Good afternoon, dear colleagues. I present to your attention a model of the first Russian research vessel Bota “St. Gabriel"

Historical reference:

"Bot" St. Gabriel" served in the Pacific Ocean for 27 years, until 1755. In documents of that time he was called differently: "Saint Gabriel", "Gabriel" and even "Gabrila" or "Gavril". Many discoveries and glorious historical events are associated with them Such, for example, as the voyage of the first European ship beyond the Arctic Circle in the Chukchi Sea in 1728, the discovery of Alaska in 1732, participation in the survey of the southwestern coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the Shantar Islands in 1730, participation in the suppression of the uprising Itelmens and the founding of the new Lower Kamchatka fort, the first Russian visit to Japan in 1739, the exploration of Avacha Bay and the founding in 1740 of one of the oldest cities in the Russian Far East - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
The creation of “Saint Gabriel” was destined by Peter I
“... in that very month when the fate of the Almighty determined the end of the life of Peter the Great, [...] his still tireless spirit worked for the benefit and glory of the Fatherland, for he composed and wrote with his own hand the order of the Kamchatka expedition. [...] To the summoned Admiral General [F.M. Apraksin], having handed over the instructions, said the following: “the other day I remembered something that I had been thinking about for a long time and that other things prevented me from doing, that is, about the road through the Arctic Sea to China and India” (A.K. Nartov)
The 43-year-old captain Vitus Jonansen Bering was appointed head of the expedition, and his assistants were lieutenants Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg and Alexey Ilyich Chirikov.
(Peter I personally knew Bering, who was in good standing for his excellent knowledge of maritime affairs, diligence and honesty; more than once during the long war with Sweden he carried out special assignments for Peter I, and was later appointed commander of the then largest combat vessel in the Russian fleet - 90 -cannon battleship "Lesnoye".)
The navigator was midshipman Peter Chaplin, who was already promoted to midshipman during the expedition.
The expedition also included “the boat and boat work of a student of Fyodor Fedotov’s son Kozlov... with him to send 4 carpenters with their tools, which would have been younger...” a mastmakor apprentice, a carpentry foreman, three carpenters, two gunners, two sailboats and blacksmith
Kozlov’s detachment was to become the founder of the shipbuilders of Kamchatka. They had to independently, without counting on the help of the Admiralty Board, create a shipyard on the distant shores of the Pacific Ocean and build “one or two deck boats” on it.
On January 24, 1725, the expedition members left St. Petersburg.
The government ordered the Siberian governor, Prince M.V. Dolgoruky, to provide all possible assistance and assistance to the expedition in all cities and towns along its route. In Yeniseisk and Irkutsk, sixty “good carpenters” were allocated to the expedition.
In January 1727, the expedition reached Okhotsk. Even before Bering’s arrival in Okhotsk, a ship was laid down for the expedition here in 1725, which was launched in June 1727 and named “Fortune”.
On August 22, 1727, the expedition left Okhotsk on the Fortuna and the old boat Vostok, built in 1716. On September 4, they arrived in the Bolsheretsky fort, where it was decided to spend the winter. From here the expedition's property was sent to the Nizhnekamchatsky fort along the Bolshaya, Bystraya and Kamchatka rivers, and in winter - on dogs.
By the spring of 1728, all cargo was transported to Nizhnekamchatsk.
Meanwhile, Fyodor Kozlov, sent ahead, in the valley of the Kamchatka River near the Ushki tract, chose a place for the first shipyard in Kamchatka. By the time the main forces of the expedition arrived at the site, the shipyard was ready, bending production and a forge had been set up. The preparation of the body kit parts was also mostly completed.
It should be noted here that all equipment, parts and materials not only for future ships, but also for the shipyard itself were delivered to Kamchatka from St. Petersburg.
The receipt of property (“in strict accordance with the state and of the best quality”) from the Admiralty warehouses of St. Petersburg was supervised by Lieutenant A. Chirikov, with the active participation of F. Kozlov.
On April 4, 1728, on the banks of the Kamchatka River, a solemn ceremony of laying the boat took place: “At 9 o’clock in the morning, having gathered all the ministers and craftsmen, prayed and laid the boat; and then Mr. Captain gave everyone plenty of wine” (P. Chaplin)
It would be useful to recall once again that the type of vessel and the requirements for it were determined by Peter I: a small draft, so that shallow waters would not become an insurmountable obstacle for the expedition; high maneuverability, allowing you to maneuver confidently; good seaworthiness; relatively small dimensions, but at the same time sufficient carrying capacity - an important requirement for an expedition vessel.
In addition, as mentioned above, the boat had to be equipped and equipped in strict accordance with existing regulations - so that in the event of a meeting with foreign ships it would look like an exemplary vessel and worthily represent the Russian Navy.
The boat was built in strict accordance with the drawing developed by the St. Petersburg Admiralty according to the drawings of the best warships.
The architecture of the boat complied with the regulations of that time for ships of this class: three compartments - a cockpit for the crew, a cargo hold, officer's cabins and a crew chamber.
The vessel had a keel length of 18.3, a midship width of 6.1, and a draft of 2.3 m.
On June 9, that is, two months after being laid, the boat was launched without a deck and christened in honor of the Holy Archangel Gabriel, whose day was celebrated.
Fedor Kozlov's team did an excellent job. Despite the fact that the building was built in the shortest possible time, this did not at all affect its quality. Moreover, looking ahead, we can say with confidence that over almost thirty years of operation of the ship in the harsh conditions of northern latitudes, it demonstrated excellent seaworthiness and never let the sailors down.
The completion of "St. Gabriel" was already carried out on the water at the mouth of the river. Fyodor Kozlov urgently completed the construction of the ship. Work was carried out non-stop all daylight hours. We have completed the flooring of the deck, the equipment of cabins and crew quarters, storerooms and enclosures. Two hatches were made on the deck into the bow compartment and the hold, leading to the officers' cabins.
The spar and rigging were installed so that the rig could carry five sails.
The ship had two hand pumps for pumping water out of the hold. Along the sides there were fins (wooden panels in the form of fins, the upper end of which was fixed to an axis, which made it possible to lift them out of the water. They were used to counteract drift, as well as calm pitching). The boat was equipped with two anchors and two dregs (dreg or drek - a boat anchor of the Admiralty system weighing up to 48 kg)
According to the regulations, the artillery armament of bots of this class consisted of 4 falconets. However, taking into account the fact that the construction of the 2nd boat was not carried out, “Saint Gabriel” took over all the artillery provided for the expedition - 7 falconets (1 was lost along the way)
The construction of "St. Gabriel" was completed by July 6th. By July 10, 1728, the acceptance of cargo was completed and the crew moved from shore to board.
The bot “Holy Archangel Gabriel” was ready to set out on its maiden voyage.

First voyages

From the notes of midshipman Chaplin: "Servants on board: Mr. captain 1, lieutenant 1, doctor 1, navigator 1, midshipman 1, quartermaster 1, sailors 13, drummer 1, soldier 6, carpenter foreman 1, carpenters 4, caulker 1, 1 sailing ship, 2 interpreters, 35 people in total, 6 officers' servants.
Provisions are: flour 458 pounds 29 pounds, crackers 116 pounds 25 pounds, cereal 57 pounds, meat 70 pounds, salted fish 10 barrels 21 strings, fish oil 2 barrels, salt 2 pounds, beef lard 7 pounds 20 pounds, gunpowder 7 pounds 27 pounds, 35 barrels of water, 2 barrels of kvass, 2 pounds of peas, 5 or 6 fathoms of firewood.
July 13, 1728 "St. Gabriel" left the mouth of the Kamchatka River into the sea and headed north.
Lieutenant A. Chirikov, with the help of midshipman P. Chaplin, began mapping the shores. They, together with the surveyor Putilov, compiled a navigation map.
On the morning of July 17, “St. Gabriel" began the countdown to geographical discoveries: the first was Karaginsky Island.
Steadily moving north, the expedition reached 67 ° 19 "N by August 16. Having reached these latitudes, Bering gives the order to take the opposite course: “but in the right country, along our course from the island, I did not see land, and the land is more to does not extend to the north and bends towards the west, and then, he reasoned that he had fulfilled the decree given to me, and returned back.”
One of the tasks set by Peter I for the expedition - to reach the shores of America - was not solved this time. Communication with the Chukotka aborigines played a significant role in this (“according to the tales of the Chukotka inhabitants,” there is no Great Land to the east of the Chukotka Nose...)
With considerable difficulties, having passed through fierce storms and fogs, the boat returned and by the evening of September 3 anchored at the mouth of the Kamchatka River.
The first voyage of the "St. Gabriel" was successfully completed. Upon completion of navigation, the boat was disarmed for the winter, equipped, preserved and the necessary repairs were carried out. With the onset of spring, F. Kozlov’s team began working with the bot again - hull parts, spars, rigging that required repairs were repaired and replaced. "St. Gabriel" was preparing for new voyages.
During the winter, Bering received a decree from the Admiralty Board dated December 2, 1728 on the need to draw up a detailed map of Kamchatka: “... you were ordered to describe the Kamchatka Nose both inside and on the shore, showing cities and notable places and tracts, describe again and, making a lant map, send to the College"
On June 5, 1729, the boat went out to sea and went “to the east to search for land; we had heard from the Kamchatka residents that there was land in the vicinity opposite the Kamchatka mouth.” Bering intended to undertake a search for the Land of Guana da Gama (which Bering assumed was America), marked on the maps of European cartographers not far from the southeastern coast of Kamchatka.
Already on June 7, “St. Gabriel" was 30 miles from the Commander Islands; in clear weather they would have been visible even at night.
But there was fog...
From June 9 to July 1, "Gabriel" maneuvered off the southeastern coast of Kamchatka.
Not finding land (the Commander Islands), Bering turned the expedition south and, calling on Bolsheretsk on July 3, arrived in Okhotsk on July 23, 1729.
The first Kamchatka expedition has come to an end. “Saint Gabriel” was handed over to the Okhotsk governor, and Bering and his team returned to St. Petersburg, delivering invaluable scientific material.
It would be worth noting that the expedition officers were well aware of the importance of their mission. The logbook was kept by Chirikov and Chaplin extremely carefully, in much more detail than required by the regulations of that time. Geographic coordinates were entered with an accuracy of one hundredth of a minute, and time - to the minute. For a long time, the expedition's logbook was considered lost. It was only in 1973 that it was discovered at the TsGAVMF by historian A.A. Sopotsko.
The first Kamchatka expedition on the "St. Gabriel" made 155 territorial and 18 oceanographic discoveries, 66 geographical objects were mapped

