In 1803 - 1806 took place first Russian circumnavigation, whose leader was Ivan Kruzenshtern. This trip included 2 ships “Neva” and “Nadezhda”, which were purchased by Yuri Lisyansky in England for 22,000 pounds sterling. The captain of the sloop Nadezhda was Krusenstern, the captain of the Neva was Lisyansky.
This trip around the world had several goals. First, the ships were supposed to sail to the Hawaiian Islands, rounding South America, and from this point the expedition was ordered to split up. Ivan Kruzenshtern’s main task was to sail to Japan; he needed to deliver Ryazanov there, who in turn had to conclude trade agreements with this state. After this, Nadezhda should have studied the coastal zones of Sakhalin. Lisyansky's goals included delivering cargo to America, indirectly demonstrating to the Americans his determination to protect and defend their merchants and sailors. After this, “Neva” and “Nadezhda” were supposed to meet, take on board a load of furs and, having circled Africa, return to their homeland. All these tasks were completed, albeit with minor errors.
The first Russian circumnavigation of the world was planned back in the time of Catherine II. She wanted to send the brave and educated officer Mulovsky on this journey, but due to his death in the Battle of Hogland, the empress’s plans came to an end. Which in turn delayed this undoubtedly necessary campaign for a long time.
In the summer, on August 7, 1803, the expedition left Kronstadt. The ships first stopped in Copenhagen, then they headed to Falmouth (England). There it became possible to caulk the underwater part of both ships. On October 5, the ships put to sea and headed for the island. Tenerife, and on November 14 the expedition crossed the equator for the first time in Russian history. This event was marked by a solemn cannon salvo. A serious test for the ships lay ahead near Cape Horn, where, as is known, many ships sank due to constant storms. There were no concessions for Kruzenshtern’s expedition either: in severe bad weather, the ships lost each other, and the Nadezhda was thrown far to the west, which prevented them from visiting Easter Island.
On September 27, 1804, Nadezhda dropped anchor in the port of Nagasaki (Japan). Negotiations between the Japanese government and Ryazanov were unsuccessful, and without wasting a minute, Kruzenshtern gave the order to go to sea. Having explored Sakhalin, he headed back to Peter and Paul Harbor. In November 1805, Nadezhda set sail for home. On the way back, she met with Lisyansky’s Neva, but they were not destined to arrive together in Kronstadt - rounding the Cape of Good Hope, due to stormy conditions, the ships again lost each other. “Neva” returned home on August 17, 1806, and “Nadezhda” on the 30th of the same month, thus completing the first round-the-world expedition in Russian history.
Ivan Kruzenshtern and Yuri Lisyansky became friends within the walls of the Naval Cadet Corps, which was located in Kronstadt at that time. Ivan came from a Russified German noble family, a descendant of the German diplomat Philip Krusenstern. He was born in 1770 into the family of a judge and spent his youth in Estonia. Yuri was three years younger than his friend. He came to study in Kronstadt from Little Russia - he was the son of the archpriest of the Church of John the Evangelist in the city of Nezhin. The young people easily found a common language and together dreamed of distant travels.
“The first Russian round-the-world expedition led by Grigory Mulovsky was supposed to take place back in 1788. But its start was prevented by the war with Sweden,” St. Petersburg State University professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences Kirill Nazarenko told RT.
Krusenstern and Lisyansky dreamed of participating in the journey under the leadership of Mulovsky, but fate decreed otherwise. Because of the war, young people were released early from the Naval Corps and sent to the active fleet. 17-year-old midshipman Kruzenshtern still came under the command of Mulovsky, but not on the expedition, but on the ship “Mstislav”, which participated in the war with the Swedes. Ivan distinguished himself in battles and was noted by his commander. However, Mulovsky died in the battle near the island of Öland, and the first round-the-world voyage of Russian sailors was postponed indefinitely.
- Ivan Krusenstern and Yuri Lisyansky
- Wikimedia
After participating in the battles of 1790, Krusenstern was promoted to lieutenant. In 1793, he was sent to study in the Royal Navy of Great Britain. Ivan took part in hostilities against French ships off the coast of North America, and then reached India and China through South Africa. The British did not want to take foreigners on ships going to Asia, and Krusenstern had to go to India on a frigate that could barely float, on which English sailors were afraid to hire.
Krusenstern returned to Russia only in 1799, having a reputation as a real sea wolf. At home, he began to promote the idea of organizing a Russian round-the-world expedition. Paul I was not interested in his plan, but Alexander I, who ascended the throne instead of him, at the suggestion of the leadership of the Russian-American company, which was looking for alternative routes to Alaska, approved Kruzenshtern’s plans. It was decided to equip the expedition on two sloops - Nadezhda and Neva. Kruzenshtern decided to lead the Nadezhda himself, and offered command of the second sloop to his childhood friend Lisyansky. He immediately agreed.
Let's hit the road!
“In the second half of the 18th century, around-the-world expeditions became a sign of the wealth and maturity of maritime powers. England and France were especially active in this sense. In 1803, it was Russia’s turn,” noted Kirill Nazarenko.
In addition to the purely geographical one, the expedition of Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky was entrusted with several more missions: the sailors had to study the profitability of sea transportation of goods from the European part of Russia to Alaska, try to establish economic ties between Russian America and China and deliver envoy Nikolai Rezanov to Japan.
“From the perspective of the 21st century, we, of course, see the geographical mission as the main one, but in those days everything was not so simple. It is impossible to say with certainty what was more important then: putting Russian names on the map or organizing trade in seal skins with China,” the expert emphasized.
Before the start of the voyage, Alexander I personally inspected the ships and was pleased with them. The maintenance of one of them was undertaken by the imperial treasury, and the other by the Russian-American Company. Both sloops officially flew the flag of war.
Experts emphasize that the identity of the expedition leader was the result of a balanced decision by the Russian authorities. “Despite Krusenstern’s initial initiative, St. Petersburg hypothetically had hundreds of other candidates. The head of the expedition had to be at the same time a good naval officer, an excellent organizer, a business executive, and a diplomat. In the end, they decided that it was Kruzenshtern that had the optimal balance of all these qualities,” Konstantin Strelbitsky, chairman of the Moscow Fleet History Club, told RT.
- Sloops "Nadezhda" and "Neva"
- Wikimedia
Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky selected officers for their teams according to themselves. Among them were the future discoverer of Antarctica Thaddeus Bellingshausen and the Pacific Ocean explorer Otto Kotzebue. Sailors were recruited exclusively from among volunteers, offering them a very significant salary for those times - 120 rubles per year. Krusenstern was offered to involve British sailors in the team, but he rejected this idea.
The candidacies of some of the expedition participants turned out to be “brought down from above” - we are talking, in particular, about the envoy Rezanov with his retinue, several scientists and “well-bred” young people from among the representatives of St. Petersburg secular society. And while Kruzenshtern easily found a common language with the scientists, serious problems arose with the others.
Firstly, among the representatives of the “secular society” was the adventurer and duelist of the guard, Lieutenant Count Fyodor Tolstoy, who decided to escape from Russia for a while in order to avoid punishment for another offense. On the ship, Tolstoy behaved defiantly. One day he showed his tame monkey how to smear paper with ink and launched it into Krusenstern’s cabin, as a result of which some of the expedition leader’s notes were completely lost. Another time he got the ship's priest drunk and glued his beard to the deck. In a close team, such behavior was fraught with big problems, so in Kamchatka Kruzenshtern put Tolstoy ashore.
- Nikolay Rezanov
- Wikimedia
Secondly, already during the voyage, it became clear from secret instructions that envoy Rezanov, who constrained the sailors with his large retinue, was also endowed with extremely broad powers. As a result, Kruzenshtern and Rezanov constantly quarreled and eventually stopped talking, exchanging notes instead.
