Vitus Jonassen Bering- an outstanding Russian officer, navigator and explorer of the first half of the 18th century. Explorer of the coast of Kamchatka, Chukotka and the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. At the age of 22, he enlisted in the Russian service and served Russia faithfully until the end of his days. The Commander Islands, the Bering Sea and the strait between Asia and America are named in his honor. The founder of the current capital of Kamchatka, the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

Vitus Jonassen Bering

Was born

Parents

V. Bering bore the surname of his mother Anna Bering, who belonged to the famous Danish family. The navigator's father was a church warden.

Childhood and youth

Nothing is known for certain about Bering’s childhood. It is only known that as a young man he took part in a voyage to the shores of the East Indies (that is, simply India), from where he returned to Amsterdam in 1703.

To Russian service

At that time, throughout Europe, the “agents” of Tsar Peter I were searching for and recruiting intelligent foreigners - military personnel, sailors and other specialists - into the Russian service. In Amsterdam, the selection of sailors “with work experience” was carried out by Admiral Cornelius Ivanovich Cruys. Fate would have brought Cruys and Bering together. And the young Danish sailor decided to try his luck in a foreign land.

In St. Petersburg, Bering was first appointed commander of a small ship. It delivered timber from the banks of the Neva to the island of Kotlin, where, by order of Peter I, the naval citadel of the Russian fleet, Kronstadt, was built. Obviously, Bering showed sufficient zeal for service, for which he was promoted to lieutenant in 1707.

He was truly zealous about any assignment. His diligence was appreciated and he was assigned various responsible tasks, as Bering’s track record eloquently speaks of. His entire biography, in fact, is a track record in the service of the new fatherland.

Vitus Bering's track record

1703 – Amsterdam. Dane Bering enters Russian service.

1707 – promoted to lieutenant in Russia.

1710 – transferred to the Azov flotilla. Promoted to lieutenant commander. Commanded nasty"Munker".

1710 - 1712 participated in the war with Turkey as part of the Azov flotilla.

1712 - transferred to the Baltic Fleet.

1713 - in Vyborg he married Anna Christina, the daughter of one of the local burghers.

1715 - promoted to captain 4th rank. In the same year, Vitus Bering visited his homeland for the last time and never returned there.

1716 - Captain 4th Rank Bering commanded the ship Pearl.

1717 - promoted to captain 3rd rank.

In 1719 he commanded the ship "Selafail".

In 1720 he was promoted to captain of the 2nd rank, commanded the ship "Malburg" and others.

In 1723, after serving 20 years in the Russian fleet, Vitus Bering suddenly submitted his resignation. (Allegedly Bering applied for the rank of captain I rank, but not receiving it, he decided to leave the service.) Whether this is true or not is not known for certain.

Peter I - initiator of the Kamchatka expedition

But it is known for sure that on December 23, 1724, Peter I issued a decree on organizing an expedition to Kamchatka and instructed the Admiralty Board to select a worthy naval officer to lead it. The Admiralty Board proposed to put Captain V.I. Bering at the head of the expedition “since he was in the East Indies and knows his way around.” Peter I agreed with the proposed candidacy.

Bering is again accepted into naval service and given the rank of captain I rank. Peter himself wrote out the objectives of the expedition to Bering in his own hand:

1. It is necessary to make one or two boats with decks in Kamchatka or elsewhere.

2. On these boats [to go] near the land that goes to the North and, as expected, before they know the end, it seems that that land is part of America.

3. And in order to look for where it came into contact with America and to get to which city of the European possessions... And to visit the shore ourselves and take the real statement and, putting it on the map, come here.

Bering decisively gets down to business and after 2 weeks the first officers and sailors set off from St. Petersburg to the east. Thanks to Bering's personal energy, the expedition was not hindered by either the sudden death of Peter I or the subsequent political squabble for the throne in the highest Russian circles.

Bering and his comrades brilliantly coped with the task - they explored and mapped most of the coast of Kamchatka and Chukotka. And most importantly, they proved that Asia and America are not connected to each other. Not finding the American coast, the expedition returned to Okhotsk, circumnavigating Kamchatka from the south for the first time, mapping its true borders and proving that Kamchatka was not connected to Japan, as some believed.

