Few travelers were lucky enough to leave their names on the map of our planet. One of those who received such an honor is Vitus Bering. This article is devoted to his difficult fate and geographical discoveries, which changed the ideas of contemporaries about the location of continental lines and islands in the northernmost latitudes.

Parents

Vitus Bering was born in 1681. It is authentically known that this happened in Denmark. According to some reports, the traveler's birthplace is the city of Horsens, where he was baptized in a Lutheran church, as evidenced by a document that is still kept in an old church book. The boy was named after his mother's brother, who was a famous Danish historian and served as a chronicler at the Royal Court. As for the surname, he got it from his mother - Anna Pederdatter Bering, who came from a noble noble family, which, however, had already gone bankrupt by the time Vitus was born.

The father of the future traveler, Jonas Svendsen, worked in customs and was a highly respected person in Horsens. From his previous marriage and his marriage to Anna, he had a total of 9 children. The salary of the customs officer was not enough, the family could hardly make ends meet, but all the children, including Vitus Jonassen Bering, were pious and were able to get a good education at that time.

Childhood

The Bering-Svendsen family lived in Horsens on Sendergade Street. In the neighborhood there was a school owned by P. Dahlhoff, which was attended by the children of Anna and Jonas. In 1695 Dahlhoff's son, who served in the Royal Navy, married Jonas Svendsen's eldest daughter. Since then, young Bering has constantly heard fascinating stories about sea voyages and battles from new relatives.

Thanks to her sister's husband, Vitus often began to visit ships and make friends with sailors. He was fascinated by the romance of their lives. He was especially interested in expeditions to various unexplored corners of the planet. Already at a young age, Vitus studied in great detail the materials of the expeditions of the Danish traveler Jens Munch, who made a sea voyage to Greenland and visited India.

The beginning of a maritime career

Bering's parents did not spare their meager means to give the children the most better education. Thanks to their efforts, Vitus' older brothers were able to enter the University of Copenhagen. However, young Bering was not attracted to a career as a lawyer or doctor. After graduating from school, at the age of 14, together with his cousin Sven, he signed up as a sailor on a Dutch ship.

First travels

Together with Sven and childhood friend Sievers, who many years later became a Russian admiral, Vitus Bering twice sailed to the East Indies, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, visited the Caribbean and the North American European colonies.

Being already quite an experienced sailor, the young man realized that he lacked theoretical knowledge, and went to study at the Marine cadet corps in Amsterdam, considered one of the best in the world. During his studies, he earned the praise of teachers who unanimously claimed that Vitus Jonassen Bering would make an excellent captain.

Fateful Proposal

In 1703, Vitus Bering met Cornelius Kruys. The latter, although he was a Norwegian by origin, had served in the Russian Navy for more than 10 years and had the rank of vice admiral. By order of Peter the Great, Kruys traveled around Europe and hired intelligent foreign specialists. He saw in the young cadet, who was in his last year of study, a future famous researcher and offered to join the Russian fleet. Vitus Jonassen Bering immediately appreciated the prospects that opened up before him, and accepted the proposal of Kruys.

The first years of service in Russia

On the recommendation of Kruys, Vitus Bering was enrolled in the Baltic Navy, having been promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. In 1704 he arrived in Russia, which from now on became his new homeland. First, Vitus Bering began to command a ship that delivered timber to the island of Kotlin, where, on the orders of Peter the Great, the construction of the Kronstadt fortress was carried out. The diligence and zeal of the young Dane did not go unnoticed - after 4 years, Bering was awarded the rank of lieutenant.

Later career

In the next few years, Bering's career went on the rise.

In 1710, his ship was sent to the coast of the Gulf of Finland to monitor the Swedish flotilla. A few months later he was awarded the rank of lieutenant commander, he was sent to the Azov Fleet, where he commanded the Munker sailing ship.

In 1711, Bering took part in the campaign of Peter the Great to Moldavia, which was in vassal dependence on Ottoman Empire. After the unsuccessful completion of this company, he was sent to the Baltic Fleet. In 1715 he was promoted to the rank of captain of the 4th rank and sent to Arkhangelsk to command the ship Selafail. On this ship Bering visited Copenhagen. This trip was the last visit to his native Denmark in the life of a navigator who spent most of his life in Russia.

In 1716, Vitus Bering, whose biography this article is devoted to, took command of the Pearl sailing ship. On this ship he went to Bronkholm.

By 1720, Bering already had the rank of captain of the 2nd rank, and under his command was the Marlburg frigate with 90 guns.

Resignation

Despite all his career achievements, Bering considered himself undeservedly overlooked by awards. In particular, he was very hurt by the fact that for 17 years of service he did not receive the rank of captain of the first rank.

In 1724, the navigator wrote a letter of resignation and was sent to rest. When Peter the Great found out about this, he expressed extreme displeasure to F. M. Apraksin, who at that time was Admiral General of the Russian fleet. The tsar ordered to announce at the College that Bering had been returned to the navy with the appointment of a captain of the first rank. A few days after this conversation, Vitus was recalled from retirement and approved as commander of the Selafail frigate.

First expedition to Kamchatka

As is known, one of the achievements of the tsar-reformer was the creation of conditions for the scientific study of the geography of the country and adjacent lands. At the end of 1724, he signed a decree on the organization of the Kamchatka expedition. According to this document, the Board of the Admiralty was instructed to find a candidate for its leader. After long discussions, it was decided to appoint Vitus Bering as the commander of the expedition.

Tasks

According to the orders of Peter I, the First Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering was supposed to answer several questions that worried all navigators who plied the northern latitudes.