Discovery of America

The further fate of "St. Gabriel" is connected with the expedition of A.F. Shestakova - D.I. Pavlutsky.
This expedition was tasked with exploring and developing a gigantic territory in the extreme east of Asia and the adjacent maritime space.
The “Admiralty Group” of the expedition (naval detachment) was to explore the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the Kuril Islands, the “Great Land” lying opposite the Chukotka Land, “... having truly discovered about them, what peoples are on such islands and under whose possessions, and trade with whom they have whether and with what, write about everything to the Siberian governor and the Senate" and wherever "new lands" and islands are found, annex them to the possessions of Russia.
Navigator Jacob Gens, navigator Ivan Fedorov, surveyor Mikhail Spiridonovich Gvozdev, sailors Kondraty Meshkov, Ivan Butin, Nikifor Treska and 10 sailors were appointed to the “admiralty group”. To supervise the shipbuilding work, the boating apprentice I.G. Speshnev was enlisted on the expedition.
In the fall of 1730 D.I. Pavlutsky ordered Y. Gens and I. Fedorov to go “with the existing servicemen from Kamchatka on a sea-going vessel, which was built for the navy by Captain Mr. Bering, ... to the Anadyr mouth to explore the sea islands ... take with them the apprentice Speshnev and surveyor Gvozdev” .
Leaving Okhotsk on September 19, 1730, the naval detachment under the command of J. Gens crossed the stormy autumn Sea of ​​Okhotsk with great dangers.
Having endured a difficult winter at the mouth of the Bolshoy River, the team of "St. Gabriel" arrived on July 9, 1731 at the mouth of the Kamchatka River. Due to the illness of Gens and Fedorov, the bot was actually commanded by M.S. during the transition. Gvozdev.
On July 20, the boat was ready to go to sea to travel to the shores of Chukotka in search of the “Big Earth”, in the existence of which Bering did not want to believe.
But on this day the Itelmen uprising began. The crew of "St. Gabriel" had to take part in suppressing the uprising and eliminating its consequences. We spent the winter in the destroyed Nizhnekamchatsky prison in the most difficult conditions. The team was sick. The sick Gens was taken ashore, I. Fedorov, too, could no longer even move, but continued to remain on the Gabriel.

Fortunately, by July 1732, I. Fedorov had somewhat recovered from his illness and took command of the boat (J. Gens remained on shore).
On July 23, 1732, he took the St. Gabriel out of the Kamchatka River and sent it north.
On August 5, the expedition approached the Chukotka nose and began to carry out its tasks. Two islands were discovered (now the island of Ratmanov and Kruzernstern). They landed on both islands and explored them, “from that island they also saw the mainland.”
August 21, 1732 M.S. Gvozdev wrote: “On the 21st of August in the afternoon at three o’clock the wind began to blow, and we went to the Great Land and came to that land and anchored about four versts from the land... and began to tack near the Great Land in order to approach the land , and there began to be a great wind from the opposite land... And such a great wind blew away from this Great Land, and the wind was north-northwest."
The land that the St. Gabriel approached was Cape Prince of Wales on the Seward Peninsula. And although it was not possible to land on the North American shore at that time due to weather conditions, the first contacts (and exchange of gifts) with the Alaskan natives took place.
On September 28, "Gabriel" returned to its winter quarters at the mouth of the Kamchatka River.
Unfortunately, later factors of a completely different order interfere with history - intrigues, intrigues, false denunciations...
Reports and reports by I. Fedorov and M. Gvozdev, original logbooks (log books) and navigation maps sent to D. Pavlutsky and the Okhotsk administration were lost. (Only in 1743, M.P. Shpanberg discovered the unofficial notes of I. Fedorov, which he kept during the voyage.)
When information about the voyage of “St. Gabriel” reached the Admiralty Board (in 1738), some participants in the events were no longer alive - I. Fedorov was never able to recover from his illness and died during the winter in Nizhnekamchatsk in February 1733. , and J. Gens died in the Tobolsk prison in October 1737. M.S. were also there in the Tobolsk prison. Gvozdev and I.G. Speshnev based on a false denunciation (sad as it is - sailor L. Petrov - together with Gvozdev, the first to enter Ratmanov Island...)
But "Saint Gabriel" has not yet said his last word

To Japan

In subsequent years, “Saint Gabriel” tirelessly runs between Okhotsk and Bolsherechetsk, connecting Kamchatka with the mainland.
While the bot “St. Gabriel” worked honestly in the vastness of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, new projects are being developed in St. Petersburg to explore the eastern borders of Russia. The new decree of the Senate prescribed: “to go to those islands that went from the Kamchatka midday Nose to Japan... And meanwhile, inquire about their condition and other things that are relevant... and, having been here, follow to the very Japanese shores and there along the same to investigate the dominion, about the ports, whether they can manage this in a friendly manner."
M.P. was appointed head of the “Japanese” expedition detachment. Spanberg.
In 1737, a flotilla was formed. It included “St. Gabriel” and the “Fortune” shitik, repaired in 1736, and also built under the supervision of M.P. Shpanberg in 1737, the brigantine "Archangel Michael" and the three-masted double sloop "Nadezhda".
For comparison: "Archangel Michael" had dimensions (length-width-draft) 21 m - 6.3 m - 2.6 m, "Nadezhda" - 24.5 m - 6 m - 1.8 m
Due to a lack of provisions, the expedition had to be postponed until the spring of 1738.
On June 18, 1738, the detachment left Okhotsk and arrived in Bolsheretsk on July 6. Here the teams were fully staffed, food and fresh water supplies were replenished. On July 15, three ships set sail from Bolsheretsk to Japan. "Archangel Michael" was commanded by M.P. Shpanberg, "Nadezhda" - Lieutenant William Walton, "St. Gabriel" - midshipman Alexey Shelting. However, 10 days later the ships lost each other in the fog and they had to return. Shpanberg did not dare to go on a “long voyage” to a “foreign sea” again on the eve of autumn; the trip was postponed until next year.
On May 23, 1739, the flotilla set off again for Japan. Already at sea, Shpanberg suddenly changed the commanders of Nadezhda and Gabriel. V. Valton began to command the boat.
The motives for such a decision were not disclosed by Spanberg, but apparently he “suspected” Walton of being too independent and thus tried, as far as possible, to cool his ardor.
However, this did not help. On June 24, under the plausible pretext of “St. Gabriel" first fell behind the detachment, and then "got lost." V. Walton, having gotten rid of the tedious control on the part of Shpanberg, headed straight for the Japanese Islands, “hoping to find Mr. Captain Shpanberg there.” On June 16, the Japanese shores appeared. For a week, until June 24, "St. Gabriel" cruised off the coast of Japan and reached 34°30', that is, the Tokyo Bay area.
During this week, Russian sailors actively communicated (as far as possible without knowing the language) with the Japanese, went ashore and received delegations on board the St. Gabriel. The first contacts of Russian sailors with the Japanese certainly had a positive result.
On June 25, "Saint Gabriel" headed north. On the way back, Walton decided to deviate further to the east in search of new lands (Land of da Gama), which was depicted on the maps of European cartographers. “...But we didn’t see any land until we arrived near Avachinskaya Bay.” Walton headed for Bolsheretsk, and from there to Okhotsk, where they arrived on August 22.
Thus ended this historic voyage, which opened the sea route to Japan.
Shpanberg's report and voyage reports (for some reason without Walton's log and map) were sent to the Admiralty Board.
But the story of “Saint Gabriel” is not over yet.

