Vostok and Mirny left Kronstadt in the summer of 1819. The first ship was commanded by Thaddeus Bellingshausen, the second by Mikhail Lazarev. By that time, both of them had already established themselves as experienced sailors: Lazarev, for example, reached Sydney with the crew of the Suvovorov ship, and Bellingshausen participated in a round-the-world voyage. Now they faced a difficult task - finally the southern mainland, the existence of which the geographers of that time only guessed.
Assumptions that there should be a large piece of land near the South Pole began to appear among sailors as early as the 16th century. However, until the beginning of the 19th century, it was believed that it was virtually impossible to prove its existence due to incredibly difficult weather conditions. “The cold was so strong that none of our flotilla could bear it,” wrote the Florentine traveler Amerigo Vespucci, who allegedly ended up on the island of South Georgia, which lies one and a half thousand kilometers from Antarctica. The second reason why no one tried to reach Atlantis for a long time is that this land - for that time, quite naturally - was considered practically useless.
"Vostok" and "Mirny" before sailing to Kronstadt. (infourok.ru)
Nevertheless, certain attempts to explore the mainland were nevertheless made: the British, for example, sent an expedition led by James Cook to the Antarctic Circle. His ships, moving further south, collided with an impenetrable ice cover, which forced them to turn around. Cook then decided that no mainland in those lands simply does not exist.
In Russia, the idea of exploring the Antarctic Circle was primarily promoted by famous traveler and navigator Ivan Kruzenshtern. There is even evidence that Kruzenshtern himself wanted to lead the expedition, but nevertheless refused this, citing his advanced age and health problems. In the government, the responsible ministers liked the idea of the first Antarctic expedition: in a hurry - it was impossible to allow other countries to get ahead of the Russian sailors - preparations for the voyage began.
The ship's crew examines the iceberg. (klin-demianovo.ru)
The ships "Vostok" and "Mirny", which Lazarev and Bellingshausen received at their disposal, were not intended for navigation in ice. Although these were relatively new vessels, the crews were constantly faced with leaks and hull breakdowns. The crew was formed exclusively from volunteers - by the way, there were a lot of them, about 200 people. Also on board were a university professor, an artist and a hieromonk.
The task of the expedition was formulated very briefly and precisely: the navigators were instructed to "continue their explorations to the remote latitude that can only be reached." "Vostok" and "Mirny", having passed through Portsmouth and Rio de Janeiro, reached the island of South Georgia - it lies at a distance of two thousand kilometers to the east of the Argentine coast. The team took up research and made an inventory of the shore, secretly discovering another small island - it was later named after the navigator, one of the lieutenants of the Mirny ship Mikhail Annenkov. In general, members of the expedition made it a rule to name the discovered islands in honor of their comrades: in this way, several more volcanic islands they encountered were named after the names of the officers of the Vostok ship.
Sloops of war "Vostok" and "Mirny" off the coast of Antarctica. (rgo.ru)
“In this barren country we wandered, or, rather, wandered like shadows for a whole month; constant snow, ice and fog were the reason for such a long inventory, ”wrote Mikhail Lazarev to his friend. The expedition really dragged on, and climatic conditions became more and more intimidating. Small wooden boats made their way—often in pitch darkness or fog—through giant icebergs and ice floes. At the end of January 1820, the sailors nevertheless reached the shores of Antarctica, the next month they were able to come close to them, but they did not succeed in landing. Due to a lack of provisions and running out of firewood, the expedition decided to get to Australia to replenish all supplies.
After a break in Sydney, the team again set off to conquer the shores of the southern mainland: swimming up to it, the expedition unexpectedly stumbled upon an American boat - people on it were engaged in hunting for fur seals. The team of "Vostok" and "Mirny" mapped many new islands: they were named either in honor of the battles of the recently past Patriotic War 1812, or in honor of the rulers Russian Empire- so, for example, the island of Peter I and the land of Alexander I appeared.