To do this, she was ordered:

• go to Kamchatka;
• build one or two deck boats;
• advance on them along the coast in a northerly direction in search of the American continent;
• establish the place where this mainland connects with Asia;
• land on the territory of America;
• put all the received data on geographical maps.

Expedition progress

The traveler Vitus Bering, together with the rest of the explorers of Kamchatka, left Petersburg at the beginning of 1725. For almost 2 years, on river boats, on foot, in carts and sledges, they traveled to Okhotsk. After waiting for spring, Bering and his team went to the mouth of Kamchatka on dog sleds and boats. In the summer of 1728, on the east coast of the peninsula, they completed the construction of the St. Gabriel boat. Immediately after launching, the ship moved to the northeast along the coast of the mainland. During this expedition, the following appeared on the world map:

• Karaginsky Bay;
• Bay of Providence;
• the island of st. Lawrence;
• Anadyrsky and Cross Bay.

The most important discovery of the expedition was the Bering Strait. Vitus Bering, together with his comrades, entered the Chukchi Sea through it and turned back home. Although he could not reach the coast of North America, he considered his task completed, since he established that this mainland did not connect with Asia. Rounding Kamchatka from the south, Bering mapped the ice-free Avacha Bay, as well as the Kamchatka Bay. In the spring of 1730, the navigator arrived with a team in Okhotsk and returned to St. Petersburg in the same way that the expedition had overcome, starting 5 years ago.

In the capital

Upon the return of Vitus Bering (which was discovered by the traveler in Kamchatka, see above), he was presented with a report in which the navigator claimed that Kamchatka and North America were in close proximity to each other, which made it possible to organize trade with local merchants. In addition, the traveler called for an active economic development of Siberia, where, according to his assumptions, iron could be mined and arable farming.

Second Kamchatka expedition: preparation

Bering was not going to stop there. He submitted to the Admiralty plans for exploration of the northeast Russian Asian coast and reconnaissance of sea routes to America and the Japanese islands.

Although the task of Peter the Great (to visit the shores of America) was not completed, the navigator received a 1000-ruble bonus and the rank of captain-commander.

In 1733, Vitus Bering was appointed leader of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, which was supposed to complete what had not been possible during the first trip.

At the beginning of 1734, the newly-made captain-commander went to Yakutsk, where he organized the expedition for three years. The local authorities put spokes in his wheels, so only in 1740 two packet boats "Saint Paul" and "Saint Peter" set off from Okhotsk to the east of Kamchatka.

Expedition progress

In July 1741, the ships approached the coast of North America. On the way back, they followed the Aleutian Ridge and continued their journey, exploring the southern coastline of Alaska. During the expedition, the following islands were discovered:

• St. Stephen;
• Kodiak;
• Shumaginsky;
• St. John;
• St. Marcian;
• Evdokeevsky.

Death

The way back of the Second Kamchatka Expedition was very difficult. For many months, "Saint Peter" was at sea, as there was a heavy fog, because of which it was not possible to determine its location even by the stars. The members of the expedition developed scurvy, from which some of the sailors died. For many years it was believed that Bering himself was affected by this disease, however, a study of his remains, performed in the 90s of the last century, showed that the commander's teeth were not damaged by scurvy.

After some time, the ship became practically uncontrollable, especially since the crew was very thin, and Bering himself led it, already being seriously ill.

In the first days of November 1741, the sailors of the expedition saw a snow-covered land in front of them, which later became known as the Bering Islands. They decided to spend the winter on land, but a month later most of the sick crew members died. Among them was Vitus Bering.

End of expedition

After Bering's death, navigator Sven Waxel took command. Together with 46 surviving crew members, he built a hukor named "St. Peter", on which in August 1742 he reached the Avacha Bay. It took a long time for the expedition members to reach St. Petersburg and report the death of Bering.

Merit recognition

Geographical features named after Vitus Bering are known to everyone today. However, the merits of the navigator were appreciated only many years after his death. In particular, the Bering Strait was so named at the insistence of James Cook.

The Englishman reached the Aleutian Islands in early October 1778. There he met Russian hunters and received from them a map drawn up by members of the Bering expedition. Cook redrawn it, naming the strait separating Asia and America after his deceased predecessor Bering.

Personal life

In 1713, Vitus Bering (which you already know) married Anna Christiana Pulse, who was the daughter of a merchant from Sweden. Three years later, the couple had their first child, named after their father, but the child died in infancy. After that, Bering's wife gave birth many times, but only daughter Anna and three sons survived from the Bering children.

Memory

The first monument to Vitus Bering was erected in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The exact date of its construction has not been preserved, but its description was given in 1827 by an English traveler who visited this city.

In 2016, a monument to Vitus Bering was erected on the island named after the commander. It is a full-length bronze sculpture by the sculptor I. P. Vyuev.

In addition to geographical objects in honor of the traveler were named:

• streets in many Russian cities: St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Yakutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Tomsk, Astrakhan, Artem, Nakhodka and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky;
• diesel-electric ship;
• one of Aeroflot aircraft.

In addition, in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, there is the KAMGU named after Vitus Bering. And the name of the navigator became the brand of the Danish watch Bering.

Now you know the biography of Vitus Bering. This Danish navigator, who devoted his life to serving Russia, entered forever into world history thanks to his geographical discoveries, which put him on a par with the greatest travelers of all time.

Dane navigator, captain-commander of the Russian fleet

Led the 1st and 2nd Kamchatka expeditions. Passed between the Chukchi Peninsula and Alaska, confirming the presence of a strait separating them (subsequently, the strait between Russia and the United States was named Bering Strait), reached North America and discovered a number of islands in the Aleutian ridge.