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

The year 1739 was ending, the 2nd Kamchatka Expedition was already in full swing, the construction of the packet boats “St. Peter” and “St. Paul” was completed at the shipyards of Okhotsk, however, “... still, as is known, in Kamchatka, except for the Avachinskaya Bay, seagoing vessels There are no safe places, and there is no real news about that bay, but what depth is it and is it possible for the packet boats built for our voyage to enter that bay from the sea..."
Bering drew attention to Avachinskaya Bay during the 1st Kamchatka expedition, but its hydrography was not studied.
The new bot commander, navigator Ivan Elagin, receives Bering’s order:
“And he, Elagin, should go on a boat to Avachenskaya Bay and make that lip extinct and describe with the circumstance whether it is possible to enter that lip by packet boats and spend the winter in the winter without danger,” which he (I. Elagin) fulfilled with precision:
“He, Elagin, set off from the Bolshaya River on a boat on the 16th day of the same year 740 to Ovachinskaya Bay and arrived safely in that lip on June 10th. At which point Kamchatka servicemen and Yasash foreigners built five residential quarters in one cluster, three barracks, and three barns with two apartments. Also in the said bay the depth of the water died out. And with that report, he attached a map... to Avachinskaya Bay and with the inner harbor in it... And the above-mentioned harbor is very capable of settling sea vessels in winter, and for this reason we arrived at this harbor in two packet boats with the entire crew of the same 740- On the 6th day of October it was safe, where we spent the winter. And this harbor was named by us as Saints Apostle Peter and Paul” (report of V.Y. Bering to the Senate dated April 22, 1741)

Throughout its entire existence, the bot “Holy Archangel Gabriel” honestly worked at the disposal of the commander of the port of Okhotsk, connecting Kamchatka with the mainland. But the years took their toll. In 1755, the boat was expelled from the state and dismantled."

The history of V. Bering's voyage on the boat "St. Gabriel" to the Arctic Ocean

Swimming V.I. Bering on the boat "St. Gabriel" - the main content of the First Kamchatka Expedition. Therefore, before moving on to the characteristics of these voyages, it is necessary to dwell on the goals set for the expedition, on the historical situation prevailing in Russia at that time and on the characteristics of the leader and organizer of the expedition, V. I. Bering. Vitus Bering was born on August 12, 1681 in the Danish city of Horsens. His parents were Jonas (Junas) Svendsen and Anna Pedersdatten Behring. The newborn was christened Vitus Jonassen. In the oldest volume of the collection of church books of the city of Horsens, Bering's baptismal certificate has been preserved to this day. In 1885, the Danish historian P. Lauridsen reported the discovery of this church book in the city of Horsens, from which it was possible to accurately determine the date of Bering’s birth. The navigator bore the surname of his mother, Svendsen’s second wife, who came from the famous Bering family in Denmark, whose ancestor was a certain Jene Madsen Bering, who lived in the middle of the 16th century. in Vibork - a region of Denmark, occupying part of the districts of Viborg and Aalborg - on his estate Björing, from where the surname Bering originated. Vitus Bering's father Jonas Svendsen was a customs officer. He was born, it is believed, in the city of Halmstad, in the then Danish province of Haaland (now it is the territory of Sweden), was a trustee of the church in Horsens and belonged to the most respected people of the city. Vitus Bering had two siblings, Iunas (Jonas) and Jörgen, as well as sisters, one of whom was married to Vice Admiral of the Russian Navy T. Sanders. The Bering family was noble, but in the 17th century. already broke. This can be seen from the inventory of the family's property after the death of the parents in 1719. It contains a deed of sale, which lists all the property - an old dilapidated courtyard and cheap home furnishings. After the death of his father in 1719, Vitus inherited 30 rigdalers, 4 marks and 6 shillings. Bering later bequeathed this money and the accumulated interest on it (a total of 139 rigdallers, 1 mark and 14 shillings) to the poor of Horsens. It is also known that he did not make a fortune for himself. His decision to go on long and dangerous journeys was caused by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, an inquisitive mind, and a desire to benefit the cause to which he devoted his life. Very little is known about Vitus' childhood. Next door to Behring's parents lived the funeral director Thomas Petersen Wendelbu, whose son was five years younger than Vitus and was probably his playmate. At that time, in the fiord where the city is located. Horsens, there was a small island to which the boys sailed in homemade boats. Vitus most likely went to school, which was maintained by the future father-in-law of Bering's sister (Anna Katrins Jonasdatter) Peder Lauritzen Dahlhoff. The school was located in Horsens on Smedegade Street. Peder L. Dahlhoff's son Horlov married Vitus' sister in 1695. He served as a fanfarist in the Danish navy. Obviously, conversations about life in the navy occupied a large place at school, as well as in house No. 59, on Søndergade Street, where V. Bering’s family lived. At that time, Denmark actively participated in the conquest of overseas territories, the Danish king sent expeditions to all countries of the world. Undoubtedly, young Vitus knew about the expedition of Jens Munch (early 17th century), as well as about expeditions to the island. Greenland and India. Therefore, the arrival of young Vitus on a sea ship was completely natural. Already as a child, he was fascinated by the sea, quickly mastered marine sciences, becoming an excellent navigator. Vitus Bering, like his cousin Sven and comrade Sivere (the future admiral of the Russian fleet), sailed to the East Indies on a Dutch ship. According to the Danish historian K. Niels, Bering graduated from the naval cadet corps in Amsterdam in 1703, which was considered the best in the world, and received an officer rank. In 1703, in Amsterdam, Vitus met with Vice Admiral of the Russian Fleet K. I. Kruys (Norwegian by birth), who drew attention to a number of qualities of the young man that were very valuable for naval service. With the assistance of Cruys, Bering was enlisted in the Russian navy. It should be noted that the grandson of Vitus Bering - Christian Bering - was also an officer of the Russian fleet and in 1794, on the ship "Glory of Russia" under the command of G. Sarychev, he followed the path that his grandfather took in 1728. V. Bering began his service in the Russian fleet as a 22-year-old non-commissioned lieutenant in 1703, participated in the Azov campaign of Peter I, in the victorious battles in the Baltic, and was in good standing for his excellent knowledge of maritime affairs, diligence and honesty. Peter I personally knew Bering; more than once during the long war with Sweden, Bering carried out his special orders (for example, he led the ship "Pearl" from Copenhagen to Kronstadt, and from the White Sea to Revel, around Scandinavia, the ship "Selafail", built on Arkhangelsk shipyard). Peter I included Bering among the commanders who were to lead the first ships under the Russian flag around Europe from the ports of the Azov Sea to the Baltic, and then approved him as the commander of the then largest combat vessel in the Russian fleet - the 90-gun battleship Lesnoye. Peter I instructed this experienced and capable sailor to lead the First Kamchatka Expedition (1725-1730). Bering's name should be in the first rank of outstanding navigators of the first half of the 18th century. Bering's activities were highly praised by the high command of the Russian Navy; it is highly valued by famous Russian and foreign navigators and scientists. Documents about the voyage of Captain-Commander V. Bering indicate that he was an outstanding navigator. V. Bering was known and appreciated by famous admirals who commanded the Russian fleet - associates of Peter I: vice-admirals K. I. Kruys and T. Sanders, rear admirals I. A. Senyavin, I. V. Bruce. In 1730, V. Bering was awarded the rank of captain-commander ahead of schedule. But Vitus Jonassen Bering is not famous for his service on the ships of the Russian Navy and not for his military merits. Kamchatka expeditions brought him fame. Of the 38 years that Bering lived in Russia, for 16 years he headed the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions, during which, commanding the boat "St. Gabriel" and the packet boat "St. Peter", he sailed to the shores of America and made great geographical discoveries. V. N. Berkh, who analyzed the voyage of V. Bering during the First Kamchatka Expedition using authentic documents, gives the following assessment of Vitus Jonassen Bering: “If the whole world recognized Columbus as a skillful and famous navigator; if Great Britain exalted the great Cook to the height of glory, then Russia owes no less gratitude to its first navigator Bering. This worthy man, having served in the Russian Navy for thirty-eight years with glory and honor, deserves, in all fairness, excellent respect and special attention. Bering, like Columbus, discovered a new and neighboring part of the world for the Russians, which brought a rich and inexhaustible source of industry." V.V. Bakhtin, who worked with the logbook of the Bering expedition, confirms the high assessment of Bering by the Verkh [Bakhtin, "1890, p. 98]. The outstanding Russian navigator of the 18th century. V.I. Bering was one of the most educated sailors of his time . He knew well nautical astronomy, navigation, cartography and other marine sciences. He skillfully led the officers - participants in the Kamchatka expeditions, whose names forever went down in the history of our country and the Russian fleet, in the history of geographical discoveries. At the end of the voyage, a commission of the Admiralty boards checked the correctness astronomical observations that were carried out by V. Bering and his navigators, and highly appreciated the navigational training of V. Bering and the entire command staff of the packet boat "St. Peter".

The famous English navigator J. Cook, 50 years after Bering, in 1778, walking along the same path along the shores of the Bering Sea, checked the accuracy of the mapping of the coasts of northeast Asia carried out by V. Bering, and on September 4, 1778 he made the following entry in his diary: “Paying tribute to Bering’s memory, I must say that he marked this coast very well, and determined the latitude and longitude of its capes with such accuracy that it was difficult to expect, given the methods of determination that he used.” Having made sure that Bering put the northwestern coast of Asia on the map absolutely correctly, Cook wrote down the following about it on September 5, 1778: “Having ascertained the accuracy of the discoveries made by the said gentleman Bering, I turned to the East” [Cook, 1971, p. 378]. F.P. Litke, who 100 years later, in 1828, sailed along the coasts mapped by Bering, checked the accuracy of his navigational, astronomical and other definitions of coastal points and gave them a high assessment: “Bering did not have the means to make inventories with with the accuracy that is required today; but the line of the coast simply outlined along its route would have more similarity with its real position than all the details that we found on the maps.” V. M. Golovnin admired the fact that Bering gave names to the discovered lands not in honor of noble persons, but of ordinary people. “If the modern navigator managed to make such discoveries as Bering and Chirikov made, then not only would all the capes, islands and bays of America receive the names of princes and counts, but even on bare stones he would seat all the ministers and all the nobility; and compliments would have made his own known to the whole world. Vancouver, to the thousand islands, capes, etc., which he saw, distributed the names of all the nobles in England and his acquaintances... Bering, on the contrary, having opened a most beautiful harbor, named it after the names of his ships: Peter and Paul; he called a very important cape in America the Cape of St. Elijah... a bunch of fairly large islands, which today would certainly receive the name of some glorious commander or minister, he called Shumagin Islands because he buried a sailor named after him who died on them ". It is significant that even today the successful joint Soviet-American Bering expedition was named after the head of the Kamchatka expeditions.