Returning to St. Petersburg, Bering provided a detailed report to the Admiralty. However, his reports were treated with caution and distrust. Despite all the doubts, the works of Bering and his comrades were appreciated, he received the rank of captain-commander and 1000 rubles in money.

As it turned out, shortly before Bering, a certain Cossack Colonel Shestakov returned from Yakutsk, who at one time “extorted funds” from the government to survey the northern territories and promised to “conquer all the Chukchi.” The maps brought by Bering did not fit in with Shestakov’s “products” because they were much more accurate and literate.

The maps compiled by Bering's team were surprisingly accurate for that time. Their quality was highly appreciated by James Cook himself, who sailed in the same places at the same time with similar goals. (By the way, D. Cook’s task was to find the “northern sea route” from east to west of the American continent.)

Bering not only compiled a detailed report on the results of his first trip to Kamchatka, but also took the initiative to organize a second Kamchatka expedition, with the goal of further exploration of the northeastern lands and finding the eastern sea route to America.

The report about Vitus Bering, a Russian traveler and navigator of Danish origin, captain-commander, is presented in this article.

Message about Vitus Bering

The future traveler was born in the village of Horsens in 1681. It is known that in 1703 he graduated from the Amsterdam cadet corps. His valiant service began with his participation in the East India Company. She opened the way for him to the Russian fleet. Having the position of non-commissioned officer, the navigator Vitus Bering in 1707 commanded the schooner "Munker", which sailed in the Sea of ​​​​Azov. He took an active part in the battles with Turkey, for which he received a new rank - lieutenant commander. In 1712, he was transferred to the Baltic Fleet, and the navigator began to command the frigate Pearl. As a result of successful service, he was awarded the next rank of captain of the third rank. In 1713, he married his longtime acquaintance Anna Christina Pilse, with whom 8 children were born (only 3 survived). The wife constantly accompanied her husband on his travels, for which she was called the commander.

But major contribution of Vitus Bering in that he opened a strait connecting North America and Asia. Russian Tsar Peter I issued a decree on equipping an expedition of 100 people under the leadership of an already famous and authoritative navigator. The team set off in January 1725. After 2 years, she arrived in the village of Okhotsk, where construction of a ship began for sailing to Kamchatka. On July 13, 1728, the expedition set out on the open sea. Vitus Bering's path went north. After a month of travel, a strait was discovered, which showed that North America and Asia are two different continents. In what year did Vitus Bering discover the strait? This grandiose event took place on August 26, 1728. He explored its western part, and, deciding that the mission had been achieved, turned home to St. Petersburg with a report on the work done. The Admiralty Board, satisfied with the result of the expedition, set the date for the second voyage - December 28, 1732. The goal is to explore the shores of North America and the Arctic Ocean, as well as the Land of Gamma (America). In the same year he received another title.

What was the rank of Vitus Bering? Peter I granted him the rank of captain-commander.

The second expedition was much more difficult. The scarcity of food, unfavorable sailing conditions, and lack of water led to an epidemic of scurvy on the ship. Vitus Bering decided to replenish his supplies of water and food by stopping on the island, which was later named after him. After spending the winter here, the navigator died in severe agony on December 8, 1741.

Vitus Bering's contribution to geography

He is responsible for surveying and mapping the Pacific coast of Kamchatka and Northeast Asia. He discovered the bays of the Cross, Karaginsky and Kamchatka, the Ozerny Peninsula, the islands of St. Lawrence, St. Elijah, Evdokeevsky Islands, St. John, St. Marcian, St. Stephen and Providence Bay.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Russia completed its “meeting the Sun” movement. The extreme eastern points of its Pacific coast were plotted on the map. Two expeditions led by Vitus Bering (1681 - 1741) played the most important role in shaping the eastern borders of the state. The talented naval officer proved himself not only as a capable captain, but also as an excellent organizer and supplier. The achievements of the two expeditions became a real breakthrough in the exploration of Siberia and the Far East and brought the native of Denmark the glory of the great Russian navigator.

1. Not only the Commander Islands, the sea, the cape, the village, the strait, the glacier and the island, but also a huge biogeographical region are named in honor of Bering. Beringia includes eastern Siberia, Kamchatka, Alaska and numerous islands.