An island, a strait, an underwater canyon, a river, a lake, a glacier, two capes, a street in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a sea in the north are named after the great navigator Pacific Ocean, as well as the Commander Islands. In archeology, the northeastern part of Siberia, Chukotka and Alaska (which are now considered to have been previously connected by a strip of land) is often referred to by the common term Beringia.

Brief chronology

1703 graduated from the Amsterdam Naval Cadet Corps

1704, with the rank of second lieutenant, he entered the service in the Russian fleet, in the Baltic

1710-12 transferred to the Azov Fleet, participated in the war with Turkey

1715 promoted to captain of the 4th rank

1725-30 led First Kamchatka expedition, surveyed and mapped the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and Northeast Asia

1733-41 led Second Kamchatka expedition, during which it was possible to map the northern and eastern coasts of Russia, the interior territories of Eastern Siberia, explored the paths to America and Japan, discovered the coast of North-West America, the islands of the Kuril and Aleutian ridges

In 1741, in the difficult conditions of a forced wintering on the island, later named after Bering, the captain-commander died. The great navigator was buried on Bering Island in Commander Bay.

Life story

Bering Vitus Jonassen was born in 1681 in the Danish city of Horsens, graduated from the cadet corps in Amsterdam in 1703, in the same year he was admitted to the Baltic Fleet with the rank of second lieutenant, and in 1707 he was promoted to lieutenant. In 1710 he was transferred to the Azov Fleet, promoted to captain-lieutenant, commanded by the ugly "Munker". In 1712 he was transferred to the Baltic Fleet, in 1715 he was promoted to captain of the 4th rank.

In 1716 he commanded the Pearl. In 1717 he was promoted to captain of the 3rd rank. In 1719 he commanded the ship "Selafail". In 1720 he was promoted to captain of the 2nd rank, commanded the ship "Malburg", then - the ship "Forest". In 1724, he was dismissed from the service at the request, and then again accepted into the service as the commander of the Selafail with the rank of captain of the 1st rank.

From 1725 to 1730 - Chief First Kamchatka expedition. In the middle of the summer of 1728, he surveyed and mapped the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and Northeast Asia. He discovered two peninsulas (Kamchatsky and Ozerny), Kamchatka Bay, Karaginsky Bay with Karaginsky Island, Cross Bay, Providence Bay and St. Lawrence Island.

In the Chukchi Sea, having passed the strait (later called the Bering Strait), the expedition reached 62° 24' from. sh., but because of the fog Ana and the wind did not find the earth and turned back. The following year, Bering managed to advance 200 kilometers from Kamchatka to the east, inspect part of the Kamchatka coast and identify Avacha Bay and Avacha Bay. The discoverer for the first time surveyed over 3,500 kilometers of the western coastline of the sea, later called the Bering Sea.

In 1730 he was promoted to captain-commander.

After returning to St. Petersburg at the end of April 1730, Bering proposed a plan for exploring the northern coast of the continent and reaching the mouth of the Amur, the Japanese Islands and America by sea.

Bering was appointed chief Second Kamchatka (Great Northern) Expedition, A. Chirikov became his deputy. On June 4, 1741, Bering and Chirikov, commanding two packet boats, headed southeast from the coast of Kamchatka in search of the "land of Juan da Gama", located on some maps of the 18th century between 46 and 50 ° N. sh. For more than a week, the pioneers searched in vain in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean for at least a piece of land. Both ships headed northeast, but on June 20, due to thick fog, they parted forever. For three days, Bering searched for Chirikov: he went south for about 400 kilometers, then moved northeast and crossed the central water area of ​​the Gulf of Alaska for the first time. July 17, 58°N sh. noticed the ridge (St. Elias), but did not experience joy from the discovery of the American coast: he felt ill due to an exacerbated heart disease.

In August - September, while continuing to sail along the coast of America, Bering discovered Tumanny Island (Chirikova), five islands (Evdokeyevsky), snow mountains (Aleutsky Range) on the "mater coast" (Alaska Peninsula), at the southwestern edge of which he discovered the Shumagin Islands and met the Aleuts for the first time. Continuing to go west, sometimes in the north I saw land - separate islands of the Aleutian ridge. On November 4, a wave nailed the ship to the ground, which turned out to be an island. Here the captain-commander died; 14 people from his detachment died of scurvy. The island was subsequently named after Bering.

buried on Bering Island in Komandor Bay. There are four monuments at the site of Bering's death. Directly at the burial site today there is an iron cross 3.5 m high. At its foot is a cast-iron plaque with the inscription: "1681-1741. To the great navigator captain-commander Vitus Bering from the inhabitants of Kamchatka, June 1966."

Being inquisitive by nature and, like an enlightened monarch, concerned about the benefits for the country, the first Russian emperor was keenly interested in travel descriptions. The king and his advisers knew about the existence of Anian - that was the name of the strait between Asia and America at that time - and expected to use it for practical purposes. At the end of 1724 Peter I remembered "... something that I thought about for a long time and that other things prevented me from doing it, that is, about the road across the Arctic Sea to China and India ... Wouldn't we be happier in researching such a path than the Dutch and the British? ..." and, without delay , issued an order for the expedition. The captain of the 1st rank was appointed its head, later - the captain-commander, 44-year-old Vitus Jonassen (in Russian usage - Ivan Ivanovich) Bering, who had already served in Russia for 21 years. The tsar handed him a secret instruction written in his own hand, according to which Bering was to have a large landmass, supposedly stretching in a northwesterly direction near the coast of Kamchatka, to reach a large landmass, supposedly stretching in a northwesterly direction near coast of Kamchatka, walk along the coast, find out if it connects with North America, and trace the coast of the mainland south to the possessions of European states. The official task was to resolve the issue of "whether America came together with Asia" and the opening of the Northern Sea Route.