In historical literature, a false idea has developed about Bering, his role in organizing and conducting the Kamchatka expeditions, about him as the commander of the ships "St. Gabriel" and "St. Peter". This is due to the fact that the results of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions were treated differently in Russian literature, and Bering was the leader of both expeditions. The positive results of the voyages of the ships "St. Gabriel" and "St. Peter" have not yet been fully studied, and Bering, again, was the commander of these ships. A great expert on the history of Kamchatka expeditions, Academician K. M. Behr back in the 19th century. raised the question of the unfair assessment that some researchers gave Bering. “Everyone is more involved,” writes K. M. Baer, ​​“is attracted to Bering, who slowly moved across Siberia to Okhotsk in order to be able to manage all the individual expeditions. One cannot help but be surprised at his courage and patience, remembering that he had to overcome incredible difficulties, to build new ships at the same time in different places, to send huge transports of provisions and ship needs through deserted wild countries... most of his employees, as can be seen from later reports, accused him of the cruelty with which he persisted in continuing the Northern Expedition ... Fair posterity asks only: Was Bering to blame for the enormity and difficulty of the enterprise?”

In the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries. The geographical discoveries of Russia in the east of the Asian continent and the seas washing it are in no way inferior in their significance and influence on the fate of world history and its course to the geographical discoveries of Western Europe. During the great geographical discoveries of the XV-XVI centuries. America was discovered in 1493, Australia at the beginning of the 17th century, Magellan's voyage marked the beginning of the discovery of the world ocean system. However, the discoveries mentioned above were not completed, but were only the beginning of the study of the world system of land and water spaces, in which the great Russian geographical discoveries, including the discoveries made by V. Bering, occupy the most important place. Great Russian geographical discoveries of the 18th century. were made during the First (1725-1730) and Second (1733-1743) Kamchatka expeditions led by V. Bering. These expeditions contributed to the further development of the Russian centralized state. The reorganized Russian army, created for the first time in Europe on the basis of conscription, became one of the strongest in the world. A powerful navy was built in Russia, its officers were able to solve the tasks assigned to the Kamchatka expeditions.

It should be noted that before the voyage of Bering’s expeditions, no one in the Pacific Ocean was above the parallel of 43° N. w. didn't get up; the limits reached by foreign navigators are shown on the map "Sea voyages and expeditions from the 9th to the 18th centuries." Navigators and cartographers of the ancient world, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Europe did not have any reliable information about the part of the world where Asia almost converged with America, as well as about the northwestern coast of America. In 1720, the “first geographer of the French king” Guillaume Delisle stated that absolutely nothing definite is known about the northern part of the Pacific Ocean from America, starting from Cape Mendocino - 40° N. sh. - or at least from Cape Blanco - 43° N. w. Numerous attempts by foreigners in the 16th-17th centuries. going east further than the Kara Sea did not yield any significant results. For example, the Danish king Christian IV at the beginning of the 17th century. decided to search for the Northeast Passage. To do this, a ship under the command of the experienced sailor Jens Munch was sent from Denmark to China across the Arctic Ocean. However, the brave attempt ended in tragedy, which is still evidenced today by the logbook entries of the ship commanded by Jens Munch.

The ship was crushed by ice and died, but the logbook was preserved and has been kept in the Royal Library in Copenhagen for more than 300 years. The famous Danish writer Thorkild Hansen wrote an exciting book based on the ship's logbook: "Across the North Pole to China." Its author describes the voyage of brave Danish sailors in the Arctic Ocean and the death of their ship. The events and facts in the description of Jens Munch's voyage are supported by extensive cartographic material.

The world owes the expansion and accumulation of information about the eastern tip of Siberia and the adjacent part of North America to Russian geographical science. By the time the Kamchatka expeditions were organized by Russian people during the 17th - first quarter of the 18th century. Siberia had already been discovered, a number of specific descriptions of the nature and inhabitants of this country were given. From the Urals to the Lena stretches a chain of Russian fortresses and settlements of arable peasants. Russian sailors and explorers traversed certain sections of the Northern Sea Route, Russian people reached the Pacific Ocean and discovered the island there. Sakhalin, Shantar Islands, part of the Kuril Islands, found a sea route to Kamchatka. For the first time, thanks to Russian works, maps of Siberia and the coast of the Far Eastern seas appeared.

Foreign science obtained information about these vast areas from Russian sources. Russian geography also had more accurate data than foreign ones about Alaska, opposite the Chukotka Peninsula. The borders of the Russian Empire in 1725, i.e. at the beginning of the First Kamchatka Expedition, are shown on the map "The Russian Empire by 1725". The First and Second Kamchatka expeditions, united by a unity of purpose, deservedly took one of the first places in the history of geographical knowledge. It was, first of all, a colossal scientific undertaking, far superior to anything previously known, carried out in such a short time, over such a vast space and with such imperfect technical means that the researcher had at his disposal in the first half of the 18th century.

At the same time, it was also the most important state event, the purpose of which was to determine the northern and eastern borders of the country, search for sea routes to Japan and America, create a correct geographical map and navigational study of the Northern Sea Route. The successful implementation of the Kamchatka expeditions was facilitated by the widespread use in Russia in the 16th-17th centuries. geographical knowledge and training of geographers, especially surveyors and sailors. Russian geographers of that time knew the works of Western geographers and cartographers; summaries of the works about the voyages of Columbus, Magellan and others were translated into Russian, and geographical globes, atlases and maps were purchased.

A particularly strong point of Russian geography of pre-Petrine times was its practical orientation. The Kamchatka expeditions were preceded by the campaigns of Russian sailors along the northern shores of Europe and Asia to the east and across the northern part of the Pacific Ocean to Anadyr, Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, to the mouth of the Amur. The results of the discoveries made by Russian explorers are shown on the map "Russian discoveries and first inventories of the shores of the North Pacific Ocean." Military sailors successfully continued the glorious deeds of seafarers.

The voyage of surveyors F.F. Luzhin and I.M. Evreinov along the Kuril ridge, the voyage of V.I. Bering and A.I. Chirikov, and after them the voyage of navigator I. Fedorov and surveyor M. Gvozdev to the strait between Asia and America , campaigns across the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to Japan, across the Pacific Ocean from Kamchatka to America - this is the chronicle of heroic deeds performed by military sailors in the first half of the 18th century.

The first Kamchatka expedition was intended to complete and scientifically substantiate the discoveries of explorers and military sailors. Among the participants of the Kamchatka expeditions who sailed with V. Bering to the shores of America were A. I. Chirikov, P. A. Chaplin, S. F. Khitrov, D. L. Ovtsyn, I. F. Elagin, Kh. Yushin and a lot others. All these people, real sailors, selflessly fulfilled their duty; their names and works are forever included in the history of our country and the Russian fleet, in the history of geographical and ethnographic discoveries.

The Kamchatka expeditions contributed to strengthening Russia's position in the Pacific Ocean. They contributed to the development of economic and trade relations with the Pacific countries. The work of the Kamchatka expeditions (1725-1743) proved the existence of a strait between Asia and America, mapped the entire north-eastern coast of Asia from Kamchatka to the Bering Strait, opened a sea route from Kamchatka to Japan, completed the discovery of all the Kuril Islands, discovered the Commander Islands and the Aleutian Islands, the northwestern coast of America with adjacent islands.

The work of the Kamchatka expeditions led to a more detailed than previously described description of the Kuril Islands and the coast of northern Japan, the study of Kamchatka, extensive and diverse natural history and historical-geographical studies of the interior regions of Siberia, and a systematic description and mapping of the coasts of the Arctic Ocean over a vast distance from the Kara Sea to the Chukotka Peninsula, as well as the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea from Cape Lopatka to Cape Dezhnev. The previously very vague and fragmentary information about the relative location of parts of Northeast Asia and Northwest America and the distance between them was significantly clarified.

Noting the role of the navy in the discovery and development of new lands, Pravda wrote: “The Russian fleet has glorious traditions. Our people have always loved maritime affairs. Russian sailors have enriched science with major discoveries, research, and inventions. They have the honor of discovering the Pacific coast Asia and North America, exploration of the most diverse parts of the Pacific Ocean."

The first Kamchatka expedition 1725-1730. occupies a special place in the history of science. It was the first major marine scientific expedition in the history of Russia, undertaken by government decision. In organizing and conducting the expedition, a large role and credit belongs to the navy. The starting point of the First Kamchatka Expedition was the personal decree of Peter I on the organization of the “First Kamchatka Expedition” under the command of Vitus Bering. On December 23, 1724, a decree was issued on the appointment of an expedition, and on January 6, 1725, 3 weeks before his death, Peter I personally wrote instructions to Bering, consisting of three points. At the beginning of January 1725, Peter I handed this instruction to the commander-in-chief of the navy, Admiral General F. M. Apraksin.