The team supported their boss. Rezanov was furious at the obstinacy of the military and promised to judge the crew and personally execute Kruzenshtern. The head of the expedition reacted to this calmly and stated that he would go to trial directly in Kamchatka, even before leaving for Japan, which would automatically disrupt the envoy’s mission. The ruler of the Kamchatka region, Pavel Koshelev, reconciled them with great difficulty. At the same time, Rezanov wrote in his memoirs that the entire crew apologized to him, but all the other eyewitnesses claimed that it was Rezanov who had to apologize to Kruzenshtern.
Closed Japan
The expedition left Kronstadt on August 7, 1803. The ships called at a number of European ports and on the island of Tenerife, and on November 26 crossed the equator. For the first time in history, the Russian flag was raised in the Southern Hemisphere. On December 18, the ships approached the shores of South America and made a stop in Brazil. When they again headed south, Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky agreed that if bad weather separated the ships in the Cape Horn area, they would meet either at Easter Island or Nukagiwa Island. And so it happened. Having lost each other in the fog, “Nadezhda” and “Neva” again united into one group only off the coast of Nukagiwa, where the Russian sailors were greeted kindly by the Polynesians. After Nukagiwa, the expedition reached the Hawaiian Islands and split: Kruzenshtern moved to Kamchatka, and Lisyansky to Alaska.
In Petropavlovsk, the head of the expedition, having resolved the problem with Tolstoy, sorted out relations with Rezanov and replenished food supplies, set a course for Japan. There they were not greeted very warmly. The state adhered to a strict isolationist policy and among the Europeans - with a number of reservations - maintained trade relations only with the Dutch.
- The first Russian trip around the world, off the coast of Japan
- Wikimedia
On September 26, 1804, the Nadezhda arrived in Nagasaki. Russian sailors were not allowed to go into the city, providing only a fenced area on the shore for rest. Rezanov was given a comfortable house, but was not allowed to leave it. After a long wait, an imperial official arrived to see the Russian envoy. Rezanov was forced to fulfill the rather humiliating requirements of Japanese etiquette - he spoke to the emperor’s representative while standing and without shoes.
However, all these unpleasant procedures did not lead to any results. The Japanese emperor returned the gifts from the Russian Tsar and refused to establish economic relations. At the end of the negotiations, Rezanov could only relieve his soul by being rude to Japanese officials. And Kruzenshtern was glad that he had the opportunity to explore the western shores of the Japanese islands, which were forbidden to approach. He was no longer afraid of ruining non-existent diplomatic relations.
After a failed mission, Rezanov left as an inspector for Alaska, where he acquired the ships “Juno” and “Avos” and went to California to resolve issues of supplying Russian America with provisions. There, the 42-year-old diplomat met the 15-year-old daughter of the local Spanish governor, Concepcion Arguello, and proposed marriage to her. The girl agreed and the engagement took place. Rezanov immediately went to Russia to obtain permission from the Pope through the emperor to marry a Catholic, but in Siberia he caught a cold, fell off his horse in a fever and broke his head. He died in Krasnoyarsk. Having learned about the fate of the groom, the beautiful Spanish woman remained faithful to him and ended her days in the monastery.
While Kruzenshtern visited Kamchatka and Japan, Lisyansky arrived in Alaska. At this time, a war provoked, according to one version, by American merchants between the Russian-American Company and its allies, on the one hand, and the union of the Tlingit Indian tribes, on the other, just began there. “Neva” in this situation turned out to be a very formidable military force and contributed to the Russian victory, which led to a truce. Having loaded up with furs in Alaska, Lisyansky headed for China. Krusenstern, who had already visited Hokkaido and Sakhalin, was already waiting for him there.
The friends managed to sell the furs quite profitably and load the holds of the ships with Chinese goods. After this, “Nadezhda” and “Neva” went home. In the Indian Ocean, the ships again lost each other and returned to Kronstadt within a few days of each other in August 1806.
Another high-quality level of the Russian fleet
During the expedition, the coasts of Japan, Sakhalin and Alaska were explored, an island named after Lisyansky as part of the Hawaiian archipelago was discovered, and a reef named after Kruzenshtern was discovered south of Midway Atoll. In addition, Russian sailors refuted myths about the existence of several islands in the North Pacific Ocean, invented by European sailors. All officers participating in the expedition received new ranks, orders and large cash bonuses. Lower ranks - medals, right to retire and pension.
- ppt4web.ru
Krusenstern was engaged in science and served in the Naval Cadet Corps, which he eventually headed in 1827. In addition, he served on the governing councils of a number of government bodies and was an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Lisyansky retired in 1809 and took up literary activity.
According to Konstantin Strelbitsky, the moment to send the first round-the-world expedition was chosen very well. “It was at this time that the fleet did not take part in active hostilities and was in allied or neutral relations with most of the main fleets of the world. The expedition members did an excellent job of exploring new sea routes. The Russian fleet has moved to another qualitative level. It became clear that Russian sailors are capable of withstanding many years of voyage and successfully operating as part of a group,” he noted.
Kirill Nazarenko also considers the expedition of Krusenstern and Lisyansky an important milestone in the history of the Russian fleet. “The circumnavigation in itself has become an important marker of changes in the quality and maturity of the Russian fleet. But it also marked the beginning of a new era of Russian discoveries. Before this, our research was connected with the North, Siberia, Alaska, and in 1803, Russian geographical science entered the World Ocean,” the expert emphasized.
According to him, the choice of Krusenstern as the leader of the expedition was successful. “His name stands today on a par with such outstanding navigators as Cook and La Perouse. Moreover, it should be emphasized that Kruzenshtern was much more educated than Cook,” Nazarenko noted.
According to Konstantin Strelbitsky, the first round-the-world expedition brought invaluable experience to the Russian fleet, which needed to be passed on to new generations of sailors. “Therefore, the name Kruzenshtern has become a real brand for the Naval Corps,” Strelbitsky summed up.
28.02.2017When Russia went to sea, acquired its own fleet and overseas colonies - Russian America - all it had to do was move forward. It was hard to believe that just recently the Russian fleet, created by the will of Peter I, did not exist at all. And now the thought arises of a trip around the world, which would be made under the Russian naval flag.
Predecessors
Under the phrase of the famous diplomat and traveler N.P. Rezanov, “May the fate of Russia be covered with sails!” A lot of people would have signed up - commanders, ordinary sailors, and those who, without going to sea themselves, did everything possible to carry out such expeditions. The great Transformer himself dreamed of long sea voyages; Peter’s plans included a trip to the West Indies, crossing the equator and establishing trade relations with the “Great Moguls.”
These plans were not destined to come true. Nevertheless, in 1725–1726, the Russian oceanic expedition to Spain took place under the command of Captain I. Koshelev, who later proposed the idea of a round-the-world voyage from St. Petersburg.
In 1776, Catherine II signed a decree sending ships from the Baltic Sea on the first Russian round-the-world expedition. The campaign was to be led by the young captain G.I. Mulovsky, an experienced and skillful sailor. The expedition had to solve several problems at once: deliver serf weapons to the Peter and Paul Harbor, establish trade relations with Japan, transport livestock and seed grain, as well as other necessary goods to settlers in Russian America, and in addition, discover new lands and strengthen the prestige of Russia.
Preparations for a large-scale expedition were in full swing; cast iron coats of arms and medals with images of Catherine were already cast at the factories, which were to be installed in the newly discovered territories. But the Russian-Turkish War began, and all supplies were ordered to be distributed to ships heading to the Mediterranean Sea. Mulovsky himself died in a naval battle. During the reign of Catherine, the Russian circumnavigation of the world never materialized, but the idea had already firmly captured the minds.