Ships "Vostok" and "Peace" in the open sea. (topwar.ru)
Since the sailors were never able to land on the shore and conduct full-fledged research, neither Bellingshausen nor Lazarev reported that they had discovered the mainland. Although it certainly was. The description of the entire journey, which lasted 751 days and forced the team to overcome almost 100,000 kilometers, prompted the researchers to come to grips with the study of Antarctica. The first Antarctic expedition led to the fact that over time, the sixth continent turned from a blank spot on the map into an arena of political battles - today, in addition to Russia, territorial claims to Antarctica are put forward by the United States, Chile, Argentina, Australia, Norway, Great Britain and other countries.
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- On the sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny" to the South Pole. The first Russian Antarctic expedition Buy for 615 rubles
- On the sloops VostokMirny to the South Pole. The First Russian Antarctic Expedition, Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen. In 1819-1821, the author led the first Russian round-the-world Antarctic expedition. For 751 days of sailing, Antarctica was discovered - a continent-mystery, in the very existence of which ... Buy for 487 UAH (only Ukraine)
- On the sloops 171; Vostok 187; and 171; Mirny 187; to the South Pole. The First Russian Antarctic Expedition, Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen. In 1819-1821, the author led the first Russian round-the-world Antarctic expedition. For 751 days of sailing, Antarctica was discovered - a continent-mystery, in the very existence of which ...
Russian expedition discovered Antarctica
On January 16 (28), 1820, Antarctica was discovered by the first Russian Antarctic expedition on the sloops Vostok and Mirny, led by Faddey Faddeevich Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev.
The hypothesis of the existence of the Southern Land was put forward by geographers ancient world and supported by the scholars of the Middle Ages. Starting from the XVIin. her search was conducted by the Portuguese B. Dias, F. Magellan, Dutchman A.Tasman, Englishman D.Cook. After unsuccessful attempts to find the southern mainland, Cook stated: “... I can safely say that not a single person will ever dare to penetrate further south than I did. Lands that may be in the south will never be explored.
4 (16) July 1819 d. expedition consisting of 2 sloops under the command of the captain of the 2nd rank F.F. Bellingshausen left Kronstadt for Rio de Janeiro. The crews were manned by volunteer sailors. The Vostok sloop was commanded by Bellingshausen, the Mirny sloop was commanded by Lieutenant Lazarev. The purpose of the expedition was to discover "in the possible proximity antarctic pole". Mariners were ordered to explore South Georgia and Sandwich Land (now the South Sandwich Islands, once discovered by Cook) and "continue their explorations to the remotest latitude that can be reached", using "every diligence and the greatest effort to reach as close to the pole as possible, looking for unknown earth."
In the Antarctic waters "Vostok" and "Mirny" made a hydrographic inventory of the southwestern shores of about. South Georgia. Capes, bays and a group of islands were discovered, named after the participants of the expedition: Annenkov Island, Zavadovsky Island, Leskov Island, Torson Island. Swimming was extremely difficult and dangerous. Small sailing wooden ships were forced to maneuver near ice and icebergs, often in fog. Following the course to the south, on January 16 (28), Russian navigators discovered the sixth continent of the Earth in the region of 69 ° 21 "- 69 ° 29" south latitude and 2 ° 14 "- 2 ° 35" west longitude.
The Bellingshausen-Lazarev expedition is rightly considered one of the most important and difficult Antarctic expeditions. She covered a total of 4,972 miles - a path two and a quarter times the length of the equator. The navigation lasted 751 days, of which the sloops were on the move for 527 days, with 122 days south of the 60th parallel and 100 days in ice. In addition to geographical discoveries (the mainland of Antarctica and 29 islands), the expedition made a lot of interesting and valuable astronomical, oceanographic, synoptic and ethnographic observations.
Lit.: Larionov A. Discoverers of Antarctica // Model Designer. 1968. No. 4;Discovery of Antarctica: Thaddeus Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev [ Electronic resource] // Russia in colors. 2004-2015. URL: http://ricolor.org/history/eng/expedition/antarctida/.