Here it is: “February 5, 1725. Instructions given by the highest orders to Captain Bering of the fleet. On the opening of a connection between Asia and America. 1. One or two boats with decks are to be built in Kamchatka or another customs place. 2. On these boats, sail near the land , which goes to the north, and according to hope (they don’t know the end of it) it seems that that land is part of America. 3. And in order to look for where it meets America and to get to which city of European possessions or if they see which ship European, to find out from him what this suit is called and take it in writing and visit the shore yourself and take the original statement and, putting it on the map, come here.”

From the text of the instructions it can be understood that, according to the ideas of Peter I, the continents are connected near Kamchatka. He believed that the land “that goes north” from Kamchatka is part of America. According to the king, the expedition was supposed to follow the coast of Asia and America connecting with it to the nearest European possessions in America or until they met any European ship that could provide information about the countries reached by the expedition. K. M. Baer claims that Peter I believed in the connection of the Asian and American continents. As evidence, he cites the tsar's instructions to Bering (1725), as well as to Evreinov and Luzhin (1719).

The expedition members had no doubt that the instructions of Peter I expressed an opinion about connecting the continents. A note dated August 13, 1728 by A. Chirikov, submitted to the head of the expedition V. Bering during the voyage (when the question of continuing the expedition was being decided), speaks of the shores along which they sailed to the north: “The land is the one about which there was an opinion, what is in common with America." Peter I developed the idea that there was no passage between America and Asia, probably due to the unreliability of the information at his disposal.

As for the maps compiled in Russia, on which northeast Asia is washed by the sea (FIGURE KAMCHATKA), their compilers could only rely on old Russian drawings and questioning information, no longer associated with any proven facts, since the campaign of S.I. Dezhnev was not known to government agencies at that time. Information about Dezhnev’s great geographical discovery was buried in Siberian archives for a long time. Scientists in Russia and Western Europe did not have a clear idea of ​​whether Asia was connected to America or whether there was a strait between them.

We should not forget that Peter I had “Drawings of all Siberian cities and lands” by S. U. Remezov, which summarized the enormous geographical material accumulated in Russian drawings and descriptions of travel by the beginning of the 18th century. In this drawing, in Northeast Asia, an “impassable prow” is stretched into the sea, extending beyond the frame of the drawing, which meant the possibility of connecting here with another land. At the same time, the experience of numerous unsuccessful voyages of English and Danish ships searching for the Northeast Passage, as well as ships sent for this purpose by Peter I himself, could give rise to the assumption of the existence of a connection between Asia and America. When drawing up the instructions, Peter I probably used the map of I.M. Evreinov, whom he remembered in December 1724, shortly before signing the decree on the expedition. The king’s demand to find Evreinov turned out to be impossible, since the latter was no longer alive. Evreinov’s map is cut off at the parallel 63° N. i.e., at a great distance from the northeastern tip of the Asian continent (Cape Dezhneva). But not far from Kamchatka, the coast of the Asian continent bends sharply towards America. Its ending is not shown. Perhaps Peter I said about this land, first “going north” and then bending towards America, that this is America, “before it they don’t know the end.”

In the historical and geographical literature, interpreting the meaning of Peter I’s instructions and clarifying the true objectives of the expedition turned out to be difficult and controversial. Some researchers argue that the First Kamchatka Expedition was a purely geographical enterprise and set as its task the solution of only one scientific problem - the question of connecting Asia with America.

However, some prominent experts, recognizing the geographical goals of the First Kamchatka Expedition, consider its tasks to be much broader than the only motive that was openly expressed in the official document. They believe that its objectives were to establish trade relations in North America and solve a complex set of economic and political problems, including strengthening the defense of the eastern borders of the state. V.I. Grekov has a different opinion. He believes that “the expedition was not entrusted with resolving the geographical problem of connecting or not connecting continents. It was supposed to resolve issues of national importance: to explore the route to America, adjacent to Asia, and to find out who is Russia’s closest neighbor on this continent.”

M.I. Belov wrote that, having reached the borders of the Asian continent, the Russians wanted to know, firstly, how far America was from these places; secondly, is there a sea passage from the “Icy Sea”, from the Arctic Ocean, to the “Warm Sea”, i.e. to the Pacific Ocean; thirdly, is it possible to establish maritime trade relations with rich Pacific countries, and above all with China; fourthly, is it possible to travel by sea to new islands, information about which was received from local residents of Chukotka and Kamchatka, and from there continue the geographical discoveries of “new lands”.

All these issues were considered in a comprehensive manner, from the point of view of economics and state policy. The plan of the expedition was as follows: through Siberia by land and along rivers to Okhotsk, from here by sea to Kamchatka and then sailing on ships in search of the strait. On January 24, 1725, the expedition members left St. Petersburg. To notify the Siberian governor about the expedition and oblige him to provide assistance, on January 30, 1725, a decree of the empress was sent to Siberia, which contained some unclear points. For this reason, at the request of Bering, at the beginning of February of the same 1725, a second decree was sent, which listed all types of assistance needed by the expedition. In January 1727, the expedition reached Okhotsk. Even before Bering’s arrival in Okhotsk, a ship was built here for the expedition in 1725, which was launched in June 1727 and named “Fortune”.

On this ship, the expedition members, along with all their equipment, moved from Okhotsk to Bolsheretsk, located at the mouth of the river, on September 4, 1727. Bolshaya on the western coast of Kamchatka. The sea route from Okhotsk to Kamchatka was discovered by the expedition of K. Sokolov and N. Treski in 1717, but the sea route from the Sea of ​​Okhotsk to the Pacific Ocean had not yet been discovered.

Therefore, sailing around Kamchatka through the First Kuril Strait, which had not been explored, was dangerous. Cross the peninsula along the Bolshaya river, its tributary Bystraya and the river. Kamchatka also failed: Shpanberg, sent with property on 30 ships, was caught in the cold. For these reasons, already in winter, it was necessary to deliver materials and provisions by dogs from Bolsheretsk to the Nizhnekamchatsky prison with great difficulties. Many researchers unreasonably criticize him for the fact that Bering made all these transportations not by sea, but by land. However, this criticism is unfair.

In the Nizhnekamchatsky fort, under the leadership of Bering, on April 4, 1728, a boat was laid down, which in June of the same year was launched and named “St. Archangel Gabriel.” On this ship, Bering and his companions sailed through the strait in 1728, which was later named after the leader of the expedition. In 1729, Bering made a second voyage on the same ship and, without returning to Kamchatka, arrived in Okhotsk the same year. Bering's return to the capital took eight months. In 1730 the expedition returned to St. Petersburg.

Analysis of Bering's voyages on the boat "St. Gabriel" is impossible without studying and using documents about the voyage of this ship. In 1730, after the end of the First Kamchatka Expedition, Bering presented reporting materials: the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel", the Final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition, a report on the results of the expedition's activities, "Catalogue of cities and notable places in Siberia, marked on the map ...", "Table showing the distances in Russian versts to cities and notable places...". Apart from the listed documents, there are no other solid sources by which one can judge the results of the voyages of the boat "St. Gabriel" during the First Kamchatka Expedition. There was no representative of the Academy of Sciences on the ship who could describe these voyages; none of the ship's crew members kept any personal diaries. The logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" is of primary importance for covering Bering's voyages during the First Kamchatka Expedition. Special expedition logs were not issued to Russian ships of the 18th-19th centuries going on sea expeditions - they were replaced by watchmen. Logbooks of expeditionary ships until the beginning of the 19th century. were kept as secret documents and were inaccessible even to scientists of the Academy of Sciences. That is why many discoveries of Russian people did not become the property of world science. Foreign navigators, sailing much later than the Russians, gave their names to the already discovered lands and, thus, perpetuated them. In the middle of the 19th century. The situation changed and extracts from the logbooks even began to be published in the press.

However, this did not last long, and by the end of the 19th century. logbooks as sources of scientific knowledge were forgotten again. Until now, not only the logbooks of Bering's ships, but also many other logs have not been used to analyze the voyages of Russian naval expeditions. The TsGAVMF alone stores more than 100,000 logbooks of ships of the Russian fleet, of which only two have been fully used by researchers. Like other logs, the log of the boat "St. Gabriel" in the 18th century. was classified. Academician G. F. Miller, the first historiographer of Bering's voyage, was not familiar with this document when in 1753-1758. on behalf of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, he compiled a description of the voyages of the First Kamchatka Expedition. There are known reproductions of a number of pages of the magazine in the 19th century, and the use with significant distortions of individual passages by V. N. Verkh, F. P. Litke, V. V. Bakhtin.