Consisting at first of 34 people, set off on the road from St. Petersburg on January 24, 1725. Moving through Siberia, they went to Okhotsk on horseback and on foot, on ships along the rivers. The last 500 km from the mouth of the Yudoma to Okhotsk, they dragged the heaviest loads, harnessing themselves to the sledges. Terrible frosts and famine reduced the composition of the expedition by 15 people. The advance detachment led by V. Bering arrived in Okhotsk on October 1, 1726, and the group of Lieutenant Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg, a Dane in the Russian service, who closed the expedition, got there only on January 6, 1727. To survive until the end of winter, people had to build several huts and barns.

The road through the expanses of Russia took 2 years. On this entire path, equal to a quarter of the length of the earth's equator, Lieutenant Alexei Ilyich Chirikov determined 28 astronomical points, which made it possible for the first time to reveal the true latitudinal extent of Siberia, and, consequently, the northern part of Eurasia.

From Okhotsk to Kamchatka, the expedition members traveled on two small ships. For the sea continuation of the journey, it was necessary to build and equip the boat “St. Gabriel", on which the expedition went to sea on July 14, 1728.

As the authors of Essays on the History geographical discoveries”, V. Bering, having misunderstood the plan of the king and violating the instructions, which ordered first to go from Kamchatka to the south or east, headed north along the coast of the peninsula, and then northeast along the mainland.

“As a result,” the “Essays ...” read further, “more than 600 km of the northern half of the eastern coast of the peninsula were photographed, peninsula Kamchatka And Ozernoy, as well as Karaginsky Bay with the island of the same name ... The sailors also put 2500 km on the map coastline Northeast Asia. Along most of the coast they noted high mountains, and covered with snow in summer, approaching in many places directly to the sea and rising above it like a wall. In addition, they opened gulf of the cross(not knowing that it was already discovered by K. Ivanov), Bay of Providence And St. Lawrence Island.

However, the desired part of the land was still not shown. V. Bering, not seeing either the American coast or the turn to the west of the Chukchi coast, ordered A. Chirikov and M. Shpanberg to state in writing their opinions on whether the presence of a strait between Asia and America can be considered proven, whether to move further north and how far . As a result of this "written meeting" Bering decided to go further north. On August 16, 1728, the sailors passed through the strait and ended up in the Chukchi Sea. Then Bering turned back, officially motivating his decision by the fact that everything was done according to the instructions, the coast does not extend further to the north, but “nothing came to the Chukotsky, or Eastern, corner of the earth.” After spending another winter in Nizhnekamchatsk, in the summer of 1729, Bering again made an attempt to reach the American coast, but after walking a little more than 200 km, due to strong wind and fog, he ordered to return.

The first expedition described the southern half of the eastern and a small part of the western coast of the peninsula for more than 1000 km between the mouths of Kamchatka and Bolshaya, revealing Gulf of Kamchatka And Avacha Bay. Together with Lieutenant A.I. Chirikov and midshipman Pyotr Avraamovich Chaplin, Bering compiled the final map of the voyage. Despite a number of errors, this map was much more accurate than the previous ones and was highly appreciated by D. Cook. Detailed description of Russia's first marine scientific expedition preserved in the ship's log kept by Chirikov and Chaplin.

The northern expedition would not have been successful without auxiliary campaigns led by Cossack colonel Afanasy Fedotovich Shestakov, captain Dmitry Ivanovich Pavlutsky, surveyor Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev and navigator Ivan Fedorov.

It was M. Gvozdev and I. Fedorov who completed the opening of the strait between Asia and America, begun by Dezhnev and Popov. They examined both sides of the strait, the islands located in it, and collected all the materials needed to put the strait on the map.

Returning from the expedition, Bering proposed to the government a plan for a new large expedition and expressed his readiness to take part in it. In 1733 he was appointed head of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. His assistant ("comrade") was A.I. Chirikov, by this time already the captain.

Their task was to explore the American shores from Kamchatka. At the same time, M. Shpanberg was supposed to sail to Japan and establish contact with it, and several detachments were to map the northern coast of Russia from Pechora to the extreme northeast and, if possible, to Kamchatka. An Academic Detachment was also formed, whose task was to explore the interior regions of Siberia. The northern detachments worked independently, but all their activities were controlled by V. Bering. The work of the expedition was designed for 6 years.

At the beginning of 1734, V. Bering gathered all the members of the expedition in Tobolsk. Several land parties of surveyors left from here to study the coast of the ocean. Bering himself went to Yakutsk where he had to spend three years. There, under his leadership, an ironworks and a rope workshop were built, resin collection was organized, rigging for ships was made, and equipment and food were sent to Okhotsk for M. Shpanberg's detachment.

In total, about 800 members of the expeditionary detachments gathered in Yakutsk. The local administration, which was irritated by Bering's incorruptibility and exactingness, obstructed the procurement of food and equipment, wrote denunciations to St. Petersburg against the stubborn "German". However, V. Bering left Yakutsk, only making sure that the team was fully provided with provisions. In Okhotsk, he also had to deal with the disorder and corruption of local authorities. The metropolitan authorities, as usual in Russia, trusted the denunciations of idlers and bribe-takers, and not the reports of the honest and pedantic Bering.

Finally, in early September 1740, V. Bering sailed from Okhotsk on two 200-ton ships with a crew of 75 people. The ships were named after the apostles of Christ - “St. Peter" and "St. Paul". The expedition spent the winter on the eastern coast of Kamchatka, near Avacha Bay. And on June 4, 1741, eight years after leaving Petersburg, Bering ships And Chirikova went to the shores of America. The expedition included a young scientist Georg Wilhelm Steller and Sven (Xavier) Lavrentievich Vaksel, who left interesting descriptions this voyage.

