, looking ahead, we can say with confidence that for almost thirty years of operation of the ship in the harsh conditions of the northern latitudes, it has demonstrated excellent seaworthiness and has never let the sailors down.
Completion of "St. Gabriel" was carried out already on the water at the mouth of the river. Fedor Kozlov urgently completed the construction of the ship. Work was carried out non-stop throughout the daylight hours. We finished decking, furnishing cabins and crew quarters, storerooms and enclosures. On the deck, two hatches were made into the bow compartment and hold, descending to the officer's cabins.
Spars and rigging were installed so that the sailing rig allowed five sails to be carried.
The vessel had two manual pumps for pumping water from the hold. The sides were provided with shvertsy (wooden shields in the form of fins, the upper end of which was fixed on the axis, which made it possible to lift them out of the water. They were used to counteract drift, as well as calm the pitching). The boat was equipped with two anchors and two dredges (a dreg or a dreck is a boat anchor of the Admiralty system weighing up to 48 kg)
The artillery armament of bots of this class, according to the regulations, consisted of 4 falconets. However, taking into account the fact that the construction of the 2nd boat was not carried out, "Saint Gabriel" took over all the artillery provided for the expedition - 7 falconets (1 was lost en route)
The construction of "St. Gabriel" was completed by 6 July. By July 10, 1728, the acceptance of goods was completed and the crew moved from shore to board.
The boat "Holy Archangel Gabriel" was ready to go on its maiden voyage.
First voyages
From the notes of midshipman Chaplin: "Servants on the boat: Mr. Captain 1, Lieutenant 1, Doctor 1, Navigator 1, Midshipman 1, Quartermaster 1, sailors 13, drummer 1, soldier 6, carpenter foreman 1, carpenters 4, caulker 1, 1 sailboat, 2 interpreters, 35 people in total, 6 officer servants.
The provisions are supposed to be: flour 458 pounds 29 pounds, crackers 116 pounds 25 pounds, cereals 57 pounds, meat 70 pounds, salted fish 10 barrels 21 mating, fish fat 2 barrels, salt 2 pounds, beef lard 7 pounds 20 pounds, gunpowder 7 pounds 27 pounds, 35 barrels of water, 2 barrels of kvass, 2 pounds of peas, 5 or 6 yards of firewood.
July 13, 1728 "St. Gabriel" left the mouth of the Kamchatka River into the sea and headed north.
Lieutenant A. Chirikov, with the help of midshipman P. Chaplin, began mapping the coast. They, together with the surveyor Putilov, compiled a navigation map.
On the morning of July 17, St. Gavriil” began the countdown to geographical discoveries: the first was the island of Karaginsky.
Steadily moving north, the expedition reached 67 ° 19 "N by August 16. Having reached these latitudes, Bering gives the order to go back: it does not extend to the north and bows to the west, and then, I reasoned that I had fulfilled the decree given to me, and returned back.
One of the tasks set by Peter I for the expedition - to reach the shores of America - was not solved this time. Communication with the Chukchi aborigines played a significant role in this, (“according to the tales of the Chukchi inhabitants” there is no mainland to the east of the Chukotsky Nose ...)
With considerable difficulties, having passed through fierce storms and fogs, the boat returned and, by the evening of September 3, anchored at the mouth of the Kamchatka River.
The first voyage of the "St. Gabriel" was successfully completed. Upon completion of navigation, the boat was disarmed for the winter, re-equipped, and carried out conservation and necessary repairs. With the onset of spring, the team of F. Kozlov again began to work with the bot - the hull parts, spars, rigging, which required repair, were repaired and replaced. "St. Gabriel" was preparing for new voyages.
During the winter, Bering received a decree from the Admiralty Board dated December 2, 1728, on the need to draw up a detailed map of Kamchatka: "... you were ordered to Kamchatka Nose both inward and on the coast, showing cities and noble places and tracts, to describe again and, making a lantkarta, send to the College
On June 5, 1729, the boat went to sea and went "to the east to search for land, because they heard from the inhabitants of Kamchatka that there is land opposite the Kamchatka mouth in the vicinity." Bering intended to undertake a search for the Land of Guana da Gama (which Bering assumed was America), marked on the maps of European cartographers not far from the southeastern coast of Kamchatka.
Already on June 7, St. Gabriel" was located 30 miles from the Commander Islands; in clear weather, they would be seen even at night.
But there was fog...
From June 9 to July 1, "Gabriel" maneuvered off the southeastern coast of Kamchatka.
Not finding land (the Commander Islands), Bering turned the expedition to the south and, having entered Bolsheretsk on July 3, arrived in Okhotsk on July 23, 1729.
The first Kamchatka expedition came to an end. "Saint Gabriel" was handed over to the Okhotsk steward, and Bering and his team returned to St. Petersburg, delivering invaluable scientific material.