See also in the Presidential Library:
The first Soviet scientific station "Mirny" was opened in Antarctica // On this day. February 13, 1956 ;
The world's first museum of the Arctic was opened in Leningrad // On this day. January 8, 1937 ;
Bellingshausen F.F. Double surveys in the Southern Arctic Ocean and voyage around the world in the course of 1819, 20 and 21, carried out on the sloops Vostok and Mirny under the command of Captain Bellingshausen, commander of the Sloop Vostok. The Mirny sloop was commanded by Lieutenant Lazarev. SPb., 1831. Part 1 ;
Bellingshausen F.F. Double surveys in the Southern Arctic Ocean and voyage around the world in the course of 1819, 20 and 21, carried out on the sloops Vostok and Mirny under the command of Captain Bellingshausen, commander of the Sloop Vostok. The Mirny sloop was commanded by Lieutenant Lazarev. SPb., 1831. Part 2 ;
Rally in honor of Russian captains Mikhailo Lazarev and Thaddeus Bellingshausen on the Slava flotilla, 1951: [newsreel fragments / dir. editing by T. I. Dyakonov]. SPb., 2010 ;
Tarapygin F. A. Well-known Russian military figures: a brief biography of them. SPb., 1911 .
By the beginning of the 19th century, there were still many corners on earth where no human foot had set foot. It seemed that the Great geographical discoveries were left behind: the last triumph of travelers - the discovery of Australia - took place in 1606. The fact that somewhere beyond the Antarctic Circle lies an unknown land, people suspected back in the 16th century. But it was not possible to swim to it - the climatic conditions were too harsh, and the ships were not being built the strongest then.
For many years extreme point for many restless travelers remained the subantarctic island of South Georgia.
James also wanted to try to discover the unknown Southern Land. He failed to do this - perennial ice interfered, although Cook continued to believe in the existence of an undiscovered continent. A couple of years later, the famous captain set off to meet his fate: in 1779, Cook was killed by the natives of the Hawaiian Islands. And the next attempts to open an unknown continent will fail.
In 1819, the admiral sent a letter to the Naval Ministry of the Russian Empire, in which he stated the need to prepare expeditions to reach the South and north poles respectively. South Pole the sloops Mirny and Vostok were supposed to reach. The first was commanded by a lieutenant, and the second by captain 2nd rank Thaddeus Bellingshausen.
Vostok was built by British engineers and was quite inferior to Mirny in terms of performance. The main problem was the lack of hull density and low speed.
On July 15, 1819, both sloops left Kronstadt. This daring attempt to reach the South Pole went down in history as the First Russian Antarctic Expedition.
Russian sailors set off in the direction Latin America. Already in early November, Mirny and Vostok arrived in Rio de Janeiro. Here, the sailors were horrified by the slave trade that flourished in those parts. However, in Russia with personal freedoms at that time, too, was not all right: before the abolition of serfdom, at that time there were still 42 years left. From the coast of Brazil, the expedition set off in the direction of the island of South Georgia. The researchers managed to map that part of the island that James Cook could not reach.
The further course of the expedition was rich in small geographical discoveries. For example, sailors discovered Annenkov Island, named after Vostok crew member Mikhail Annenkov.
In general, the Russians saw a lot of interesting things in this expedition. Along the way, sailors increasingly came across giant icebergs. They also saw whales.
On the island, named after the assistant commander of the Vostok sloop Ivan Zavadovsky, sailors managed to eat penguin eggs.
Russian sailors managed to refute, or rather, expand one of the discoveries of James Cook: Sandwich Island turned out to be a group of 11 small islands. In the future, the crews of Vostok and Mirny now and then had to show miracles of navigation, saving ships from seemingly hopeless ice captivity. Despite deteriorating conditions, the expedition continued.
And on January 28, 1819, the sloops reached 69 ° 25 ′ south latitude. And Bellingshausen and Lazarev discovered Antarctica.