As mentioned above, on the German map used by Bering, mythical land was plotted. In search of this non-existent land, V. Bering first went to the southeast, to the coordinates indicated on this map. Having lost more than a week in vain and making sure that there is no land in this part of the ocean, the ships headed northeast. But on June 20, a thick fog fell on the sea, and the ships parted forever. From that day on, St. Peter" and "St. Pavel" sailed offline.

"St. Peter" finally reached the American coast on July 17, 1741. From the deck of the ship, the shore was visible and - in the distance - the snowy ridge of St. Elijah, almost merging with the clouds, with the top - Mount St. Elijah 5488 m high. The goal set by the emperor 17 years ago was achieved. But the sixty-year-old captain-commander did not share the joy and triumph of the team. He suffered from scurvy, did not know the exact coordinates of the ship's location; acutely experiencing losses and failures, the experienced navigator saw the future in a gloomy light.

Not approaching the mainland, V. Bering moved west along the coast for 4 days. On July 21, he sent people for fresh water and, not even filling all the barrels, despite the stormy weather, headed west, to the shores of Asia.

Scurvy has already taken down a third of the crew. On August 10, desperate to move forward due to a strong headwind, V. Bering decided to go straight to Kamchatka. On August 29, sailors discovered "treeless and deserted islands" off the southwestern tip of Alaska. The captain-commander called them the "Shumagin Islands" - in memory of a sailor buried on one of them. Moving all the time to the west in the open sea, the sailors periodically saw land in the north - it was the Aleutian chain. There, the Russians first met with local residents - the Aleuts.

When high mountains covered with snow appeared in the distance on November 4, the sailors mistakenly thought that they had approached Kamchatka. Having landed on the shore, they dug rectangular holes in the sand. To adapt them for habitation, they made roofs from sails. Many suffered from scurvy. 20 people have died. Only 10 sailors were still on their feet. Sick Bering lay without getting up. As S.N. Markov, “... everyone knows what happened next. Arctic foxes gnawed Bering's boots when he was still alive. In his death throes, Bering buried himself in the sand in order to warm himself at least a little. After lying like this for a whole month, on December 6, 1741, he died.

The land to which his ship nailed later received his name and is called Bering Island, and the entire group was christened in honor of the deceased captain-commander Commander Islands. “The sea discovered by F. Popov and S. Dezhnev, along which V. Bering sailed so little in 1728, was called Bering, the strait through which not he was the first to pass, but the same F. Popov and S. Dezhnev, caused on the map not to them, but to M. Gvozdev and I. Fedorov, named at the suggestion of D. Cook the Bering Strait. To the unfortunate captain-commander Vitus Bering ... came exceptional posthumous fame "

The command was accepted Sven Waxel as senior crew officer. Bypassing new land, the sailors made sure they were on the island. Wintering was difficult: frequent storms, hurricanes, unexpected earthquakes, scurvy ... By the summer of 1742, 46 people remained alive, including the ten-year-old son of K.L. Vaksel Lorenz, the future officer of the Russian fleet Lavrenty Ksaverievich Vaksel.

The ship "St. Peter" was badly damaged, and it had to be dismantled in order to build a small ship of the same name from its parts. Since all three ship carpenters died of scurvy, the Krasnoyarsk Cossack Savva Starodubtsev took up shipbuilding and successfully completed the construction of a new ship. On August 13, the travelers went to sea and, due to the calm, moving mostly on oars, on August 26, 1742, they reached Petropavlovsk.

Judging by historical and archaeological data, the belonging of the remains from burial A12 * to Captain-Commander Vitus Bering is beyond doubt. This, of course, facilitates forensic identification of a person. And yet, only studies of the skeleton could give an exhaustive answer. We started working on them last fall in Moscow, at the Institute of Forensic Medicine. In my work - both on Bering Island, and in the laboratories of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and in Moscow - I was constantly helped by: anthropologist Andrei Belkovsky, historical geographer Sergei Epishkin, colleague at the institute Mikhail Berezovsky. I am also grateful to all colleagues in the department, without whose help this work would not have been possible.

Bering's remains are incomparably better preserved than others. Apparently, the fact that the captain-commander, the only one of all those buried in this burial ground, had an effect, was buried in a coffin, although without a bottom, knocked together, probably from thick ship planks. Nevertheless, the contours of the body were very fragmentary and only approximately corresponded to the contours of life. I had to restore fragments of the skull and long tubular bones. Reconstruction of the skull - painstaking and delicate work - was carried out in two ways. We, having made many calculations, mathematically modeled it, and M.N. Elistratova, the largest specialist in this field, relying on her experience and intuition, used the method of plastic reconstruction. Both our version and hers turned out to be very close.

I will not go into details and talk about the means and methods for studying the remains, this is a purely special area, I will only say that we tried to be as objective as possible, but, of course, we were happy when the data obtained coincided with the facts of historical documents.

So, we managed to establish that the remains under study belong to a Caucasian male (more specifically, the Central European racial type), which is distributed throughout Europe, but its main area is the North European Plain - from the Atlantic to the Volga. (Known: Bering is a Dane.) Sex diagnostics showed that the reproductive function of the individual was not impaired and he could have, at least genetically, numerous offspring. (Only one fact: Bering's wife, Anna Matveevna, who dared to accompany her husband on expeditions, lost five children in just five years of her expedition life ...) The man was of average height (a little more or less than 170 cm), weight - average (a little over 70 kg); the most likely muscular body type. Age - from 57 to 66 years, presumably - 61 and a half. (Bering was born in 1681, died in 1741.)