It would be useful to note that the expedition officers were well aware of the importance of their mission. The watch log was kept by Chirikov and Chaplin extremely carefully, in much more detail than was required by the regulations of that time. Geographical coordinates were entered with an accuracy of a hundredth of a minute, and time - up to a minute. For a long time the logbook of the expedition was considered lost. It was only in 1973 that it was discovered in the TsGAVMF by the historian A.A. Sopotsko.
The first Kamchatka expedition on "St. Gabriel" made 155 territorial and 18 oceanographic discoveries, mapped 66 geographical objects
Discovery of America
The further fate of "St. Gabriel" is connected with the expedition of A.F. Shestakova - D.I. Pavlutsky.
This expedition was given the task of exploring and developing a gigantic territory in the extreme east of Asia and the sea space adjacent to it.
The “Admiralty Group” of the expedition (sea detachment) was to explore the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, the Kuril Islands, the “Great Land” lying opposite the Chukotka land, “... having truly found out about them what kind of peoples are on such islands and under whose possessions, and bargaining with whom whether and with what, to write about everything to the Siberian governor and to the Senate" and wherever "new lands" and islands meet, attach them to the possessions of Russia.
Navigator Jacob Gens, navigator Ivan Fedorov, surveyor Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev, sailors Kondraty Meshkov, Ivan Butin, Nikifor Treska and 10 sailors were appointed to the "Admiralty Group". Apprentice I. G. Speshnev was assigned to the expedition to supervise the shipbuilding work.
In the autumn of 1730 D.I. Pavlutsky ordered Y. Gens and I. Fedorov to go "with the available servicemen from Kamchatka on a sea-going boat, which was built for the navy by Captain Mr. Bering, ... to the Anadyr mouth to explore the sea islands ... to take with them the apprentice Speshnev and the surveyor Gvozdev" .
Leaving Okhotsk on September 19, 1730, a naval detachment under the command of J. Gens crossed the stormy autumn Sea of Okhotsk with great danger.
Having endured a difficult wintering at the mouth of the Bolshoy River, the crew of "St. Gabriel" arrived on July 9, 1731 at the mouth of the Kamchatka River. In connection with the illness of Gens and Fedorov, M.S. actually commanded the boat during the transition. Gvozdev.
On July 20, the boat was ready to go to sea to follow the coast of Chukotka in search of the "Great Land", in the existence of which Bering did not want to believe.
But on this day, the Itelmen uprising began. The crew of "St. Gabriel" had to take part in the suppression of the uprising and the elimination of its consequences. They wintered in the ruined Nizhnekamchatsky prison in the most difficult conditions. The team was sick. Sick Gens was taken ashore, I. Fedorov, too, could no longer even move, but continued to stay on the "Gabriel".
Fortunately, by July 1732, I. Fedorov recovered somewhat from his illness and took command of the boat (J. Gens remained on the shore).
On July 23, 1732, he took the "St. Gabriel" out of the Kamchatka River and sent it north.
On August 5, the expedition approached the Chukchi nose and began to carry out the assigned tasks. Two islands were discovered (now the island of Ratmanov and Kruzernshtern). They landed on both islands and explored them, "from that island they saw the Great Land."
August 21, 1732 M.S. Gvozdev wrote: “August 21 in the afternoon at the third hour the wind began to be favorable, and they went to the Mainland and came to this land and anchored from the land about four versts ... and began to lave near the Mainland in order to approach the land , and the wind began to be great from the opposite land ... And from this Great Land it was carried away by such a great wind, and the wind was north-northwest.
The land to which St. Gabriel approached is Cape Prince of Wales on the Seward Peninsula. And although it was not possible to go to the North American coast because of the weather conditions at that time, the first contacts (and the exchange of gifts) with the natives of Alaska took place.
September 28 "Gabriel" returned to the winter hut to the mouth of the Kamchatka River.
Unfortunately, further factors of a completely different order intervene in history - intrigues, intrigues, false denunciations ...
The reports and reports of I. Fedorov and M. Gvozdev, the original logbooks (logbooks) and sailing charts sent to D. Pavlutsky and to the Okhotsk government, were lost. (Only in 1743, M.P. Shpanberg discovered the unofficial notes of I. Fedorov, which he kept during the voyage.)
When information about the voyage of the "Saint Gabriel" reached the Admiralty Board (in 1738), some of the participants in the events were no longer alive - I. Fedorov could not recover from his illness and died in Nizhnekamchatsk in February 1733 during the winter. , and J. Gens died in the Tobolsk prison in October 1737. M.S. Gvozdev and I.G. Speshnev on a false denunciation (however sad it is - the sailor L. Petrov - together with Gvozdev was the first to enter Ratmanov Island ...)
But "Saint Gabriel" hasn't said his last word yet
To Japan
In subsequent years, "Saint Gabriel" tirelessly runs between Okhotsk and Bolsherechetsk, connecting Kamchatka with the mainland.
While the bot "St. Gabriel honestly worked in the expanses of the Sea of Okhotsk, new projects are being developed in St. Petersburg to explore the eastern borders of Russia. The new decree of the Senate prescribed: “to go to those islands that went from the Kamchatka midday Nose to Japan ... And meanwhile, check on their condition and other things that are interesting ... and, having been here, follow to the very Japanese shores and there along the same reconnaissance in possession, about ports, whether they can get along in a friendly way.