2. The famous Danish watch brand is also named after Vitus Bering.

3. Vitus Bering was born and raised in Denmark, received a naval education in Holland, but served, with the exception of several youthful years, in the Russian fleet.

4. Like many foreigners in Russian service, Bering came from a noble but ruined family.

5. In eight years, Bering rose through the ranks of all four captain ranks that existed at that time in the Russian Navy. True, in order to become captain of the 1st rank, he had to submit his resignation.

6. The first Kamchatka expedition was the first expedition in the history of Russia, which had exclusively scientific goals: to explore and map the sea shores and discover the strait between Eurasia and America. Before this, all geographical exploration was carried out as a secondary part of the campaigns.

7. Bering was not the initiator of the First Expedition. She was ordered to be equipped and sent by Peter I. Bering was offered leadership at the Admiralty, the emperor did not object. He wrote instructions to Bering with his own hand.

8. It would be more appropriate to call the Bering Strait the Strait of Semyon Dezhnev, who discovered it back in the 17th century. However, Dezhnev’s report got stuck in the bureaucratic grindstones and was found only after Bering’s expeditions.

9. The sea part of the First Expedition (transition from Kamchatka to the Bering Strait, sailing across the Arctic Ocean and back) lasted 85 days. And in order to get from St. Petersburg to Okhotsk by land, it took Bering and his team 2.5 years. But a detailed map of the route from the European part of Russia to Siberia was compiled with a description of roads and settlements.

10. The expedition was very successful. The map of sea coasts and islands compiled by Bering and his subordinates was very accurate. This was actually the first map of the North Pacific Ocean compiled by Europeans. It was republished in Paris and London.

11. In those days, Kamchatka was extremely poorly explored. In order to reach the Pacific Ocean, the expedition's cargo was transported by dogs overland across the entire peninsula to a distance of more than 800 kilometers. The southern tip of Kamchatka from the transfer site was some 200 km away, which could easily have been covered by sea.

12. The second expedition was entirely Bering’s initiative. He developed its plan, controlled supplies and dealt with personnel issues - the participation of more than 500 specialists was envisaged.

13. Bering was distinguished by fanatical honesty. This trait was not to the liking of the authorities in Siberia, who expected to profit handsomely from supplying such a large expedition. That is why Bering had to spend time refuting the denunciations received against him and monitoring the entire process of supplies for his charges.

14. The second expedition was more ambitious. Her plan to explore Kamchatka, Japan, the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the North American Pacific coast was called the Great Northern Expedition. Just preparing supplies for it took three years - each nail had to be transported across all of Russia.

15. The city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was founded during the Second Bering Expedition. Before the expedition there were no settlements in Peter and Paul Bay.

16. The results of the Second Expedition can be considered a disaster. Russian sailors reached America, but due to depletion of supplies they were forced to immediately turn back. The ships lost each other. The ship, captained by A. Chirikov, although having lost part of the crew, managed to reach Kamchatka. But the “Saint Peter”, on which Bering was sailing, crashed on the Aleutian Islands. Bering and most of the crew died of hunger and disease. Only 46 people returned from the expedition.

17. The second expedition was ruined by the decision to look for the non-existent Company Islands, supposedly consisting of pure silver. Because of this, the ships of the expedition, instead of the 65th parallel, walked along the 45th, which lengthened their path to the American shores by almost half.

18. The weather also played a role in the failure of Bering and Chirikov - the entire voyage the sky was covered with clouds and the sailors could not determine their coordinates.

19. Bering's wife was Swedish. Of the ten children born in the marriage, six died in infancy.

20. After the discovery of Bering’s grave and the exhumation of the sailor’s remains, it turned out that, contrary to popular belief, he did not die from scurvy - his teeth were intact.

Vitus Bering was born in Denmark in 1681. In 1703 he graduated from the Amsterdam Naval Cadet Corps and soon entered service in the Russian fleet with the rank of second lieutenant. In 1710 he was transferred to the Azov flotilla, where he participated in the Prut campaign (1711). In 1712-1723 he served in the Baltic, where he commanded various ships. In 1724 he was dismissed from service at his personal request.