The dimensions of the skeleton, as I said, are medium, but the bones, especially the shoulder blades and limbs, are very massive; strongly pronounced muscular relief. A few years ago we were identifying the skeletal remains of the 1922 world champion in weightlifting Saul Hallap, and I was then struck by the degree of adaptation of the skeleton to power loads. So, the individual we studied was not much inferior to S. Hallup and could not help but stand out for his physical strength. Undoubtedly, from his youth, he was accustomed to work associated with lifting weights. (Bering has been associated with the sea all his life, and the work of a sailor in a sailing fleet is for strong people.)

Diseases that Bering suffered in older childhood were also established, and one of them - craniostenosis - could respond with headaches all his life. Osteochondrosis, the development of deforming arthrosis are already diseases of the aging Bering, but the generally good condition of the teeth refutes the assumption, which has been circulating so far, that he died of scurvy. The cause of death has not yet been established. Eyewitnesses write about the “Anton fire” that “burned” him, but this is the name of several diseases. Perhaps a spectral analysis of the bones will clarify the issue. There is an assumption about infectious hepatitis, the carriers of which were ship rats.

Now let's try to draw a portrait of Vitus Bering - based on studies of signs of appearance. The face is asymmetrical: the left side is higher and narrower, the right side is wider and lower. This is the so-called left type of head asymmetry, characteristic of most people. The nose is rather narrow, as is the forehead. The eye sockets are high. The neck is thick and muscular.

These are just individual strokes of a verbal portrait, in scientific description it is much more detailed and complex. And when we compared this detailed verbal portrait with the lifetime portrait of Vitus Bering's uncle (1617-1675) (namely, this portrait was taken - however, presumably - for the portrait of the captain-commander himself), we found that out of the 34 compared signs, only half is common . The main differences relate to completeness. Uncle's face is puffy, as if painfully "swollen", with smoothed features, swollen eyelids. In a person from burial A12, judging by the invoice bone tissue skull, face of medium fullness with moderate fat deposition in the cheeks and chin.

The conclusion is unequivocal: they are different people, but it is likely that they are relatives. It is also curious to compare "our" Bering with a photograph taken from a lithograph by his great-great-grandson A.A. Timashov-Bering (1812-1872). This photo was given to us after the completion of the reconstruction, and we noted with satisfaction that, despite the differences in the height of the forehead and the structure of the chin, the similarity is clear, noticeable even to the uninitiated.

It took us a long time to get to the sculptural reconstruction of Bering's head. Here, look, in the picture: a skull found in a burial; a skull, or rather, a plaster cast, made on the Commanders; skull with restored nose and jaw; skull with restored half of the face; plaster head, but still without hair. And finally - a bust, tinted in bronze, with a haircut and in uniform. When creating this bust, we used the reconstruction method of the anthropologist M.M. Gerasimov.

We somewhat rejuvenated Bering - the bust depicts a man of 50-55 years old. This period in Bering's life was extremely eventful. Pictured is in state peace of mind. The head is slightly turned to the left, the eyelids are slightly lowered. It is this position of the head, according to psychologists, that is typical when performing visual-spatial tasks, perceiving music and rhythmic sounds of nature. The gaze seems to be turned inward. The commander seems to emotionally evaluate the questions addressed to him.

We had a lot of doubts about the hairstyle. It is no secret that early baldness is observed in men suffering from praniostenosis. We considered it possible - more sculptural, or something - to depict the frontal bald patches and parietal bald patches, when they had not yet united.

Features of the hairstyle and uniform were modeled on the historical materials of 1732-1742. Luxurious wigs of the Louis style were already a thing of the past then, Prussian wigs came into fashion - tight hair, pigtails with a bow. But did a sailor on a long voyage care about a wig? That's why we settled on smoothly combed hair tied with a bow into a pigtail.

Yes, and with the uniform there were difficulties. The capital work of A. Viskovatov on the history of clothing (1896) suggested that during the time of Peter I and some time after, naval officers most likely wore the uniform of infantry or artillery officers. On Bering - a uniform close to the uniform of the officers of the Semenovsky regiment, which was in the 30s of the XVIII century.

The reconstruction of a person's social characteristics only based on the results of the morphological features of the skeleton is a tempting thing, but, frankly, unreliable. Although masterful sketches of the characters of long-gone people are known, created from the skeletons by the radiologist D.G. Rokhlin and the anthropologist M.M. Gerasimov.

When reconstructing the character of a person from burial A12, one can proceed from the established constitution - a classic muscular type, suggesting a fairly calm and balanced character. Diseases could have had a certain influence on the character, however, the excellent condition of the teeth and the synchronous aging of the skeleton allow us to assert that he was a person attentive to his health, actively resisting the extreme conditions of life.

The characterization of Bering given by Georg Steller does not contradict our conclusions: “The late captain-commander Vitus Bering was a Dane by birth, a righteous and pious Christian by faith, a well-mannered, friendly, calm person, for this reason beloved by the whole team, from top to bottom.

He was involved in the execution of various enterprises, of which the most important were two expeditions to Kamchatka. He always tried with all his strength and ability to do the best job assigned, although he himself admitted and often complained that he did not have enough strength to bear such a burden.

Although it is known that this man was not born to make quick decisions and carry out swift enterprises, one wonders, given his devotion, patience and foresight, could another, more impatient, do more?

In general, no signs that are in conflict with historical information about Bering were found during the study of the skeleton. However, the work is not yet completed. It remains to be determined how old the burial was (already in Moscow we found a silver cross in the remains of ensign Ivan Lagunov - it lay between the spine and the skull. We hope that this find, in particular, will help dating). A comparative study of the appearance of Bering with the appearance of his descendants, a comparative study of the chemistry of the bone substance of the found remains, etc., is also to be done. And one more thing - we are waiting for new excavations in Komandor Bay, because eight burials of members of the Bering expedition have not yet been found.