But in general, the main document - the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" - remained poorly studied, which, undoubtedly, was one of the main reasons for the incomplete, and in some cases incorrect description of voyages, and many errors in the analysis of specific geographical discoveries of 1728-1729. From 1890 to the present time, no publications have been found about the logbook of the Bering expedition. In the historical and geographical literature, there is an opinion that the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" is lost. Some researchers even doubted whether a logbook was kept at all during Bering's voyages in 1728-1729. The original logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" was discovered in 1973 in the Central State Archive of the USSR Navy in Leningrad by the author of the published work. Logbook during the voyage of the boat "St. Gabriel" in 1728-1729. was filled out systematically, entries were made in it hourly. This journal was conscientiously kept by the navigators of the bot "St. Gabriel" Lieutenant A. Chirikov and midshipman P. Chaplin. Some researchers have suggested that Bering underestimated the fact that his expedition was scientific. However, the logbook of the bot "St. Gabriel" refutes this opinion. The rules for keeping log books required performing astronomical observations once a day, recording the calculated latitudes and longitudes with an accuracy of the minute. Bering and his navigators understood that their ship was an expedition ship. Astronomical determinations on the ship were made two, and sometimes (when weather conditions permitted) three times a day. The values ​​of latitudes and longitudes were recorded in the logbook with an accuracy of one hundredth of a minute. Bearings (directions) to coastal landmarks were taken not in bearings (as was customary in the 18th century), but in degrees, and their readings were recorded with an accuracy of one minute. In the 18th century the time of taking bearings was indicated in hours, A. Chirikov and P. Chaplin recorded the time of direction finding in the journal accurate to the minute. All observations were carefully recorded in the logbook. During the voyage to the Bering Strait (1728) and then along the coast of Kamchatka (1729), the ship's commander and his navigators described the coast, making geographical discoveries every day. The inventory was carried out systematically, carefully and conscientiously. On some days, sailors took bearings of up to 8 landmarks. The recordings of bearings to sighted coastal objects in the logbook are so detailed that they make it possible to reconstruct with sufficient accuracy what geographical discoveries were made. Most of these discoveries remained unknown, as did the records of the St. Gabriel's voyage through the strait between Asia and America.

Geographical discoveries and research are always accompanied by cartography, so the map is one of the main sources of the history of discoveries. Materials relating to the First Kamchatka Expedition mention three maps presented by Bering. We learn about the first of them from the minutes of the Conference of the Academy of Sciences dated January 17, 1727, which talks about J. N. Delisle’s consideration of “Captain Bering’s map of Russia.” The second map, compiled by V. Bering and P. Chaplin depicting the route from Tobolsk to Okhotsk, was sent from Okhotsk in June 1727. The third (final) map of the expedition was attached to Bering’s report. We became aware of the fourth map only in 1971. The authentic map of V. Bering and P. Chaplin following the expedition was discovered by A. I. Alekseev in 1969 in the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts, and later it was published by A. V. Efimov.

This map shows the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition. The map of V. Bering and P. Chaplin of 1729 provided valuable information about the northeastern tip of Siberia and formed the basis for cartographic works, starting with the atlas of I.K. Kirillov, and had a huge influence on world cartography. The final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition became known to researchers soon after the end of the expedition. This document proves that during the First Kamchatka Expedition, for the first time, the coast of northeast Asia from the mouth of the river was completely correctly mapped. Hunting to Cape Kekurny (Chukotsky Peninsula). It is enough to compare the map of I. Goman of 1725 (see Fig. 1), reflecting the achievements of geographical science at the beginning of the First Kamchatka Expedition, with the map of V. Bering and P. Chaplin of 1729 (Fig. 3) to be convinced that the North -East Asia was first explored and mapped by Bering and his assistants. The final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition was widely disseminated in Russia and abroad and was used in the compilation of maps by J. N. Delisle (1731, 1733, 1750, 1752), I. K. Kirillov (1733-1734), Zh. Dugald (1735), J. B. D'Anville (1737, 1753), I. Gazius (1743), authors of the Academic Atlas (1745), A. I. Chirikovsh (1746) , G. F. Miller (1754-1758) [Kushnarev, 1976, pp. 130-137]. The first historical maps of the voyage "St. Gabriel", compiled by A.I. Nagaev and V.N. Verkh. The coastline of the northeastern part of the Asian continent on the Final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition and on modern maps is in many ways similar. The map shows the discoveries made by Bering during his voyage 1728: the Ozernoy, Ilpinsky, Olyutorsky peninsulas, capes Nizky, Kamchatsky, Opukinsky, etc. The Gulf of Anadyr with its entrance capes Navarin and Chukotsky is well shown.In this gulf, the ship’s commander and his navigator correctly marked the Gulf of the Cross, Cape Thaddeus, Gabriel Bay, Cape Otvesny, Preobrazheniya Bay, etc. The outlines of the Asian coasts north of the Gulf of Anadyr are also shown quite accurately on the map: capes Chukotsky, Kygynin, Chaplin, Tkachen Bay, etc.

The Final Map shows that the Chukotka Peninsula (its easternmost point is Cape Dezhnev) is not connected to any land; in the Bering Strait the Diomede Islands are plotted, the island is correctly shown. St. Lawrence. The huge archipelagos that we see on Academic maps are absent on this map; The three northern Kuril Islands, the southeastern and southwestern coasts of Kamchatka are correctly mapped.

An important source of materials about the outcome of the voyages is the General Map of the Maritime Academy of 1746, which became well known only in recent decades. On the map of the Maritime Academy, the northeastern coast of Asia from the mouth of the river. The hunt to Cape Kekurny is based on the Final Map of the First Kamchatka Expedition and, in general, the achievements of the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions are quite correctly summarized. Bering's report to the Admiralty Boards contains a very brief and schematic description of the expedition's work and is undoubtedly a secondary source, as well as the appendix to it - "Catalogue" and "Table".

There is an erroneous opinion that Bering, in addition to the report, also submitted a “Brief Report on the Siberian Expedition...” to the Admiralty Board in April 1730. This misunderstanding arose because Bering’s original report did not have a title and in the copy of the report taken from the original, a note was made: “A brief report on the Siberian expedition...”. For about a hundred years since the end of the expedition, Bering's report has not been published in full. During this time, individual authors published in print a number of extracts from both the original report and a copy, giving the said document their own names: short report, report, brief report, etc.

V. Bering, along with a report on the results of the expedition, also presented to the Admiralty Board a “Catalogue of the cities and notable places of Siberia, put on the map, through which the route was, in what width and length it was, and the length is calculated from Tobolsk.” In addition to these main documents, there are also extracts from the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel", written proposals by Shpanberg and Chirikov and Bering's resolution on these proposals for further voyage on August 13, 1728.

These sources contain partial information about the First Kamchatka Expedition and do not reproduce a complete and objective picture of Bering’s voyages in 1728-1729. Their analysis will be given when describing Bering's voyage in 1728.

It must be taken into account that a number of documents about the voyages of "St. Gabriel" in 1728-1729. does not reflect the true state of affairs. This applies to such documents as “Report on the Kamchatka Expedition, compiled by the Admiralty Collegium, October 5, 1738.” and some others. Such documents require a critical approach, comparison with real facts, other documents, etc.

A review of documents and sources about Bering’s voyages during the First Kamchatka Expedition shows that many were interested in this issue, but none of the researchers thoroughly studied and analyzed the main documents - the logbook and maps. One of the reasons for the different approaches to assessing the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions is that much less is known about Bering’s voyages during these expeditions than about the expeditions as a whole. We know about V. Bering’s voyage in 1728 only from the few surviving sources, which do not make it possible to fully evaluate its results.

The lack of documents on the voyage at the disposal of researchers led to the fact that the assessment of the Kamchatka expeditions was given not according to the results of the activities of the expedition vessels, but according to sources revealing preparations for the voyages. Bering's voyages occupied a short period of time throughout the entire expedition. The first Kamchatka expedition lasted 5 years, and the voyage itself on the boat "St. Gabriel" lasted three months. The rest of the time was taken up by preparatory activities: the transition from St. Petersburg to Kamchatka, the procurement of provisions and building materials, the construction of ships, and the return. The second Kamchatka expedition lasted 10 years, and the voyage of the packet boat "St. Peter" itself lasted six months. For four years, the expedition members traveled from St. Petersburg to Okhotsk through the Siberian roadless taiga wilds; it took another four years to build expedition ships suitable for ocean navigation; the rest of the time is swimming and returning to St. Petersburg. It is quite clear that in 4 years and nine months many more sources were collected than in 3 months; just as in 9.5 years, significantly more documents have been accumulated than in six months.

For more than 250 years, a significant fund of fundamental research, reviews, scientific articles, publications on various aspects of the work of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions and on the great Russian geographical discoveries in the first half of the 18th century has been accumulated. Sources for the history of Kamchatka expeditions are quite numerous. They are most fully characterized by A.I. Andreev in the “Review of the materials of the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions” and in the essay “Proceedings and materials of the academic detachment of the Second Kamchatka Expedition”. Among the archival sources, a significant place is occupied by materials from the current office work of institutions related to the preparation, organization and conduct of the Kamchatka expeditions, including correspondence between Bering and other officials of the expedition with the Supreme Privy Council, the Senate, the Admiralty Board, the Academy of Sciences, the Siberian Prikaz, local Siberian offices.