M.P. was appointed head of the "Japanese" detachment of the expedition. Spanberg.
In 1737 a flotilla was formed. It included "St. Gabriel" and "Fortune" shitik, repaired in 1736, and also built under the supervision of M.P. Shpanberg in 1737, the brigantine "Archangel Michael" and the three-masted dubel-sloop "Nadezhda".
For comparison: "Archangel Michael" had dimensions (length-width-draft) 21 m - 6.3 m - 2.6 m, "Hope" - 24.5 m - 6 m - 1.8 m
Due to a lack of provisions, the expedition had to be postponed until the spring of 1738.
On June 18, 1738, the detachment left Okhotsk and on July 6 arrived in Bolsheretsk. Here the teams were fully staffed, food supplies and fresh water were replenished. On July 15, three ships sailed from Bolsheretsk to Japan. "Archangel Michael" was commanded by M.P. Shpanberg, "Hope" - Lieutenant William Walton, "St. Gabriel" - midshipman Alexei Shelting. However, 10 days later, the ships lost each other in the fog and they had to return back. Spanberg did not dare to go on a “distant voyage” to the “foreign sea” again on the eve of autumn, the campaign was postponed to the next year.
On May 23, 1739, the flotilla again set off for Japan. Already at sea, Spanberg suddenly changed the commanders of Nadezhda and Gabriel. The boat was commanded by V. Walton.
The motives for such a decision were not disclosed by Spanberg, but apparently he “suspected” Walton of excessive independence and tried in this way, as far as possible, to cool his ardor.
However, this did not help. On June 24, under the plausible pretext of "St. Gabriel" first lagged behind the detachment, and then "got lost." V. Walton, having got rid of the tedious control from Spanberg, headed straight for the Japanese Islands "hoping to find Mr. Captain Spanberg there." On June 16, the Japanese shores appeared. During the week, until June 24, "St. Gabriel" cruised off the coast of Japan and reached 34 ° 30 ‘, that is, to the Tokyo Bay area.
During this week, Russian sailors actively communicated (as far as possible without knowing the language) with the Japanese, went ashore and received delegations on board the St. Gabriel. The first contacts of Russian sailors with the Japanese, of course, had a positive result.
June 25 "Saint Gabriel" headed north. Walton decided on his way back to deviate further to the east in search of new lands (Land da Gama), which was depicted on the maps of European cartographers. “... But they didn’t see any land only, for the time being they had already arrived near the Avacha Bay.” Walton headed for Bolsheretsk, and from there to Okhotsk, where they arrived on August 22.
Thus ended this historic voyage, which opened the sea route to Japan.
Spanberg's report and sailing reports were sent to the Admiralty Board (for some reason, without a log and Walton's map).
But the story of "Saint Gabriel" has not yet ended.
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
The year 1739 was coming to an end, the 2nd Kamchatka expedition was already in full swing, the construction of the St. there are no safe places, and there is no real news about that one, but how deep it is and whether it is possible to ship ships built for our voyage into that bay from the sea ... ".
Bering drew attention to the Avacha Bay during the 1st Kamchatka expedition, but its hydrography was not studied.
The new bot commander, navigator Ivan Elagin, receives Bering's order:
“And he, Yelagin, should go to the boat to the Avachenskaya lip and that lip will die out and describe with the circumstance whether it is possible to enter that lip with packet boats and winter without danger in the winter,” which he (I. Yelagin) did with accuracy:
“De he, Elagin, set off from the Bolshaya River on the boat of May on the 16th day of the same year 740 to the Ovacha Bay and arrived safely in that bay on June 10th. In which bay Kamchatka servicemen and yasash foreigners built living quarters in one bundle of five, three barracks, and three anbars in two apartments. Similarly, in the aforementioned bay, the depth of water has died out. And with that report, he attached a map, ... to Avacha Bay and with an inner harbor in it, ... And the above-mentioned harbor is very capable of laying ships in the winter, and for this they arrived in this harbor in two packet boats with the entire crew of the same 740- th year of October 6 days safely, where they wintered. And this harbor was named by us the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul ”(V.Y. Bering’s report to the Senate dated April 22, 1741)
Throughout his subsequent stay, the boat "Holy Archangel Gabriel" honestly worked at the disposal of the commander of the port of Okhotsk, connecting Kamchatka with the mainland. But the years took their toll. In 1755, the boat was expelled from the state and dismantled."
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.
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 Horsens, according to which it was possible to accurately determine 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 the 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 that 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 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 regions 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: "The land that the opinion was, 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, "beyond it they do not know the end."
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 "St. 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) journal 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 the 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 with an accuracy of up to a 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 of 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 of 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 the 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, the 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 published in print a number of extracts from both the original report and the copy, giving the specified document their own names: a short report, a report, a 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