“I call this finding a coast because the remoteness of the other end to the south disappeared beyond our vision. This coast is covered with snow, but the scree on the mountains and the steep cliffs had no snow. A sudden change in color on the surface of the sea gives the idea that the coast is extensive, or at least does not consist of the only part that was before our eyes, ”wrote Thaddeus Bellingshausen in the logbook the next day.
The first Russian Antarctic expedition lasted 751 days. Its members mapped 29 new islands. And most importantly, they were the first to discover a new continent.
IN early XIX in. ships of the Russian fleet made a number of round-the-world trips. These expeditions have enriched world science with major geographical discoveries, especially in the Pacific Ocean. However, the vast expanses of the Southern Hemisphere still remained a blank spot on the map. The question of the existence of the southern mainland was not clarified either.
Sloops "Vostok" and "Mirny"
In 1819, after a long and very thorough preparation, the southern polar expedition as part of two sloops of war - "Vostok" and "Mirny". The first was commanded by Thaddeus Faddeevich Bellingshausen, the second - by Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev. The crew of the ships consisted of experienced, seasoned sailors.
The Naval Ministry appointed Captain Bellingshausen as head of the expedition, who already had extensive experience in long-distance sea voyages.
Bellingshausen was born on Ezel Island (Sarema Island in the Estonian SSR) in 1779. “I was born in the middle of the sea,” he later said about himself, “like a fish cannot live without water, so I cannot live without the sea ".
The boy was ten years old when he was sent to study at the Marine cadet corps in Kronstadt. As a cadet, young Bellingshausen sailed to the shores of England during summer practice. After graduating from the Naval Corps at the age of 18, he received the rank of midshipman.
In 1803-1806. the young sailor participated in the first Russian world tour on the ship "Nadezhda" under the command of a talented and experienced navigator I.F. Kruzenshtern. During the expedition, Bellingshausen was mainly engaged in mapping and astronomical observations. These works have been highly commended.
The commander of the Mirny sloop MP Lazarev was born in 1788 in the Vladimir province. Together with his two brothers, he also entered the Naval Corps. During training, he first visited the sea and fell in love with him forever.
Mikhail Petrovich began his service in the Navy in the Baltic Sea. He participated in the war between Russia and Sweden and distinguished himself in a naval battle on August 26, 1808. In 1813, during the war for the liberation of Germany from the Napoleonic yoke, Lazarev took part in operations to land troops and bombard the city of Danzig, and in this campaign he recommended himself as a brave, resourceful and diligent officer.
After the end of the war, Lieutenant Lazarev was appointed commander of the Suvorov ship sent to Russian America. This circumnavigation Russians enriched geographical science with new discoveries. In the Pacific Ocean, Lazarev discovered a group of unknown islands, which he named after Suvorov.
In sailing around the world, which was good for Lazarev practical school, he showed himself as a talented organizer and commander. And it is not surprising that it was he who was appointed assistant chief of the new round-the-world expedition.
On July 16, 1819, the ships Vostok and Mirny, which made up the Southern Division (see p. 364, Northern Division), weighed anchor and left their native Kronstadt roadstead to the salute of coastal artillery batteries. was coming long haul to unknown countries. The expedition was given the task of how to fully penetrate further to the south in order to finally resolve the question of the existence of the southern mainland.
In the major English port of Portsmouth, Bellingshausen stayed for almost a month to replenish provisions, purchase chronometers and various nautical instruments.
In early autumn, with a fair wind, the ships headed across the Atlantic Ocean to the coast of Brazil. The weather was favorable for swimming. Rare and weak storms did not disturb the routine of life on ships. From the very first days of the voyage, scientific observations were made, which Bellingshausen and his assistants carefully and in detail recorded in the logbook. Daily under the guidance of Prof. Kazan University astronomer Simonov officers were engaged in astronomical observations and calculations geographical location vessel.
After 21 days of navigation, the sloops approached the island of Tenerife. While the crews of the ships were stocking up on fresh water and provisions, the officers explored the mountainous picturesque island.