The first Russian round-the-world expedition
Sometimes life turns out so strangely that in any book such a plot would look like a stretch. On the ship "Mstislav" there was a very young midshipman, yesterday's midshipman. Ivan Kruzenshtern was only 17 years old when he entered the command of Captain Mulovsky. It is difficult to say whether they were talking about the failed expedition, but it was Krusenstern who had to do what fate had denied his brave predecessor.
I. F. Krusenstern and Yu. F. Lisyansky
Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern and his colleague in the Naval Corps, Yuri Fedorovich Lisyansky, as young sailors who showed significant success, were sent for an internship in the English fleet. Kruzenshtern became extremely interested in trade with China, visited Chinese ports - and upon returning to Russia, he expressed his opinion in detail, with figures and calculations, that organizing maritime communication between the Russian colonies and China was an extremely profitable and useful matter for Russia. Of course, the young lieutenant’s opinion was ignored - the proposal was too bold. But suddenly Krusenstern was supported by prominent and authoritative nobles - State Chancellor Rumyantsev and Admiral Mordvinov, and soon the Russian-American Company (RAC) made a similar proposal - and so the fate of the first Russian round-the-world expedition was decided.
The generous sponsorship of the RAC made it possible not to wait until ships were built that could withstand the hardships of the journey. Two suitable vessels were purchased in England, improved, and named “Nadezhda” and “Neva”. The RAC was a sufficiently influential and wealthy organization that the expedition was supplied with the best of everything in record time.
Only volunteers were recruited for the long and dangerous journey - nevertheless, there were so many of them that it would have been enough to complete three expeditions. The team included scientists, artists (to sketch landscapes, plants and animals unknown to science), and an astronomer. The goal was to deliver the necessary goods to our Russian settlements in America, take furs from them, sell or exchange goods in Chinese ports, and prove the benefits of the sea route to Russian America compared to the land route through Siberia. And besides, to deliver an embassy to the shores of Japan under the leadership of Chamberlain N.P. Rezanov.
Despite the “trading” nature of the expedition, the ships sailed under the naval flag. Chamberlain Rezanov was far from the last person in the RAC; after all, he was the son-in-law of the head and founder of the company, G. Shelikhov, the heir to the capital of the “Russian Columbus”. It was assumed that he was responsible for the scientific and economic part, and Kruzenshtern for the maritime one. In August 1803, the Neva and Nadezhda sailed from Kronstadt. After the Hawaiian Islands, the ships, as agreed, dispersed. The Neva, under the leadership of Lisyansky, sailed north to the islands of Kodiak and Sitka in the Gulf of Alaska, with a cargo of goods for the RAC, to rendezvous with the Nadezhda in Macau in September 1805. "Nadezhda" went to Kamchatka - and then to Japan to carry out Rezanov's diplomatic mission. On the way, Nadezhda encountered a severe storm - and, as it later turned out, into a tsunami zone.
Alas, the mission was a failure - after almost six months of waiting in Nagasaki, the Russians were refused. The Japanese emperor returned the gifts (huge mirrors in frames), refused to accept the embassy and ordered to immediately leave Japan, however, he supplied the ship with water, food and firewood. The captains met in Macau, profitably exchanged furs for tea, porcelain and other goods rare and marketable in Europe, and set off for Russia. After the storm, having lost sight of each other, “Nadezhda” and “Neva” safely returned to Russia, first “Neva”, then, a couple of weeks later, “Nadezhda”.
The voyage was not as serene as we would have liked. Problems began almost immediately after departure. Chamberlain Rezanov had a rescript signed by Alexander I, according to which he, Rezanov, was appointed head of the expedition, but with the caveat that all decisions should be made jointly with Captain Krusenstern.
In order to accommodate Rezanov’s retinue on the relatively small Nadezhda, they had to refuse a number of people who were really needed for the voyage. In addition, Rezanov’s retinue included, for example, Count Fyodor Tolstoy, later nicknamed the American, a completely uncontrollable person, a cruel manipulator and intriguer. He managed to quarrel with the entire team, more than once annoyed Krusenstern personally with his antics - and in the end he was forcibly landed on the island of Sitka.
N. P. Rezanov
On a warship, according to the charter, there could only be one leader, whose orders were carried out unquestioningly. Rezanov, as a non-military person, did not accept discipline at all, and gradually the relationship between him and Kruzenshtern became tense to the limit. Forced to share one tiny cabin for a couple of years, Rezanov and Kruzenshtern communicated through notes.
Rezanov tried to force Kruzenshtern to change the route of the expedition in order to immediately go to Kamchatka - in fact, interrupting the trip around the world. Finally, Rezanov allowed himself to be rude towards the captain in the presence of the team - and this, from the point of view of the regulations, was completely unforgivable. After a loud scandal, making sure that there was no one on his side, the offended Rezanov practically did not leave the cabin until the Nadezhda reached Petropavlovsk.
Fortunately, the experienced and cold-blooded commandant P. Koshelev sorted out the matter, regardless of faces, trying to ensure that a quarrel between two private individuals could not interfere with the fulfillment of public duty. Krusenstern completely agreed with this, and Rezanov had to back down. At the end of the Japanese mission, Rezanov left Nadezhda - and he and Kruzenshtern did not meet again, to mutual satisfaction.
The further story of N.P. Rezanov, who went to California and met there the 14-year-old beauty Maria Conception Arguello, daughter of the commandant of San Francisco, is known as one of the most romantic pages not only in Russian, but also, probably, in world history. The famous rock opera “Juno and Avos” tells exactly about their tragic love, but this is a different, albeit very interesting, story.
Kotzebue Travels
Among the volunteers who went with Krusenstern on the Nadezhda was a 15-year-old cabin boy, German Otto Kotzebue. The boy’s stepmother was the captain-lieutenant’s sister, Kristina Krusenstern. When the Nadezhda returned to port, Kotzebue was promoted to midshipman, and a year later to lieutenant, and although he was not a graduate of the naval school, Otto Evstafievich received the best of naval schools - the school of circumnavigation, and since then he has not thought of life without the sea and serving the Fatherland.
Brig "Rurik" on the stamp of the Marshall Islands
At the end of the circumnavigation of the world, Kruzenshtern worked tirelessly on the results of the expedition, prepared reports, issued and commented on maps and the Atlas of the Southern Seas, and in particular, together with Count Rumyantsev, developed a new circumnavigation expedition. She was given the task of finding the Northeast Sea Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. The expedition was supposed to set off on the brig “Rurik”. The command of the brig, on the recommendation of Krusenstern, was offered to Kotzebue.
This expedition returned 3 years later, having lost only one person and enriched the geography with a mass of discoveries. Little-studied or completely unknown islands, archipelagos and coasts of the Pacific Ocean were mapped and described in detail. Meteorological observations, studies of sea currents, ocean depth, temperature, salinity and transparency of water, terrestrial magnetism and various living organisms were an invaluable contribution to science - and had considerable practical benefits.
By the way, the German scientist and romantic poet A. von Chamisso, a translator of Pushkin into German, took part in the voyage on the Rurik as a natural scientist. His novel “A Journey Around the World” became a classic of adventure literature in Germany, and it was also published in Russia.
O. E. Kotzebue made his third trip around the world in 1823–1826. Before that, for a year he guarded the shores of Russian America from pirates and smugglers with his 24-gun sloop “Enterprise”. The scientific results of the expedition on the "Enterprise" were perhaps more significant than the results of the voyage on the "Rurik". The physicist E. Lenz, a future academician who went with Kotzebue, constructed, together with his colleague, Professor Parrott, an instrument called a bathometer for taking water samples from various depths, and an instrument for measuring depths. Lenz studied the vertical distribution of salinity, scrupulously noted the temperature of Pacific waters and daily changes in air temperature at different latitudes.