The nature of the documents is extremely diverse: decrees, job descriptions and other official documents, reports and denunciations, extracts, replies, statements, cartographic materials, etc. A small part of these documents has been published and used by scientists, but many of them continue to be stored in state archives, mainly in TsGVIA, TsGADA, AAN. Some of the documents are stored in the TsGAVMF. Many documents from the Kamchatka expeditions remained in Tobolsk, and their fate is still unknown. In the Central State Archive of the Navy, documents about the Kamchatka expeditions were deposited mainly in the archival funds of the Admiralty Collegiums, V. Bering, N.F. Golovin, Hydrography, the Military Maritime Commission, the Office of Apraksin and Chernyshev, and the Central Cartographic Production. The collection of the Admiralty Collegiums contains materials from the central naval institution of Russia from the 20s to the 50s. XVIII century - Admiralty boards concerning expeditions of the first and partly the second half of the XVIII century. The collections of V. Bering and the Admiralty Boards primarily contain materials from both Bering expeditions. Some of the documents are kept in the collection of N. F. Golovin, who during the Second Kamchatka Expedition headed the Admiralty Board and was in active correspondence with many participants in this expedition. The funds of the TsGAVMF contain “Protocols to the decrees and instructions of the Senate and the Admiralty Collegiums of the Capt. Com. Bering...” (f. 216, on. 1, d. 87, l. 1-286); "Journals sent by Captain Bering from February 12, 1728 to March 20, 1730." (f. 216, op. 1, d. 110, l. 1-211); "Protocols of reports submitted by Captain Bering to the Admiralty Board for 1725-1727." (f. 216, op. 1, d. 88); “Instruction of the Senate to Cap. Com. Bering... 1738” (f. 216, he. 1, d. 27); “Inventory of papers, files and maps for 1732-1745...” (f. 216, op. 1, d. 105); “Journal of outgoing documents” (f. 216, op. 1, d. 112); “Inventory of the affairs of Captain-Commander Bering” (f. 216, op. 1, d. 118) and many other files. The Military Scientific Archive Fund of the Central State Military Historical Archive (TSGVIA) contains mainly cartographic materials about the Kamchatka expeditions.

Many documents about the preparation for the voyages of Bering, Chirikov and other participants of the Kamchatka expeditions are stored in the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts (TSGADA) in the funds of the Senate, State Archives, Miller (“Miller portfolios”), etc. These funds contain “Cases on Bering’s Kamchatka Expeditions (1725-1741)" (f. 130, op. 1, d. 34); "On Bering's expeditions (1725-1741)" (f. 199, op. 1, d. 3180); “Cases on the participants of the Second Kamchatka Expedition of Bering...” (f. 7, op. 1, d. 9466), etc. The Archives of the Academy of Sciences in funds 3 and 21 contain files relating to the Second Kamchatka Expedition and its participants; Fond 3 contains manuscripts written by G.V. Steller. Some of the materials from the Kamchatka expeditions are stored in other archives: AVPR (Foundation of Siberian Affairs), etc. The work used materials stored in the central archives of the country: TsGAVMF, f. 216, op. 1, d. 1, 4, 14, 15, 20, 29, 34, 54, 87, 88, 110; f. 913, op. 1, d. 1,2, 4, 5; "TsGVIA, f. VUA, d. 20227, 20265, 20289, 23431, 23466, 23469, 23470, 23471. TsGADA, f. 130, op. 1, d. 34, 36, 151, 192, 435; f." Siberian affairs", no. 1.

Many archival documents shed light on Bering’s relationship with the Siberian authorities, as well as on the dishonest actions of individual members of the expedition, prone to denunciations, quarrelsomeness, etc. By persistently demanding assistance from local commanders, the expedition found itself in very difficult relations with the local authorities. First of all, complaints arose against Bering for interfering in matters that were allegedly not subject to his handling. Correspondence on this issue reached the Senate. The number of denunciations from the localities against Bering grew with every day of his stay in Yakutsk and Okhotsk. It is worth mentioning at least some of the cases on this issue stored in the Central State Military Marine Fleet: “On the accusation by Skornyakov-Pisarev of Captain-Commander Bering, Captain Shpanberg and Chirikov... 1737-1745,” f. 216, op. 1, d. 29, l. 1-332; “On the reports of Skornyakov-Pisarev on Bering, Shpanberg and Chirikov... 1733-1753,” f. 216, op. 1, d. 34, l. 1-269; “On the quarrel between Skornyakov-Pisarev and Captain Shpanberg... 1734-1737,” f. 216, op. 1, d. 20, l. 1-595; “On the consideration of complaints and denunciations against captain Shpanberg and Chirikov... 1733-1737,” f. 216, op. 1, d. 14, l. 1 - 132; “On the investigation of Lieutenant Plautin’s complaints against Capt. Commander Bering... 1735-1740,” f. 216, op. 1, no. 15, l. 1 - 158; "Documents on the Kamchatka investigative commission... 1740-1743", f. 216, op. 1, d. 54, l. 1-127.

Materials about endless denunciations against Bering and other leaders of the expedition by the Siberian authorities and individual members of the expedition are also available in other files of f. 216 (nos. 58, 61, 62, 68, 69, 74, etc.). Each of these cases is no less in volume than those listed. These denunciations, as a rule, have no basis, and most of them cannot be taken into account; these materials create a false and very unsightly picture of the progress of the Kamchatka expeditions; they played a negative role in the assessment of the Kamchatka expeditions and their leaders: Bering, Chirikov and others.

Numerous archival sources generally reveal the organizational and preparatory periods of the expedition in sufficient detail and in many ways. The number of historical sources directly relating to the voyages on the boat "St. Gabriel" and the packet boat "St. Peter", i.e. the main and final result of all many years of work, is very limited.

The disproportion in the composition and use of published and archival sources left a deep imprint on the analytical work of researchers, most of whom gave a scientific assessment of expeditions using secondary sources. For the same reason, a lot of significant errors, conflicting opinions, tendentious assessments have penetrated into the scientific literature when describing the voyages of expeditions and analyzing the reliability of certain Russian geographical discoveries. When studying Bering's voyages, it is necessary to take into account that the assessment of the results of the First and Second Kamchatka expeditions by frequently changing government cabinets was biased. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna spoke out against the foreigners who ruled Russia under Empress Anna Ioannovna. The government of Elizaveta Petrovna was hostile to foreigners who served in the navy, civil service or in the Academy of Sciences. Since Bering was a foreigner, the reaction against foreigners extended to him. Academician K. M. Baer claims that the main reason for excessive criticism of Bering’s shortcomings is that he was a foreigner, and he also accuses A. P. Sokolov of this. In the 18th century Very little was done to publish the results of the Kamchatka expeditions. The imperial decree of September 23, 1743 put an end to any activities related to the research activities of the Kamchatka expeditions. During Elizabeth's reign, nothing was done to publish the results of the extensive and expensive research carried out under Bering's direction or to improve the reputation of the researchers. The reports of Bering and his employees, which amounted to a mountain of manuscripts, were buried in the archives of small Siberian administrative centers or in the archives of the Admiralty. Only from time to time scant and usually incorrect news leaked out and became known to the general public.

Many leaders of the Kamchatka expeditions died soon after its completion. V.I. Bering died before the end of the expedition; A.I. Chirikov was forced to wait in Siberia for four years, and then he returned to the capital to appear with a report, but died two years later. Along with the change of governments during the work of the Kamchatka expeditions, the composition of the Admiralty Boards also changed, and among its members from October 1739 there were people who believed that the huge funds spent were not justified by the modest benefits that the expedition had brought so far, that it was working very slowly, etc. These sentiments existed in the first years of the expedition, but only five years later they received expression in the judgments of the country's central government agency, the Cabinet.

By 1742, views in government circles on the significance of the Kamchatka expeditions had completely changed. A. I. Osterman was in exile, and N. F. Golovin, who remained at the head of the Admiralty Boards, lost his former influence. Some of the enemies acquired by the leadership of the expedition in Siberia and Kamchatka were rehabilitated, returned from exile to St. Petersburg and took high positions. They, of course, tried to present the expedition in black. In this regard, a detailed note submitted to the Senate by G. Fick, who was in exile in Yakutia for over 10 years, is characteristic. In it, he points out the harm caused by the expedition, on which a lot of money is spent and which imposes an unbearable burden on the local population. A “Brief Extract about the Kamchatka Expedition” also appeared without a date or indication of the author’s surname, attributed to G. G. Skornyakov-Pisarev, in which, with great distortion, the results of the activities of the First and Second Kamchatka Expeditions are summed up and speaks of “the ruin of Bering and the comrades of the best Siberian the edges".

The TsGAVMF keeps several files started as a result of denunciations by V. Kazantsev, who presents all the files of the Second Kamchatka Expedition in black. Among them is the case “On the analysis of the points of the former captain-lieutenant Kazantsev about the unprofitability of the Bering expedition for the state... 1736-1747.”

At the end of 1742, the Senate began to persistently demand from the Admiralty Boards information about the activities of expeditions. The collected data showed that the results of the Kamchatka expeditions were very significant. Despite this, the Senate, in a report presented to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in September 1743, took the side of the expeditions’ ill-wishers. The aforementioned “Brief Extract” was attached to the report. The assessment of the results of the Kamchatka expeditions by government agencies during the time of Elizabeth Petrovna was too short-sighted. The history of Kamchatka expeditions has not attracted due attention for a long time. When studying Bering's Kamchatka expeditions, important material is contained in the works of Russian, Soviet and foreign historians and geographers, which in one way or another relate to the problem of Bering's voyages during these expeditions. In the description of the voyages of Bering's ships, the same picture is observed, which A.G. Tartakovsky writes about as typical. “Very often, when conducting research, the lines between what has been precisely established and what has not yet been definitively clarified, or that has been clarified only in the most general terms and needs further substantiation, are blurred. Knowledge, which in a given state of science has a speculative nature, is given the meaning of irrefutable truths that is not characteristic of it... .gaps in factual data are filled in by a chain of his own conclusions... unreliable and unverified information sometimes coexist on an equal footing with true knowledge. In other words, we are talking about a logically untenable substitution of the proven for the unproven. It is precisely with the lack of the proper level of evidence that the consumer approach to the source is associated ...and ultimately, the unresolved nature of many controversial issues in historical science."