Further navigation took place in the zone of constant northeast trade winds with a cloudless sky. The progress of sailing ships has accelerated significantly. Having reached 10 ° with. sh., the sloops entered a period of calm, common for equatorial places. Sailors measured air and water temperatures at different depths, studied currents, and collected collections of marine animals. The ships crossed the equator, and soon, with a favorable southeast trade wind, the sloops approached Brazil and anchored in a beautiful, convenient bay, on the banks of which the city of Rio de Janeiro stretches. It was a big, dirty city, with narrow streets filled with stray dogs.
At that time, the slave trade flourished in Rio de Janeiro. With a feeling of indignation, Bellingshausen wrote: “There are several shops here in which Negroes are sold: adult men, women and children. At the entrance to these vile shops, one sees several rows of Negroes sitting, covered with scabies, small ones in front, and large ones behind ... The buyer, having chosen a slave at his request, leads him out of the rows forward, examines his mouth, feels his whole body, beats with his hands but different parts, and after these experiments, confident in the strength and health of the Negro, he buys him ... All this produces disgust for the inhuman owner of the shop.
Stocking up on provisions and checking the chronometers, the ships left Rio de Janeiro, heading south into the unknown regions of the polar ocean.
In the temperate zone of the South Atlantic Ocean, a coolness began to be felt in the air, although the southern summer was already beginning. The farther south, the more birds were encountered, especially petrels. Whales swam by in large herds.
At the end of December 1819, the sloops approached South Georgia Island. The sailors began to describe and survey its southern coast. The northern side of this mountainous island, covered with snow and ice, was mapped by the English navigator James Cook. The ships moved slowly forward, maneuvering very carefully among the floating ice.
Soon Lieutenant Annenkov discovered and described a small island, which was named after him. Bellingshausen made several attempts to measure the depth of the ocean, but the lot did not reach the bottom. At that time, none scientific expedition did not try to measure the depth of the ocean. Bellingshausen was many decades ahead of other researchers in this; unfortunately, the technical means of the expedition did not allow us to solve this problem.
Then the expedition met the first floating "ice island". The farther to the south, the more often giant ice mountains - icebergs - began to come across on the way.
In early January 1820, sailors discovered an unknown island, completely covered with snow and ice. The next day, two more islands were seen from the ship. They were also put on the map, naming the names of the expedition members (Leskov and Zavadovsky). Zavadovsky Island turned out to be active volcano more than 350 m high. Having landed on the shore, the members of the expedition climbed the slope of the volcano to the middle of the mountain. Along the way, we collected penguin eggs and rock samples. There were a lot of penguins here. The sailors took on board several birds that entertained the crews of the ships along the way.
Penguin eggs were found to be edible and were used as food. The open group of islands was named in honor of the then Minister of the Navy - the Traverse Islands.
On ships that long voyages, people usually suffered from a lack of fresh fresh water. During this voyage, Russian sailors invented a way to obtain fresh water from the ice of icebergs.
Moving further south, the ships soon again met a small group of unknown rocky islands, which they called the Candlemas Islands. Then the expedition approached the Sandwich Islands discovered by the English explorer James Cook. It turned out that Cook took the archipelago for one large island. The Russian sailors corrected this mistake on the map.
Bellingshausen called the entire group of open islands the South Sandwich Islands.
Foggy, overcast weather made sailing very difficult. The ships were in constant danger of running aground.
With every mile to the south, it became more and more difficult to wade through the ice. At the end of January 1820, the sailors saw thick broken ice stretching to the horizon. It was decided to go around it, turning sharply to the north. Again the sloops passed the South Sandwich Islands.
On some Antarctic islands, sailors met great amount penguins and elephant seals. The penguins usually stood in tight formation, the seals were immersed in a deep sleep.
But Bellingshausen and Lazarev did not abandon their attempts to break through to the south. When the ships hit solid ice, they now and then turned to the north and hastily got out of the ice captivity. Great skill was required to save ships from damage. Everywhere there were masses of perennial solid ice.