By the 20s of the 19th century, traveling around the world ceased to be something unimaginable and out of the ordinary. A whole series of glorious Russian captains circled the globe, leaving Kronstadt and heading towards the horizon.
Vasily Golovnin - unstoppable and undaunted
Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin, a captain and an excellent marine painter, was considered a seasoned man even among his fellow captains. He had more than enough adventures. At the age of fourteen, as a midshipman, he took part in naval battles - and was awarded a medal, and then returned to finish his studies, since he was still too young to become an officer.
He made his first independent voyage around the world when he was just a lieutenant. The Admiralty changed its own rules and transferred the sloop “Diana” to the command of a lieutenant, because everyone understood what kind of person Lieutenant Golovnin was. And indeed, their expectations were justified - an excellent captain, Golovnin fully possessed calmness, courage, and unbending character. When, due to the outbreak of war, Russian sailors were detained by the British in South Africa, Golovnin managed to escape captivity and still completed the mission assigned to the expedition. Voyage around the world on the sloop "Diana" in 1808–1809. completed successfully.
The “gentleman’s” captivity by the British was not too painful for our sailors, but the imprisonment during the second voyage turned out to be no joke. This time Golovnin and a number of his comrades ended up in a real prison - among the Japanese. Those who did not like the fact that the Russian ship was conducting a cartographic survey of the Kuril Islands - in 1811 Golovnin was instructed to describe the Kuril and Shantar Islands and the shore of the Tatar Strait. Japan decided that daring cartographers violated the principle of isolation of their state - and if so, then the criminals belong in prison. The captivity lasted two years, because of this incident, Russia and Japan teetered on a dangerous brink - war between them was quite possible.
Japanese scroll depicting the capture of Golovnin
Titanic efforts were made to save Golovnin and his people. But only thanks to the actions of Golovnin’s friend, officer P.I. Ricord and the help of the influential Japanese merchant Mr. Takataya Kahei, with whom Ricord was able to establish purely human contact, it was possible to accomplish the almost incredible - to return the Russian sailors from Japanese prison. On the territory of the Nalychevo Natural Park in Kamchatka there are the so-called “peaks of Russian-Japanese friendship” - Kaheya Rock, Mount Rikord and Mount Golovnina. Nowadays, the “Golovnin incident” is one of the textbook cases in the history of world diplomacy.
Golovnin's notes about his adventures were translated into many languages, and became a bestseller in Russia. Returning home, Vasily Golovnin continued to work tirelessly for the benefit of Russian navigation; his knowledge, experience, and energy were invaluable, and Golovnin’s books about distant travels were read by many young men who later chose a career as a naval officer.
Baron Wrangel - Chief of Alaska
In 1816, midshipman Ferdinand Wrangel, who served in Reval, submitted a request to participate in Captain Golovnin’s expedition on the Kamchatka sloop. The young man was refused. Then he, telling his superiors that he was sick, reached St. Petersburg and practically fell at Golovnin’s feet, asking to take him with him. He sternly noted that unauthorized flight from the ship is desertion and worthy of trial. The midshipman agreed, but asked to be put on trial after the voyage, during which he was ready to become at least a simple sailor. Golovnin waved his hand and gave up.
This was the first trip around the world by Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, in whose honor the now famous nature reserve - Wrangel Island - was later named. On board the Kamchatka, the desperate young man not only went through maritime school, but also diligently filled in the gaps in his education, and also found true friends - future researchers and tireless travelers Fyodor Litke and yesterday's lyceum student, Pushkin's friend Fyodor Matyushkin.
The trip on the Kamchatka turned out to be an invaluable source of personnel for the Russian fleet. Wrangel returned from his voyage an excellent sailor and a learned researcher. It was Wrangel and Matyushkin who were ordered to go on an expedition to explore the northeastern coast of Siberia.
Map showing Wrangel's travel routes
Few people devoted as much effort and energy to the study of Alaska and Kamchatka as Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel. He explored North-Eastern Siberia from sea and from land, sailed around the world, commanding the military transport "Krotkiy", was awarded orders, and in 1829 was appointed chief administrator of Russian America, and, by the way, built a magnetic meteorological observatory in Alaska . Under his leadership, Russian America flourished and new settlements were created. The island is named after him, his works for the benefit of Russia were highly appreciated by the state and history. Less than fifty years have passed since the end of the first round-the-world voyage of Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky, and the Russian fleet has rapidly flourished and developed - there are so many enthusiasts, truly devoted to their work, in its ranks.
Unknown land
“I went around the ocean of the Southern Hemisphere at high latitudes and did it in such a way that I undeniably rejected the possibility of the existence of a continent, which, if it could be discovered, would only be near the pole, in places inaccessible for navigation... The risk associated with sailing in these unexplored and ice-covered seas in search of the southern continent, so great that I can safely say that no person will ever dare to penetrate further south than I did.”, - these words of James Cook, the navigation star of the 18th century, closed Antarctic exploration for almost 50 years. There were simply no people willing to finance projects that were obviously doomed to failure, and, if successful, would still be commercial failures.
It was the Russians who went against common sense and everyday logic. Krusenstern, Kotzebue and polar explorer G. Sarychev developed the expedition and presented it to Emperor Alexander. He unexpectedly agreed.
The main task of the expedition was defined as purely scientific: "discoveries in the possible vicinity of the Antarctic Pole" with the aim of “acquiring complete knowledge about our globe”. The expedition was charged with the duties and instructions to note and study everything that deserves attention, “not only related to maritime art, but also generally serving to disseminate human knowledge in all parts”.
V. Volkov. Discovery of Antarctica by the sloops “Vostok” and “Mirny”, 2008.
In the summer of the same year, the sloop Mirny and the transport converted into a sloop, Vostok, set out towards the South Pole. They were led by two captains who were considered one of the best in the Russian fleet - the expedition commander Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen, a participant in the round-the-world trip of Krusenstern and Lisyansky, and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, a young but very promising captain. Subsequently, Lazarev would make three trips around the world, but these exploits would not overshadow his fame as a polar explorer.
The voyage lasted 751 days, of which 535 days were in the Southern Hemisphere, with 100 days in ice. The sailors went beyond the Antarctic Circle six times. No one has approached the mysterious Antarctica so close and for so long. In February 1820 Bellingshausen wrote: “Here, behind the ice fields of shallow ice and islands, a continent of ice is visible, the edges of which are broken off perpendicularly, and which continued as we saw, rising to the south, like a shore. The flat ice islands located near this continent clearly show that they are fragments of this continent, for they have edges and an upper surface similar to the mainland.”. For the first time in human history, people saw Antarctica. And these people were ours, Russian sailors.
“Russian navigators never went so far... They had to go from the sixtieth degree north to the same degree of south latitude, go around the stormy Cap Horn, endure the scorching heat of the equinox line... However... their curiosity and desire to see distant countries was so great that If I could accept all the hunters who came to me with requests to be assigned to this journey, then I could staff many large ships with selected sailors of the Russian fleet” (I.F. Kruzenshtern. Sailing around the world).
Russia started thinking about circumnavigation back in the mid-18th century. (Admiral N.F. Golovin was the first to propose its implementation), but it was prepared only in 1787. Captain-brigadier G.I. Mulovsky was appointed head of the detachment of four ships. But due to the war with Sweden, the campaign was canceled, and in 1789 Mulovsky died in a naval battle off the island of Öland. In that fateful battle, he commanded the battleship Mstislav, on which 17-year-old Ivan Kruzenshtern served as a midshipman. It was he who became the most ardent supporter of the idea of a Russian circumnavigation.