On December 23, 1724, Peter I issued a decree on organizing an expedition to Kamchatka and ordered to find a worthy officer who could lead it. The Admiralty proposed the candidacy of Captain Bering, who at that time had some experience. The Tsar agreed with the candidacy, and Bering was again accepted into service and awarded the rank of captain of the 1st rank.

The tasks facing the expedition were personally outlined by Peter I himself. The first Kamchatka expedition lasted five years (1725-1730). Bering and his team successfully completed their tasks. Large sections of the coast of Kamchatka and Chukotka were mapped.

Having rounded Kamchatka from the south, Russian navigators proved that Kamchatka is not connected to Japan, as some believed. But the most important discovery was that the travelers passed through the strait between Asia and North America, which was later called the Bering Strait.

Later, the expedition advanced more than 200 kilometers east of Kamchatka, Avacha Bay and Avacha Bay were discovered. The Bering expedition for the first time surveyed 3,500 kilometers of the western coast of the sea, later called the Bering Sea.

In 1730 he returned to St. Petersburg, where he submitted a detailed report to the Admiralty. Maritime officials treated the report with distrust. Nevertheless, the travelers’ work was adequately appreciated. Vitus Bering received the rank of captain-commander and 1000 rubles in money.

After the First, Bering proposed organizing a new, Second Kamchatka expedition with the aim of further exploring the northeastern lands and finding the eastern sea route to America.

His plan was accepted, and he led the Second Kamchatka (Great Northern) Expedition. A. Chirikov was appointed his deputy.

On September 8, 1740, an expedition on two ships (“St. Peter” and “St. Paul”) left Okhotsk, but while the preparations were underway, autumn came, and the sailing to the shores of America was postponed until next year. The ships stopped for the winter in the bay of the Avachi River. It was here that Bering founded a settlement, which was named after the ships of the expedition. After wintering in Petropavlovsk, on June 4, 1741, on two packet boats, the expedition of Bering and Chirikov set off from the shores of Kamchatka to the southeast, first in search of the mythical Land of Joao da Gama. Her search did not bring success, and the ships headed northeast, but due to poor visibility they diverged. For several days Bering searched for Chirikov's ship, but to no avail. Left with one ship, Bering continued to move first to the south, and later to the northeast, where he approached the shores of Alaska. The discoveries were overshadowed by Bering's worsening heart disease.

Despite the captain's poor health, the travelers continued their exploration along the coast of America. In August - September, Tumanny Island (Chirikova), five islands (Evdokeevskie), and snow mountains (Aleutian Range) on the Alaska Peninsula were discovered. On the open islands of Shumagin, Russian travelers first met the Aleuts. On November 4, 1741, the ship washed up on the island, where the captain-commander died on December 8. Here, 14 crew members died of scurvy. The island was later named Bering Island.

For 10 years (from 1733 to 1743), detachments of the Second Kamchatka Expedition mapped the northern and eastern coasts of Russia, the interior territories of Eastern Siberia, explored routes to America and Japan, and discovered the coast of Northwestern America, the islands of the Kuril and Aleutian ranges.

In 1991, a Russian-Danish expedition found the grave of the great navigator on the Commander Islands. Professor V. Zvyagin reconstructed Bering’s true appearance from the skull.

A sea, a strait, an island, an underwater canyon, a river, a lake, a glacier, a bay, two capes, a disappeared land (Beringia), which once connected Asia with North America, and a street in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky are named after Captain-Commander Bering.

Vitus Jonassen Bering (born August 12, 1681 - death December 8 (19), 1741) - Danish navigator, captain-commander of the Russian fleet (1730) Was the leader of the 1st and 2nd (1725-30 and 1732-41) Kamchatka expedition. He passed between the Chukotka Peninsula and Alaska, reached North America and discovered a number of islands in the Aleutian chain. The strait between Eurasia and North America, an island in the group of Commander Islands (also named after him) and a sea in the North Pacific Ocean were named after Bering. 1741, December - on the way back during wintering, Bering died on an island (later named after him), located east of Kamchatka.