After the end of the First Kamchatka Expedition, Bering presented documents on the results of the expedition to the Admiralty Board. However, the study of the main documents (the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" and the Final map of the First Kamchatka Expedition) was not done for unknown reasons.

As a result of preliminary acquaintance with the documents about Bering's voyage, it was concluded that Bering's expedition proved the existence of the Northeast Passage. Based on this conclusion, a short printed message about the First Kamchatka Expedition was published in the St. Petersburg Gazette dated March 16, 1730. It stated with sufficient certainty that Bering reached 67° 19 "N" and then he invented , that there is a truly north-eastern passage, so that from Lena, if ice did not interfere in the northern country, by water, to Kamchatka and then further to Japan, Hina and the East Indies, it would be possible to get there, and besides He also learned from the local residents that before 50 or 60 years a certain ship from Lena arrived to Kamchatka.”

Bering's message should be considered the world's first published document asserting the existence of a strait between Northeast Asia and Northwest America as a result of its actual passage carried out by qualified sailors using modern scientific methods of observation. It also conveys Bering’s conviction about the possibility of a sea route from the Arctic Ocean to the Pacific, based on the news that existed in Siberia about the 1648 campaign of Dezhnev and Popov.

A report about Bering's expedition was published the same year in the Copenhagen newspaper Nye Tidender. Judging by the content of this message in P. Lauridsen's broadcast, it was an abbreviated summary of a note from the St. Petersburg Gazette. This newspaper information became the property of the educated society of Europe. The publication in the newspaper could not appear without the knowledge of government agencies.

Consequently, the opinion that Bering provided sufficient evidence of the existence of a strait between Asia and America was initially widespread in official circles.

In addition, the initial positive assessment of the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition by official circles is also seen in the fact that the Admiralty Board and the Senate awarded Bering and his assistants. Returning from the First Kamchatka Expedition in August 1730, V.I. Bering was, by the highest order, out of turn promoted to captain-commander. His assistants also received promotions. M.P. Shpanberg received the rank of captain of the third rank, A.I. Chirikov - captain-lieutenant. All of them received not just another title, but “for distinction.” In addition to the rank, Bering, “in honor of the great difficulty and distance of the expedition” with the rank of captain-commander, received, on the recommendation of the Admiralty boards, a double monetary reward, i.e. 1000 rubles.

A positive assessment of Bering’s activities as the head of the First Kamchatka Expedition should also be seen in the fact that in 1732 he was appointed head of the much larger Second Kamchatka Expedition. After the mentioned newspaper report about the discovery of the Bering Strait, the First Kamchatka Expedition was forgotten in official circles. The expedition materials were buried in the Admiralty archives, where they remained virtually inaccessible to researchers for many years. In Western Europe, no information about Bering appeared for 17 years, with the exception of the publication in 1735 in Paris of a map compiled by Bering and Chaplin in 1729. Again, the question is about the results of the expedition of 1725-1730. was raised in 1738 in connection with preparations for the Second Kamchatka Expedition. A re-evaluation of the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition is expressed in a number of sources, including in a document called: “Report on the Kamchatka Expedition, compiled by the Admiralty Board, October 5, 1738.” The report states that Bering, during the First Kamchatka Expedition, did not fulfill the tasks assigned to him, that is, he did not prove the existence of a strait between Asia and America.

The authors of the 1738 report believe that the documents presented by Bering cannot be trusted. The reason for this, in their opinion, is that the expedition only reached 67° N. latitude, and the coast from 67° N. w. “he (Bering.- /!. S.) put it according to the previous maps and statements, and the tax rates on the non-connection for authenticity are doubtful and unreliable...”. The staff of the Admiralty Boards apparently had doubts that “according to the previous maps and statements” not only the coast was located north of 67° N. sh., but also to the south, from metro Dezhnev to metro Chukotsky.

The second accusation that was brought against Bering was that he had not studied the possibilities of sailing in the Arctic Ocean from Cape Dezhnev to the mouths of the Ob and Lena: “... and also about the route near the land by sea from the Ob river to the Lena and It is as if partly near that shore is impossible, and about some places nothing is known, and for this reason it is impossible to assert, because there are no reliable not only maps, but also statements.” G. F. Miller points out that the Admiralty Board changed its mind and questioned the existence of the Northeast Passage in 1736-1738. This corresponds to the time the report was compiled in 1738. Both accusations against Bering are unfounded; we will dwell on this when describing the voyage of the boat "St. Gabriel" in 1728. The assessment of the work of the First Kamchatka Expedition in the report of 1738 was biased. The first Kamchatka expedition made great geographical discoveries. However, the 1738 report on the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition indicated only two geographical discoveries made by the participants of this expedition: the discovery on August 6, 1728 of the “small bay” (Preobrazheniya Bay), and on August 16, 1728 - the “islands” ( one of the Diomede Islands).

It should be noted that Bering, in a report submitted to the Admiralty Board on February 10, 1730, lists his discoveries made during the expedition too modestly. Bering's report lists the same geographical discoveries that the 1738 report treats. But Bering presented to the Admiralty Board as evidence of his discoveries not only the report, but also the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" along with the Final Map of 1729. According These documents could provide a deeper understanding of the results of the expedition. However, the officials of the Admiralty Collegiums, who compiled a report to the government on the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition (report of 1738), did not bother analyzing the logbook of the boat "St. Gabriel" and the Final Map of the First Kamchatka Expedition. They rewrote Bering's report of February 10, 1730 almost word for word, and with this they completed their work of collecting materials about the results of the expedition. The Admiralty Board, which had the map and journal of the First Kamchatka Expedition, did not analyze these documents, and the main positive results of the expedition of 1725-1730. were not published. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the historians of the voyages of the boat "St. Gabriel" (who did not even have at their disposal the full text of Bering's report of February 10, 1730) were far from the true meaning of the results of the First Kamchatka Expedition. The literature of the 18th century devoted to the description of the voyages of the boat "St. Gabriel" and the packet boat "St. Peter" is of very little value, since the main documents about the voyages of Russian expeditionary ships, as noted above, were classified at that time and inaccessible to researchers . After the first reports of Bering's voyages during the First Kamchatka Expedition, his name became known not only in Russia, but also in Europe. A previously unknown pastor from the Bering family, also Vitus, published a genealogy of his family in 1749. Interest in the results of the Kamchatka expeditions was very great, as evidenced, for example, by the correspondence of foreign scientists with the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. But, despite this, the discoveries of the Kamchatka expeditions remained closed for a long time, and only accidental ones went abroad.

Features of the set

The Russian company “Master Ship” has developed this model, which stands out for its high quality and detailed elaboration of the model itself and parts, laser application of a line for processing the edges of the frames. Special hull design that compensates for the deformation of materials, laser cutting of each plank and parts, double skinning, photo-etched brass parts, patterns and fabric for making sails. Even a novice modeler will be able to assemble this model, thanks to step-by-step, detailed photo instructions, drawings and recommendations for assembling the model.

Drills required for the construction of this model - with a diameter of 0.9 mm, 1.5 mm, 2.5 mm, 4.0 mm (tools are not included in the kit)

Historical reference

A special place in the history of Kamchatka, famous for its Russian ships, is occupied by the boat “St. Archangel Gabriel” - the first sea vessel, built in 1728 from local forest. Bot "St. Gabriel" served in the Pacific Ocean for 27 years, until 1755. Many discoveries and glorious historical events are associated with him: the voyage of the first European ship beyond the Arctic Circle in the Chukchi Sea in 1728, the discovery of Alaska in 1732, participation in the survey of the south -the western coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the Shantar Islands in 1730, participation in the suppression of the Itelmen uprising and the founding of a new Lower Kamchatka fort, the first Russian visit to Japan in 1739, exploration of Avacha Bay and the founding in 1740 of one of the oldest cities in Russian Far East - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Such famous Russian navigators as V.Y. Bering, A.I. Chirikov, M.P. Shpanberg, P.A. Chaplin and others sailed on the “St. Gabriel”. On December 23, 1724, Peter I signed a decree of the Admiralty Board on organizing the First Kamchatka Expedition. The idea of ​​the expedition arose from Peter I in the last months of his life as part of grandiose geographical research. Peter I planned to establish direct maritime relations with India, for which he was going to send an expedition to explore the sea route from Arkhangelsk to the Pacific Ocean. But for this it was necessary to clarify the question: is there a strait separating Asia and America. Documents from the First (1725-1730) and Second (1733-1743) Kamchatka expeditions, as well as the campaigns of A.F. Shestakov and D.I. Pavlutsky (1727-1746) allow us to trace the main stages of the activities of “St. Gabriel" from the moment of its laying until the end of the Second Kamchatka Expedition. Unfortunately, it is not possible to trace his further fate using the documents available to us.

1st Kamchatka expedition of V. Bering by decree of Peter the Great

Laser-applied markings on frames.
Special housing design that compensates for material deformation.
Step-by-step photo instructions, drawings and recommendations for assembling the model
Laser cutting of each cladding board and parts.
Double skin.

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