On the frigate Podrazislav, which also took part in the battle with the Swedes, the midshipman was the even younger Yuri Lisyansky. In the 1790s. Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky managed to sail on English ships in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans and fight against the French. Upon returning to Russia, both were promoted to lieutenant commander. In 1799, Kruzenshtern presented his project for a circumnavigation to Emperor Paul I. The main goal of the project was to organize fur trade between Russia and China by sea. Apparently, Paul was skeptical about this idea. And in 1801, the emperor was killed by conspirators. It is believed that the British played an important role in organizing the conspiracy against Paul, a supporter of rapprochement with France.
The idea of a circumnavigation was supported by the Russian-American Company, founded in 1799 with the goal of developing the territories of Russian America and the Kuril Islands. As Russian colonists explored the northwestern coast of America and the adjacent islands, the need for regular communication between Russia and its possessions on the American continent became increasingly acute. This need was dictated by several circumstances, primarily the problem of supplying the colonists with provisions and frequent attacks by Indians. And, of course, the threat to Russian possessions emanating from other colonial powers: England, France, the “newborn” United States of America and, to a lesser extent, Spain.
At the beginning of the 19th century. Communication with the American colonies was poorly established. Goods, weapons, tools and a significant part of food from the European part of the country were transported through the Urals and Western Siberia (and this is only a quarter of the way!), and then the almost complete desertion and absolute roadlessness of Central and Eastern Siberia began. Then there remained “mere trifles” - from Okhotsk by sea to Alaska. Hopes for developing a sea route along the northern coast of Russia remained hopes, and therefore there was only one option - sailing through the southern seas either to the west, around Cape Horn, or in the opposite direction, bypassing the Cape of Good Hope.
Starting from the first years of the reign of Alexander I, who came to power after the assassination of his father, the Russian-American Company operated under the auspices of the royal family. It was granted monopoly use of all fisheries in Alaska and the adjacent islands, as well as the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin, the right to trade with other countries, organize expeditions and occupy discovered lands. One of its directors was the chamberlain of the imperial court N.P. Rezanov.
The highest permission to conduct the first Russian round-the-world expedition was received in 1802. The emperor appointed Krusenstern as its leader. The main goal of the expedition was to study the possibilities of transport links between European Russia and Russian America. The ships were to deliver the Russian-American Company's cargo to Alaska, and then the company's furs to China for sale.
The company covered half of all expenses for the expedition. Two ships were purchased in England, not the newest, but reliable. One of them was named “Nadezhda”, the other was named “Neva”. The first was commanded by Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern, the second by Yuri Fedorovich Lisyansky.
The expedition was prepared carefully. A lot of medicines were purchased, mainly anti-scorbutic drugs. The two captains approached the staffing of their teams very responsibly, preferring their compatriots, primarily military sailors, to foreigners. This is understandable: the ships set off on a voyage under the St. Andrew's flag - the main naval banner of the Russian navy. Along the way, the expedition, equipped with the most modern instruments, was supposed to conduct scientific research. Naturalist and ethnographer G. I. Langsdorf, naturalist and artist V. G. Tilesius, astronomer I. K. Gorner and other scientists set sail.
A few days before departure, the expedition plan underwent changes: Kruzenshtern was tasked with delivering an embassy to Japan led by N.P. Rezanov to establish trade relations with this country. Rezanov with his retinue and gifts for the Japanese settled on the Nadezhda. As it turned out later, the emperor gave the envoy the authority of the leader of the expedition. However, neither Kruzenshtern and Lisyansky, nor the rest of the expedition members were notified about this.
At the end of July 1803, Nadezhda and Neva left Kronstadt. Having made a stop in Copenhagen, the ships proceeded to England, then south to the Canary Islands, where they arrived in October, and on November 14, for the first time in the history of the Russian fleet, they crossed the equator. But this only looks smooth on paper, but in reality everything was not easy. And the reason is not storms or illnesses, but the conflict between Rezanov and Krusenstern. As soon as the ships left Europe, the chamberlain made unequivocal claims to the general leadership, with which the commander of the Nadezhda, naturally, could not agree. Until now, Rezanov had not presented the imperial rescript.
In December, the ships approached the shores of Brazil. After they safely rounded Cape Horn, a storm suddenly hit in the Pacific Ocean, and Nadezhda and Neva were separated. In this case, the instructions provided for several meeting points along the route. In the Pacific Ocean, the first such place was Easter Island, followed by Nuku Hiva (one of the Marquesas Islands). The winds carried the Nadezhda far to the west of the first point, and Kruzenshtern decided to immediately go to the Marquises. Lisyansky moved to Easter Island, spent several days here, and then proceeded to Nuku Hiva, where the ships met. Meanwhile, the conflict between the commander and the chamberlain was gaining momentum. Rezanov tried to interfere with the control of the ships and several times demanded to change the route. This eventually led to an open clash, during which all the officers except one declared their disobedience to Rezanov, and the latter was finally forced to present the emperor's rescript. But even this did not help - the officers still refused to obey the chamberlain.
From Nuku Hiva, Nadezhda and Neva headed north-northwest and reached the Hawaiian Islands on May 27. Here the detachment split: Lisyansky, in accordance with the original plan, went north to Kodiak Island, and Kruzenshtern moved north-west, to Kamchatka, in order to then deliver the embassy to Japan. Arriving in Petropavlovsk, Rezanov summoned the Kamchatka commandant P.I. Koshelev and demanded that Kruzenshtern be convicted of insubordination. Having familiarized himself with the circumstances of the case, Major General Koshelev managed to reconcile the conflicting parties.
At the end of September, Nadezhda had already reached Nagasaki. In those days, Japan was a state closed from the outside world. Only the Dutch managed to establish trade with the Japanese, and then rather symbolically. It is not surprising that Rezanov's mission failed. For six months the embassy lived on a piece of land surrounded by a high fence, essentially in captivity. Russian sailors were not allowed to go ashore. The Japanese played for time in every possible way, did not accept the royal gifts - by the way, they were rather stupid, and in the end they abandoned negotiations and presented the ambassador with a letter according to which Russian ships were forbidden to approach the shores of Japan.
At the beginning of April 1805, Krusenstern, leaving Nagasaki, proceeded through the Korea Strait into the Sea of Japan, then through the La Perouse Strait into the Sea of Okhotsk, and on May 23 brought the Nadezhda to Petropavlovsk. Here Rezanov left the ship to go to Russian America, towards new adventures (which formed the basis of the famous play “Juno and Avos”). And “Nadezhda” left Petropavlovsk on September 23, headed for the South China Sea and reached Macau on November 8.
The Neva, having reached Kodiak Island in July 1804, spent more than a year off the coast of North America. The sailors delivered the necessary supplies to the Russian colonists, helped them fight off attacks by the Tlingit Indians and build the Novoarkhangelsk fortress, and conducted scientific observations. Lisyansky explored the Alexander Archipelago and discovered several islands, including one large one, named after Chichagov. Loaded with furs, the Neva headed for China. In October 1805, while passing through the Hawaiian Islands, she ran aground on a reef near an unknown island. The ship was refloated, and the open island received the name of the commander. In mid-November, having rounded Formosa from the south, Lisyansky entered the South China Sea and soon arrived in Macau, where Krusenstern was waiting for him.
Having sold the furs, the Russians set out on their return journey on January 31, 1806. On February 21, the ships entered the Indian Ocean through the Sunda Strait. In early April, near the Cape of Good Hope, they lost each other in thick fog. The place of their meeting was supposed to be the island of St. Helena, where Kruzenshtern arrived on April 21. The Neva, without visiting the island, proceeded across the entire Atlantic to Portsmouth, where it ended up on June 16. The non-stop journey from Macau to Portsmouth lasted 142 days. And on July 22, 1806, the Neva arrived in Kronstadt. The Nadezhda, having waited several days off St. Helena, returned to Russia two weeks later.