Our duty is to ensure that each of those who died 250 years ago is worthily reburied by name in compliance with Christian rites and military honors. The reburial is to take place on Bering Island in September this year.

* The marking of the found burials was carried out from north to south, sequentially: A8, A11, A12, A3, A4 and A9. According to the reconstruction by A. Shumilov, A. Stanyukovich and S. Epishkin, next to V. Bering could be buried:
A9 - ensign (commissar) Ivan Lagunov (01/08/1742);
A4 - sub-skipper Nikita Khatyaintsev (9.11.1741);
A3 - navigator Andris Eiselberg (11/22/1741);
A11 - marine grenadier Ivan Tretyakov (11/17/1741);
A8 - naval soldier Fedor Panov (2.01.1742).

Viktor Zvyagin, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Head of Department at the Institute of Forensic Medicine

Russia is the most unusual and amazing country in the world. This is not a formula of official patriotism, this is the absolute truth. Unusual, because infinitely diverse. Amazing because it is always unpredictable. The tender and gentle spring sun sinks in a deadly snowstorm in ten minutes, and a bright triple rainbow shines after the flying black cloud. Tundras are combined with desert dunes, swampy taiga gives way to monsoon forests, and boundless plains smoothly turn into equally boundless mountain ranges. The greatest rivers of Eurasia carry their waters through Russia - in no other country in the world is there such an abundance of great flowing waters. , Ob, Irtysh, Yenisei, Amur ... And the largest lakes in the world - the salty Caspian and fresh. And the longest steppes in the world - from the banks of the Donets to the Amur region. To match the geographical abundance - the diversity of peoples, their customs, religions, cultures. Nenets reindeer herders set up their chums next to well-maintained high-rise buildings. Tuvans and Buryats roam with herds and yurts along federal highways. In the Kazan Kremlin, a large new mosque is adjacent to an old Orthodox cathedral; in the city of Kyzyl, a Buddhist suburgan turns white against the background of a golden-domed church, and not far from them, the breeze flutters colorful ribbons at the entrance to the shaman's yurt...

Russia is a country where you won't get bored. Everything is full of surprises. A beautiful asphalt highway is suddenly replaced by a broken primer, and it goes into an impassable swamp. To overcome the last 30 kilometers of the path, it sometimes takes three times as long as the previous ten thousand. And the most unexpected thing in this mysterious country is the people. Able to live in the most difficult, even impossible natural conditions: in the mosquito taiga, in the waterless steppe, in the highlands and in flooded valleys, with 50-degree heat and 60-degree frost ... Having learned to survive, I note, by the way, under the yoke of various authorities, none of which has ever been to them merciful... Created in these swamps, forests, steppes and mountains a unique culture, or rather, a multitude of unique cultures. Created great story power of the Russian - a history also consisting of countless great, heroic and tragic stories.

Living witnesses of the historical past, the work of well-known, and in the vast majority of cases, unknown Russians - architectural monuments. The architectural wealth of Russia is great and diverse. It reveals the beauty of the Russian land, and the ingenuity of the mind of its people, and sovereign power, but most importantly, the greatness of the human spirit. Russia was built over a thousand years under the most difficult conditions imaginable. Among the harsh and meager nature, in continuous external wars and internal struggles. Everything great that was erected on Russian soil was erected by the power of faith - faith in the truth, in a bright future, in God. Therefore, in architectural monuments, with all their constructive, functional and ideological diversity, there is a common beginning - the desire from earth to sky, from darkness to light.

It is simply impossible to tell in one book about all the wonderful places in Russia - natural, historical, poetic, industrial, memorial. Twenty such books would not have been enough for this. The publishers and I decided: I will write only about those places where I myself have been, which I have seen with my own eyes. Therefore, in our publication, Klyuchevskaya Sopka does not smoke, the islands of the Kuril ridge do not rise from the Pacific waters, the white cover does not sparkle ... I have not been to these and many other places, I dream of visiting and writing about them. Many remarkable monuments of history and culture were not included in the book. St. George's Cathedral in Yuryev-Polsky and St. Sophia's Cathedral in Vologda, the Kremlins of Tula and Kolomna, the estates of Vorobyevo in Kaluga and Maryino in the Kursk region, the buildings of the local history museum in Irkutsk and the Drama Theater in Samara, the Saratov Conservatory and the City House in Khabarovsk ... List endless.

In addition, we decided not to get carried away with the story of big cities, about millions of megacities (limiting ourselves to a selective review of the architectural riches of Moscow and St. Petersburg), but to give preference to distant Russia, living away from wide highways and from the noise of business and industrial centers.

13:24 — REGNUM

Meeting of Russians with Aleuts. Drawing by Sven Waxel. 1741

1741. On December 19 (December 8, Old Style), the famous Russian navigator Vitus Bering dies during the second expedition to Kamchatka. The island on which Bering died was named after him.

Russian map Far East. 1745

“On May 29, 1741, the second Kamchatka expedition began. Two packet boats left Avacha Bay, where Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is now located: “St. Peter" - under the command of the head of the expedition Vitus Bering and "St. Pavel" - under the command of Alexei Chirikov.

On June 20, thick fog separated the ships, and they continued their further voyage separately. But both ships reached the unknown shores of America. And the discoveries of the two captains - Bering and Chirikov - subsequently complemented each other well.

Hurricane-force winds characteristic of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean began. It was dangerous to continue sailing off the American coast. And Bering decided to return to Kamchatka.