The ships of the expedition nevertheless crossed the Antarctic Circle and on January 28, 1820 reached 69 ° 25′ S. sh. In the foggy haze of an overcast day, the travelers saw an ice wall blocking the further path to the south. These were continental ice. The expedition members were sure that the Southern continent was hiding behind them. This was confirmed by the many polar birds that appeared above the sloop. Indeed, only a few miles separated the ships from the coast of Antarctica, which the Norwegians called the coast of Princess Martha more than a hundred years later. In 1948, the Soviet whaling flotilla Slava visited these places, and found that only poor visibility prevented Bellingshausen from clearly seeing the entire coast of Antarctica and even mountain peaks inland.
In February 1820, the sloops entered the Indian Ocean. Trying to break through to the south from this side, they approached the coast of Antarctica two more times. But heavy ice conditions forced the ships to move north again and move east along the ice edge.
In March, with the onset of autumn, the nights became longer, frost intensified, and storms became more frequent. Swimming among the ice became more and more dangerous, the general fatigue of the team from the continuous severe struggle with the elements affected. Then Bellingshausen decided to lead ships to Australia. In order to cover a wider band with the study, the captain decided to send the sloops to Australia in different ways.
March 21, 1820 in Indian Ocean a violent storm broke out. Bellingshausen wrote: “The wind roared, the waves rose to an extraordinary height, the sea seemed to mix with the air; the creaking of the parts of the sloop drowned out everything. We were left completely without sails to the mercy of a raging storm; I had several sailor's berths stretched out on mizzen shrouds, in order to keep the sloop closer to the wind. We were consoled only by the fact that we did not encounter ice in this terrible storm. Finally, at 8 o'clock they shouted from Baku: ice floes ahead; this announcement struck everyone with horror, and I saw that we were being carried onto one of the ice floes; immediately raised the fore-staysail 2 and put the rudder to the wind on board; but as all this did not produce the desired effect and the ice floe was already very close, we only watched how it brought us closer. One ice floe was carried under the stern, and the other was directly opposite the middle of the side, and we expected the blow that was to follow: fortunately, a huge wave that came out from under the sloop pushed the ice floe a few fathoms.
The storm continued for several days. The exhausted team, straining all their strength, struggled with the elements.
And albatross birds with outstretched wings swam between the waves as if nothing had happened.
In mid-April, the sloop "Vostok" anchored in the Australian harbor of the port of Zhaksoy (now Sydney). Seven days later, the Mirny sloop came here. Thus ended the first period of research.
During all the winter months, the sloops sailed in the tropical part Pacific Ocean, among the islands of Polynesia. Here the members of the expedition performed many important geographical works: clarified the position of the islands and their outlines, determined the height of the mountains, discovered and mapped 15 islands, which were given Russian names.
Returning to Zhaksoi, the sloop crews began to prepare for a new voyage to the polar seas. The preparation took about two months. In mid-November, the expedition again went to sea, keeping to the southeast direction. Soon, a leak opened in the bow of the Vostok sloop, which they managed to destroy with great difficulty. Continuing to sail south, * the sloops crossed 60 ° S. sh. On the way, floating ice floes began to come across, and then solid ice appeared. The ships headed east along the ice edge. The weather deteriorated noticeably:
the temperature was dropping, a cold gusty wind drove dark snow clouds. Collisions with small ice floes threatened to intensify the leak in the hull of the Vostok sloop, and this could have had disastrous consequences.
Suddenly, a violent storm broke out. I had to go north again. The abundance of floating ice and bad weather prevented progress to the south. The further the sloops moved, the more often icebergs were encountered. At times, up to 100 ice mountains surrounded the ships. Tacking between icebergs in strong winds and snowfall required enormous effort and great skill. Sometimes only the skill, dexterity and speed of the crew saved the sloops from inevitable death.
At the slightest opportunity, the ships turned again and again due south and went until solid ice blocked their way.