6587FIGURES AND FACTS
Main characters
Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern, head of the expedition, commander of the Nadezhda; Yuri Fedorovich Lisyansky, commander of the Neva
Other characters
Alexander I, Emperor of Russia; Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, Envoy Extraordinary to Japan; Pavel Ivanovich Koshelev, commandant of Kamchatka
Time of action
Route
From Kronstadt across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to Japan and Russian America, across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans to Kronstadt
Goals
Studying the possibilities of communication with Russian America, delivering the embassy to Japan and cargo to Alaska
Meaning
The first Russian circumnavigation in history
AND Ivan Fedorovich Krusenstern And Yuri Fedorovich Lisyansky were fighting Russian sailors: both in 1788–1790. participated in four battles against the Swedes; sent as volunteers to England in 1793 to serve in the English fleet, they fought with the French off the coast of North America. Both had experience sailing in tropical waters; For several years they sailed on English ships to the Antilles and India, and Kruzenshtern reached southern China.
Returning to Russia, I. Kruzenshtern in 1799 and 1802. presented projects for circumnavigation of the world as the most profitable direct trade communication between the Russian ports of the Baltic Sea and Russian America. At Paul I the project did not pass, with a young Alexandra I it was accepted with the support of the Russian-American company, which took on half the costs. At the beginning of August 1802, I. Kruzenshtern was approved as the head of the first Russian round-the-world expedition.
Yu. Lisyansky returned from India through England to his homeland in 1800. In 1802, after he was appointed to a round-the-world expedition, he went to England to purchase two sloops: tsarist officials believed that Russian ships would not withstand a round-the-world voyage. With great difficulty, Kruzenshtern ensured that the crew on both ships was staffed exclusively by domestic sailors: Russian noble Anglomaniacs argued that “with Russian sailors the enterprise will in no case succeed.” The sloop “Nadezhda” (430 tons) was commanded by I. Kruzenshtern himself, the ship “Neva” (370 tons) was commanded by Yu. Lisyansky. On board the Nadezhda there was Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, son-in-law G. I. Shelikhova, one of the founding directors of the Russian-American company. He was on his way to Japan with his retinue as an envoy to negotiate a trade agreement. At the end of July 1803, the ships left Kronstadt, and three months later, south of the Cape Verde Islands (near 14° N), I. Kruzenshtern found that both sloops were being carried east by a strong current - this is how the Inter-trade-wind countercurrent was discovered Warm sea current directed from west to east in the low latitudes of the Atlantic. Atlantic Ocean. In mid-November, for the first time in the history of the Russian fleet, ships crossed the equator, and on February 19, 1804, they rounded Cape Horn. In the Pacific Ocean they were separated. Yu. Lisyansky, by agreement, went to Fr. Easter, completed an inventory of the coast and got acquainted with the life of the inhabitants. At Nukuhiva (one of the Marquesas Islands) he caught up with the Nadezhda, and together they moved to the Hawaiian Islands, and then the ships followed different routes: I. Kruzenshtern - to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky; Yu. Lisyansky - to Russian America, to Fr. Kodiak.
Having received from A. A. Baranova a letter testifying to his plight. Yu. Lisyansky arrived at the Alexander Archipelago and provided military assistance to A. Baranov against the Tlingit Indians: these “koloshi” (as the Russians called them), incited by disguised agents of an American pirate, destroyed the Russian fortification on the island. Sitka (Baranova Island). In 1802, Baranov built a new fortress there - Novoarkhangelsk (now the city of Sitka), where he soon moved the center of Russian America. At the end of 1804 and in the spring of 1805, Yu. Lisyansky, together with the navigator of the Neva Daniil Vasilievich Kalinin described in the Gulf of Alaska about. Kodiak, as well as part of the Alexander Archipelago. At the same time, to the west of the island. Sitka D. Kalinin discovered Fr. Kruzova, previously considered a peninsula. A large island north of the island. Yu. Lisyansky named Sitka after V. Ya. Chichagova. In the fall of 1805, the Neva, with a cargo of furs, moved from Sitka to Macau (South China), where it connected with the Nadezhda. On the way, an uninhabited island was discovered. Lisyansky and the Neva Reef, classified as part of the Hawaiian archipelago, and to the southwest of them is the Kruzenshtern Reef. From Canton, where he managed to sell furs profitably, Yu. Lisyansky made an unprecedented non-stop journey around the Cape of Good Hope to Portsmouth (England) in 140 days, but at the same time was separated from the Nadezhda in foggy weather off the southeastern coast of Africa. On August 5, 1806, he arrived in Kronstadt, completing a circumnavigation of the world, the first in the annals of the Russian fleet.
The St. Petersburg authorities treated Yu. Lisyansky coldly. He was awarded the next rank (captain of the 2nd rank), but this was the end of his naval career. Description of his voyage “Journey around the world in 1803–1806.” on the ship "Neva" (St. Petersburg, 1812) he published at his own expense.
“Nadezhda” anchored near Petropavlovsk in mid-July 1804. Then I. Kruzenshtern delivered N. Rezanov to Nagasaki, and after negotiations that ended in complete failure, in the spring of 1805 he returned with the envoy to Petropavlovsk, where he parted with him. On the way to Kamchatka, I. Kruzenshtern followed the Eastern Passage into the Sea of Japan and photographed the western shore of the island. Hokkaido. Then he passed through the La Perouse Strait to Aniva Bay and carried out a number of determinations there of the geographical position of noticeable points. Intending to map the still poorly studied eastern coast of Sakhalin, on May 16 he rounded Cape Aniva and moved north along the coast with surveys. I. Krusenstern discovered the small Mordvinov Bay and described the rocky eastern and northern low-lying shores of Terpeniya Bay. The names of the capes assigned to them have been preserved on maps of our time (for example, capes Senyavin and Soimonov).
Powerful ice floes prevented reaching Cape Terpeniya and continuing filming to the north (late May). Then I. Kruzenshtern decided to postpone the survey work and go to Kamchatka. He headed east to the Kuril ridge and, through the strait that now bears his name, entered the Pacific Ocean. Suddenly, four islands (Lovushki Islands) opened up in the west. The approach of a storm forced the Nadezhda to return to the Sea of Okhotsk. When the storm subsided, the ship proceeded through the Severgin Strait to the Pacific Ocean and on June 5 arrived at Peter and Paul Harbor.
To continue research on the eastern coast of Sakhalin, I. Kruzenshtern in July passed through the Strait of Hope into the Sea of Okhotsk to the Sakhalin Cape Terpeniya. Braving the storm, he began surveying north on 19 July. The coast up to 51°30" N had no major bends - only minor indentations (the mouths of small rivers); in the depths of the island one could see several rows of low mountains (the southern end of the Eastern Ridge), stretching parallel to the coast and rising noticeably to the north. After four days storm, accompanied by thick fog (late July), "Nadezhda" was again able to approach the coast, which became low-lying and sandy. At 52° N latitude, the sailors saw a small bay (they missed the other two, located to the south). The low-lying coast continued and further north, until on August 8, at 54° N, I. Kruzenshtern discovered a high coast with a large cape, named after the lieutenant Yermolai Levenshtern. The next day, in cloudy and foggy weather, “Nadezhda” rounded the northern end of Sakhalin and entered a small bay (Northern), its entrance and exit capes were named after Elizabeth and Maria.