A fierce and protracted storm was waiting for the pioneers on the way back. For almost seventeen days he did not let the St. Peter packet ship out of his arms. Neither experienced officers, nor the captain-commander himself could no longer accurately determine the location of his ship.

On November 4, 1741, a watchman saw a land similar to the coast of Kamchatka. By this time, almost the entire team was sick with scurvy. The storm tore the shrouds. It became almost impossible to use sails.

The death of the ship and people seemed inevitable. A council was held around the sick Bering. Everyone who could get to his cabin participated. After disputes, they decided to approach the shore.

However, here, too, trouble awaited the pioneers. The rotten anchor rope burst, and the ship, caught by the breakers, rushed to the coastal reef.

Here it is, death!.. People knelt down, prayed, said goodbye to earthly life.

But a miracle happened. A huge wave ran up and threw the ship over the stones. The packet boat was close to the shore, in calm water.

Most of the expedition members did not yet know that this land is not Kamchatka, but an uninhabited, deserted island.

Exhausted travelers landed on the shore. They began to dig holes for housing. From above they were covered with the remains of sails.

The crew of "St. Peter" was melting every day. During the landing alone, 12 people died. The sick were laid in pits, covered with canvas and covered with sand on top. This helped to keep warm and saved helpless people from the bites of impudent arctic foxes. There were many of them on the island, and they were not at all afraid of the aliens.

The absence of trees on the unexplored land was compensated by a fin thrown ashore. They mainly ate birds. Battered by storms, "St. Peter" was unseaworthy. It was necessary to build a new ship from the remains of the old one. But a long, blizzard winter was approaching, and the return to Kamchatka was postponed for a year.

Of the 77 crew members, only 46 survived.

On December 8, Captain-Commander Vitus Bering died of scurvy. He died, like other sailors, in a pit, half covered with sand. During his illness, the commander did not allow himself to be dug up. Under a thick layer of sand, it seemed to him, it was warmer.

The command of the expedition was taken over by the senior Lieutenant Sven Waxel. At the council of officers, at his suggestion, the island was named after Bering.

Quoted from: Burlak V. N. Walking to the cold seas. M.: AiF Print, 2004

History in faces

Sven Waxel, from the book "The Second Kamchatka Expedition of Vitus Bering":

Captain-Commander Bering died on 8 December. His body was tied to a board and buried in the ground; all the rest of our dead were buried without boards.

I cannot but describe the sad state in which Captain-Commander Bering was at the time of his death, his body was half buried in the ground already in last days his life. One could, of course, find means to help him in such a situation, but he himself did not want this and pointed out that those parts of the body that are deeply hidden in the ground are kept warm, and those that remain on the surface are very cold. He lay separately in a small sandy pit - a dugout, along the walls of which sand gradually crumbled all the time and filled the pit to half, and since he lay in the middle of the dugout, he was treated so that his body was half covered with sand.

After the death of the commander, I, as a senior in rank, had to take command. Although at that time I was lying completely exhausted from illness, I still had to get to work. I decided to lead the team as meekly and gently as possible, since rigidity and strictness would be completely inappropriate under such circumstances and would not lead to any results.

Quoted from: Vaksel S. Second Kamchatka Expedition of Vitus Bering. Moscow: Glavsevmorput, 1940

The world at this time

In 1741, an uprising took place in Oman against the Iranian Shah Nadir, who seized the country in 1737. As a result of the uprising, the invaders were expelled from Oman.

Miniature depicting Nadir Shah. Unknown artist. 1769

"On the Arabian Peninsula, the power of the Turkish conquerors was never strong. In 1633, as a result of popular uprisings, the Turks were forced to leave Yemen, which became an independent feudal state. But they stubbornly held out in the Hijaz: the Turkish sultans attached exceptional importance to their nominal dominance over the holy cities of Islam - Mecca and Medina, which served as their basis for claims to spiritual power over all the "faithful" Muslims. In addition, these cities during the Hajj season (Muslim pilgrimage) turned into grandiose fairs, centers of lively trade, which brought significant income to the Sultan's treasury. Therefore, Porta not only did not impose tribute on the Hijaz, but, on the contrary, obliged the pashas of the neighboring Arab countries - Egypt and Syria - to annually send gifts to Mecca for the local spiritual nobility and give generous subsidies to the leaders of the Hijaz tribes through whose territory pilgrim caravans passed. For the same reason real power inside the Hijaz and was left to the Meccan spiritual feudal lords - sheriffs, who have long enjoyed influence on the townspeople and nomadic tribes. The Turkish pasha of Hijaz was not in fact the ruler of the country, but the representative of the Sultan to the sheriff.

In Eastern Arabia in the 17th century, after the expulsion of the Portuguese from there, an independent state arose in Oman. Arab merchants of Oman possessed a significant fleet and, like European merchants, were engaged in piracy along with trade. At the end of the XVII century. they took the island of Zanzibar and the African coast adjacent to it from the Portuguese, and at the beginning of the 18th century. expelled the Iranians from the Bahrain Islands (later, in 1753, the Iranians regained Bahrain). In 1737, under Nadir Shah, the Iranians tried to seize Oman, but a popular uprising that broke out in 1741 ended in their expulsion. The leader of the uprising, the Muscat merchant Ahmed ibn Said, was proclaimed the hereditary imam of Oman. Its capitals were Rastak - a fortress in the inner mountainous part of the country, and Muscat - a trading center on the sea coast. During this period, Oman pursued an independent policy, successfully resisting the penetration of European merchants - the British and French, who tried in vain to obtain permission to set up their trading posts in Muscat.

Quoted from: The World History. Encyclopedia. Volume 5. M .: Publishing house of socio-economic literature, 1958