Finally, on January 22, 1821, fortune smiled on the sailors. A blackening spot appeared on the horizon.
“I knew at a glance through the pipe,” wrote Bellingshausen, “that I see the coast, but the officers, also looking into the pipes, had different opinions. At 4 o'clock I informed Lieutenant Lazarev by telegraph1 that we were seeing the shore. The sloop “Mirny” was then close to us astern and understood the answer ... It is impossible to express in words the joy that appeared on everyone’s faces when they exclaimed: “Shore! Coast!".
The island was named after Peter I. Now Bellingshausen was sure that there must be more dry land somewhere nearby.
Finally, his expectations came true. On January 29, 1821, Bellingshausen wrote: “At 11 o'clock in the morning we saw the shore; its cape, stretching to the north, ended in a high mountain, which was separated by an isthmus from other mountains. Bellingshausen called this land the Alexander Coast 1.
“I call this finding a shore because” because the remoteness of the other end to the south disappeared beyond our vision. This coast is covered with snow, but the scree on the mountains and the steep cliffs had no snow. The sudden change in color on the surface of the sea gives the idea that the coast is extensive, or at least does not consist of the only part that was before our eyes.
Land of Alexander 1 is still insufficiently explored. Upon its discovery, Bellingshausen finally convinced that the Russian expedition had approached the still unknown Southern Continent.
This is how the greatest thing happened. geographical discovery 19th century
Having solved the centuries-old riddle, the sailors decided to go to the northeast to explore the South Shetland Islands. Having completed the work on surveying their southern coast, the sailors were forced to urgently leave to the north: every day the flow in the ships, battered by storms, intensified. And Bellingshausen sent them to Rio de Janeiro.
In early March 1821, the sloops anchored in the roadstead of Rio de Janeiro. Thus ended the second stage of a wonderful voyage.
Two months later, after a thorough repair, the ships went to sea, heading for their native shores.
August 5, 1821 "Vostok" and "Mirny" arrived in Kronstadt and anchored in the same place from which they left more than two years ago.
They spent 751 days at sea and traveled over 92,000 km. This distance is two and a quarter times the length of the equator. In addition to Antarctica, the expedition discovered 29 islands and one coral reef. The scientific materials she collected made it possible to form the first idea of Antarctica.
Russian sailors not only discovered a huge continent located around the South Pole, but also carried out the most important research in the field of oceanography. This branch of spiders was just in its infancy at that time. F. F. Bellingshausen for the first time correctly explained the reasons causing sea currents(for example, Canaries), the origin of the algae of the Sargasso Sea, as well as coral islands in tropical areas.
The discoveries of the expedition turned out to be a major achievement of Russian and world geographical science of that time.
The whole further life of Bellingshausen and Lazarev after returning from the Antarctic voyage was spent in continuous voyages and combat naval service. In 1839, Bellingshausen, in the chip of an admiral, was appointed chief commander of the Kronstadt port. Under his leadership, Kronstadt turned into an impregnable fortress.
Bellingshausen died in 1852 at the age of 73.
Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev did a lot for the development of Russian navy. Already in the rank of admiral, commanding the Black Sea Fleet, he achieved a complete rearmament and restructuring of the fleet. He brought up a whole generation of glorious Russian sailors.
Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev died in 1851. Already in our time, the capitalist states sought to divide Antarctica among themselves. Geographic Society Soviet Union strongly protested against the unilateral actions of these states. In the resolution on the report of the late President of the Graphic Society, Acad. L. S. Berg says: “The Russian navigators Bellingshausen and Lazarev in 1819-1821 went around the Antarctic continent, approached its shores for the first time and discovered in January 1821 the island of Peter I, Alexander I Land, the Traverse Islands and others. In recognition of the merits of Russian navigators, one of the southern polar moraines was named the Bellingshausen Sea. And therefore, all attempts to resolve the issue of the regime of Antarctica without the participation of the Soviet Union cannot find any justification ... The USSR has every reason not to recognize any such decision.