After a short stay, during which there was a meeting with the Gilyaks, I. Kruzenshtern examined the eastern shore of the Sakhalin Bay: he wanted to check whether Sakhalin was an island, as it was indicated on Russian maps of the 18th century. or a peninsula, as claimed J. F. La Perouse. At the northern entrance to the Amur Estuary, the depths turned out to be insignificant, and I. Kruzenshtern, having come to the “conclusion that does not leave the slightest doubt” that Sakhalin is a peninsula, returned to Petropavlovsk. As a result of the voyage, for the first time he mapped and described more than 900 km of the eastern, northern and northwestern coast of Sakhalin.
In the fall of 1805, Nadezhda visited Macau and Canton. In 1806, she went over to Fr. without stopping. St. Helena, where she waited in vain for the Neva (see above), then circled Great Britain from the north and returned to Kronstadt on August 19, 1806, without losing a single sailor to illness. This expedition made a significant contribution to geographical science, erasing a number of non-existent islands from the map and clarifying the geographical location of many points. Participants in the first circumnavigation of the world carried out various oceanological observations: they discovered inter-trade countercurrents in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; carried out measurements of water temperature at depths of up to 400 m and determination of its specific gravity, transparency and color; found out the reason for the glow of the sea; collected numerous data on atmospheric pressure, tides in several areas of the World Ocean.
The voyage of Krusenstern and Lisyansky is the beginning of a new era in the history of Russian navigation.
In 1809–1812 I. Kruzenshtern published three volumes of his Travels Around the World in 1803–1806. on the ships "Nadezhda" and "Neva". This work, translated in many European countries, immediately won general recognition. In 1813, “Atlas for Captain Krusenstern’s trip around the world” was published; Most of the maps (including the general one) were compiled by Lieutenant Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen. In the 20s Krusenstern published the “Atlas of the South Sea” with an extensive text, which is now a valuable literary source for historians of the discovery of Oceania and is widely used by Soviet and foreign specialists.
IN
Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin, like his predecessors, a combat sailor, sailed as a volunteer on English warships to the Antilles. Then he showed himself as an innovator: he developed new maritime signals. At the end of July 1807, commanding the sloop "Diana", V. Golovnin set off from Kronstadt to the shores of Kamchatka. His senior officer was Petr Ivanovich Ricord(later one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society). Having reached Cape Horn. V. Golovnin, due to contrary winds, turned to the Cape of Good Hope in early March 1808 and in April arrived in Simon's Town, where the British detained the sloop for more than a year due to the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War. In May 1809, on a dark night, taking advantage of a favorable storm wind, V. Golovnin, despite the fact that a large English squadron was stationed in the roadstead, led the ship out of the harbor into the sea. He circled Tasmania from the south and made a non-stop journey to about. Tanna (New Hebrides), and in the fall of 1809 he arrived in Petropavlovsk. In 1810, he sailed in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean from Kamchatka to about. Baranov (Sitka) and back.
In May 1811, “Diana” went to sea to the Kuril Islands, to the Strait of Hope (48° N). From there, V. Golovnin began a new inventory of the central and southern groups of the Kuril Islands - the old ones turned out to be unsatisfactory. Between 48 and 47° N. w. New names of precisely marked straits appeared on the map: Sredniy, in honor of the navigator of the Diana Vasily Sredny(the islands near this strait are also named after him), Rikord, Diana, and in the southern chain - the Catherine Strait. This strait was discovered by the commander of the Russian transport “Ekaterina”, navigator Grigory Lovtsov in 1792, when he was delivering the first Russian ambassador Adam Kirillovich Laksman to Japan. So “Diana” reached Fr. Kunashir. There V. Golovnin landed to replenish water and provisions, and was captured by the Japanese along with two officers and four sailors. They spent two years and three months in Hokkaido. In 1813, after Russia's victory over Napoleon I, all Russian sailors were released. On the Diana, V. Golovnin returned to Petropavlovsk. His truthful “Notes of Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin in Captivity of the Japanese” (1816) was and is read with exciting interest as an adventure novel; this work is the first (after E. KaempferA German doctor in the Dutch service, Engelbert Kaempfer, lived in Nagasaki in 1690–1692. His book "History of Japan and Siam" was published in London in 1727.) a book about Japan, artificially isolated from the outside world for two centuries. V. Golovnin's fame as a remarkable sailor and writer increased after the publication of his “The Voyage of the Sloop “Diana” from Kronstadt to Kamchatka...” (1819).
In 1817–1819 V. Golovnin made a second circumnavigation of the world, which he described in the book “A Voyage Around the World on the Sloop “Kamchatka”” (1812), during which he clarified the position of a number of islands from the Aleutian ridge.
the command placed its trust in the well-proven twenty-five-year-old lieutenant Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev, appointing him commander of the ship "Suvorov", which departed from Kronstadt to Russian America in October 1813. Having passed the Cape of Good Hope and the South Cape. Tasmania, he called at Port Jackson (Sydney), and from there he took the ship to the Hawaiian Islands. At the end of September 1814 at 13° 10" S and 163° 10" W. d. he discovered five uninhabited atolls and called them the Suvorov Islands. In November, M. Lazarev arrived in Russian America and spent the winter in Novoarkhangelsk. In the summer of 1815, from Novoarkhangelsk he went to Cape Horn and, having rounded it, completed his circumnavigation in Kronstadt in mid-July 1816.
Otto Evstafievich Kotzebue He had already circumnavigated the globe once (on the sloop Nadezhda), when Count N. P. Rumyantsev in 1815 he invited him to become the commander of the brig “Rurik” and the head of a scientific research expedition around the world. Its main task was to find the Northeast sea passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Was invited as a senior officer Gleb Semenovich Shishmarev. In Copenhagen, O. Kotzebue took on board the Rurik an outstanding naturalist and poet, a Frenchman by birth Adalberta Chamisso. On the brig "Rurik", a very small ship (only 180 tons), the crowding was extreme, and there were no conditions for scientific work.
O. Kotzebue left Kronstadt in mid-July 1815, rounded Cape Horn and, after stopping in Concepcion Bay (Chile), searched in vain for some time at 27° S. w. fantastic "Davis Land". In April - May 1816, in the northern part of the Tuamotu archipelago, he discovered the island. Rumyantsev (Tikei), Spiridov (Takopoto), Rurik (Arutua), Krusenstern (Tikehau) atolls and in the Ratak chain of the Marshall Islands - Kutuzov (Utirik) and Suvorov (Taka) atolls; some of the discoveries were secondary. Then he headed into the Chukchi Sea towards the American coast. At the end of July, at the exit from the Bering Strait, O. Kotzebue discovered and explored Shishmarev Bay. With a fair wind in fine weather, the ship moved near the low-lying coast to the northeast, and on August 1, the sailors saw a wide passage to the east, and a high ridge in the north (the southern spurs of the Byrd Mountains, up to 1554 m). At the first moment, Kotzebue decided that this was the beginning of the passage to the Atlantic Ocean, but after a two-week examination of the coast he was convinced that this was a vast bay named after him. The discovery of Shishmarev Bay and Kotzebue Bay was helped by a drawing of Chukotka drawn up in 1779 by the Cossack centurion Ivan Kobelev. In this drawing he also showed part of the American coast with two bays - small and large. In the southeastern part of the bay, sailors discovered Eschscholz Bay (in honor of the ship's doctor, then a student, Ivan Ivanovich Eshsholz, who proved himself to be an outstanding naturalist). On the shores of Kotzebue Bay, scientists from the Rurik discovered and described fossil ice - for the first time in America - and discovered a mammoth tusk in it. Turning south, “Rurik” moved to the island. Unalaska, from there to San Francisco Bay and to the Hawaiian Islands.
In January - March 1817, members of the expedition again explored the Marshall Islands, and in the Ratak chain they discovered, examined and mapped a number of more inhabited atolls: in January - New Year (Medzhit) and Rumyantsev (Votje), in February - Chichagova (Erikub), Maloelap and Traverse (Aur), in March - Kruzenshterna (Ailuk) and Bikar. Together with A. Chamisso and I. Eschscholtz, O. Kotzebue completed the first scientific description of the entire archipelago, spending several months on Rumyantsev Atoll. They were the first to express the correct idea about the origin of coral islands, later developed by Charles Darwin. Kotzebue then moved again to the northern Bering Sea, but due to injury received during a storm, he decided to return to his homeland.
The only officer on the Rurik, G. Shishmarev, withstood the double load with honor. He, with the help of a young assistant navigator Vasily Stepanovich Khromchenko, from which a first-class sailor emerged, who later circumnavigated the globe two more times - this time as a ship commander. On the way to the Philippines, the expedition explored the Marshall Islands for the third time and in November 1817, in particular, mapped the inhabited Heiden Atoll (Likiep) in the center of the archipelago, essentially completing the discovery of the Ratak chain, which apparently began as early as in 1527 by the Spaniard A. Saavedro.
On July 23, 1818, the Rurik entered the Neva. Only one person from his team died. The participants in this circumnavigation collected enormous scientific material - geographical, especially oceanographic, and ethnographic. It was processed by O. Kotzebue and his collaborators for the collective three-volume work “A Journey to the Southern Ocean and the Bering Strait to Find the Northeast Sea Passage, Undertaken in 1815–1818.” ... on the ship “Rurik” ...” (1821–1823), the main part of which was written by O. Kotzebue himself. A. Chamisso gave a highly artistic description of sailing in the book “Round the World Voyage... on the brig “Rurik” (1830) - a classic work of this genre in German literature of the 19th century.
The goal of opening the Northern Sea Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean was set by the government before the Arctic expedition, sent in early July 1819 around the Cape of Good Hope on two sloops - “Otkritie”, under the command of a military officer Mikhail Nikolaevich Vasiliev, he is also the head of the expedition, and “Well-intentioned”, captain G. Shishmarev. In mid-May 1820, in the Pacific Ocean (at 29° N latitude), the sloops separated by order of M. Vasiliev. He went to Petropavlovsk, G. Shishmarev - to Fr. Unalaska. They connected in Kotzebue Bay in mid-July. From there they left together, but the slow-moving "Blagomarnenny" lagged behind and reached only 69°01"N, and M. Vasiliev on the "Otkritie" - 71°06"N. sh., 22 minutes north of Cook: further advance to the north was prevented by continuous ice. On the way back, they went through Unalaska to Petropavlovsk, and by November they arrived in San Francisco, where they made the first accurate inventory of the bay.
In the spring of 1821, sloops through the Hawaiian Islands at different times moved to the island. Unalaska. Then M. Vasiliev moved to the northeast, to Cape Newznham (Bering Sea), and on July 11, 1821 he discovered at 60° N. w. O. Nunivak (4.5 thousand km²). M. Vasiliev named it in honor of his ship - o. Opening. The Discovery officers described the southern coast of the island (two capes received their names). Two days later, Fr. Nunivak, independently of M. Vasiliev, was discovered by the commanders of two ships of the Russian-American company - V. Khromchenko and the free seaman Adolf Karlovich Etolin, later the main ruler of Russian America. The Etolin Strait, between the mainland and the island, is named after him. Nunivak. Having then passed into the Chukchi Sea, M. Vasiliev described the American coast between capes Lisburne and Ice Cape (at 70 ° 20 "N), but because of the ice he turned back. In September, the sloop dropped anchor in the Peter and Paul Harbor.
Meanwhile, G. Shishmarev, according to the assignment, penetrated through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea, but by the end of July, with the greatest efforts, he was able to reach only 70 ° 13 "N: nasty winds and heavy ice forced him to retreat. He arrived in Petropavlovsk ten days after M. Vasiliev Both ships returned through the Hawaiian Islands and around Cape Horn in early August 1822 to Kronstadt, completing their circumnavigation.
1823–1826 O. Kotzebue made his second circumnavigation of the world on the sloop “Enterprise” (as commander of the ship). His companion was student Emilius Christianovich Lenz, later an academician and an outstanding physicist: he studied the vertical distribution of salinity, temperature of Pacific waters and daily changes in air temperature at different latitudes. Using the barometer and depth gauge he designed, he made many measurements of water temperature at depths of up to 2 thousand m, laying the foundation for precise oceanological research. Lenz was the first to substantiate the scheme of vertical circulation of the waters of the World Ocean in 1845. He presented the results of his research in the monograph “Physical Observations Made During a Trip Around the World” (Selected Works. M., 1950). I. Eschscholz, then already a professor, went with O. Kotzebue again. On the way from Chile to Kamchatka and in March 1824, in the Tuamotu archipelago, O. Kotzebue discovered the inhabited Enterprise Atoll (Fakahina), and in the western group of the Society Islands - Bellingshausen Atoll. In the low southern latitudes, the ship found itself in a calm zone and moved very slowly to the north. May 19 at 9° S. w. showers and squalls began. O. Kotzebue noted a strong current that daily carried the Enterprise 37–55 km to the west. The picture changed sharply at 3° S. w. and 180° W. d.: the direction of the flow became exactly the opposite, but the speed remained the same. He could not explain the reason for this phenomenon. We now know that O. Kotzebue collided with the South Equatorial Countercurrent. He made another discovery in October 1825: on the way from the Hawaiian Islands to the Philippines, he discovered the Rimsky-Korsakov (Rongelan) and Eschscholtz (Bikini) atolls in the Ralik Marshall Islands chain.
In 1826, at the end of August, two sloops of war left Kronstadt under the general command Mikhail Nikolaevich Stanyukovich; the second ship was commanded Fedor Petrovich Litke. The main task - exploration of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean and an inventory of the opposite coasts of America and Asia - M. Stanyukovich divided between both ships, and each subsequently acted mainly independently.
M. Stanyukovich, commanding the sloop Moller, in February 1828 found the island in the western part of the Hawaiian archipelago. Leyson, and in the extreme northwest - Kure Atoll and basically completed the discovery of the Hawaiian chain, proving that it extends more than 2800 km, counting from the eastern tip of the island. Hawaii - Cape Kumukahi. Then M. Stanyukovich explored the Aleutian Islands and surveyed the northern coast of the Alaska Peninsula, and the navigator’s assistant Andrey Khudobin discovered a group of small islands of Khudobin.
F. Litke, commanding the sloop Senyavin, explored the waters of Northeast Asia, and in the winter of 1827–1828. moved to the Caroline Islands. He explored a number of atolls there and in January 1828, in the eastern part of this archipelago, visited by Europeans for about three centuries, he unexpectedly discovered the inhabited islands of Senyavin, including Ponape, the largest in the entire Caroline chain, and two atolls - Pakin and Ant ( perhaps this was a secondary discovery, after A. Saavedra). F. Litke described in detail the warm Pacific Intertrade Wind countercurrent, which passes in the low latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in an easterly direction (I. Kruzenshtern first drew attention to it). In the summer of 1828, F. Litke astronomically identified the most important points on the eastern coast of Kamchatka. Officer Ivan Alekseevich Ratmanov and navigator Vasily Egorovich Semenov first described about. Karaginsky and the Litke Strait, separating it from Kamchatka. Then the southern coast of the Chukotka Peninsula from Mechigmenskaya Bay to Cross Bay was mapped, and the Senyavin Strait was discovered, separating the islands of Arakamchechen and Yttygran from the mainland.
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