Service in the Dutch and Russian fleets

He was born in the seaside town of Horsens in Jutland in 1681. Before moving to Russia, in his youth Bering sailed twice to the East Indies on Dutch ships. 1703 - graduated from the naval cadet corps in Amsterdam and was accepted into service in the Russian fleet as a lieutenant. 1710 - as a captain-lieutenant he was transferred to the Azov Fleet and took part in the Prut campaign (1711). In 1712-1723, rising in rank and commanding various ships, he served in the Baltic. 1724, February 26 - resigned. And after 5 months he turned to Peter I with a request to re-enter his service. The request was granted, and with the rank of captain 1st rank, that is, with promotion, Bering returned to the fleet.

Reasons for expeditions

But Vitus Bering was not able to become famous for his service in the Baltic and Azov seas and military merits. Fame came to him after two major marine scientific expeditions in the Pacific and Arctic oceans, the latter of which is rightly called the Great. Bering volunteered to command the first one himself, in the hope of rising to the rank of rear admiral and providing for his family and his old age.

Peter I, having far-reaching plans, decided to find out whether there was a passage between Eurasia and America (the court did not know about Semyon Dezhnev’s voyage). If it was discovered, the plan was to begin sailing along the Northern Sea Route to the eastern shores of Russia, to China and India.

First Kamchatka expedition

Vitus Bering began to carry out the royal order. Two weeks later - January 25, 1725 - the first members of the expedition were sent from St. Petersburg to Kamchatka. The group included two more naval officers (Alexey Chirikov and Martyn Shpanberg), and a crew totaling about 100 people.

The road turned out to be difficult and difficult. There were different ways to get there: carts, sleighs with dogs, river boats. Upon arrival in Okhotsk in 1727, they began building ships to carry out the main tasks of the expedition. On these ships, Bering reached the Western coast of Kamchatka. In Nizhnekamchatsk, the warship “St. Gabriel” was rebuilt, on which the sailors set off further. The ship passed through the strait between Alaska and Chukotka, but due to bad weather the sailors were unable to see the shores of the American continent.

The purpose of the expedition was partially fulfilled. But, returning to St. Petersburg in 1730, Vitus, submitting a report on the work done, drew up a project for the next expedition. For the most part, the top officials of the state and academicians did not understand, like the navigator himself, what he had discovered. But the main thing has been proven - Asia and America are not connected. And Vitus Bering received the rank of captain-commander.

Second Kamchatka expedition

Upon the traveler's return, his words, notes and maps were treated with a certain distrust. He had to defend his honor and justify the highest trust placed in him. So, a second expedition was appointed, under the command of Bering. According to the biography written by the navigator’s contemporaries, it is said that, shortly before the first trip to the shores of Kamchatka, a certain Shestakov discovered both the strait and even the Kuril Islands. But all these discoveries did not have documentary evidence. But Bering was educated, could structure and analyze the results obtained, and was good at making maps.

The second expedition had the following tasks: to explore the sea from Kamchatka to Japan and the mouth of the Amur, to map the entire northern coast of Siberia, to reach the American coast and to establish trade with the natives, if any were found there.

Despite the fact that Russia was already reigning, Russia was still faithful to Peter’s covenants. That’s why the Admiralty became interested in the project. The decree on the second expedition was issued in 1732. Having reached Okhotsk, in 1740 the navigator built two packet boats - “St. Peter” and “St. Paul”. “St. Peter” was taken under command by Vitus Bering himself, and “St. Paul” was commanded by Chirikov. Using them, the expedition reached the coast of Kamchatka, went around its southern tip and entered Avacha Bay. Here they stopped for the winter and founded the port city of Petropavlovsk, named after both ships.

1741, June 5 - the voyage continued. The ships sailed together for about three weeks, and then lost sight of each other. Finally, both of them reached the American coast. The first was "St. Paul".

"St. Peter" was able to reach the shores of America a day later, on July 17, 1741 at north latitude 58°14?. There were no Europeans there yet. The sailors saw mountain ranges with snowy peaks. The highest was called Mount St. Elias. Then we moved along the coast to about. Kayak.

From here began the return voyage, which ended tragically. The crew was exhausted by scurvy, storms and fog. The sailor Shumagin was the first to die, and the nearby newly discovered islands were named in his honor. The sailors' strength was fading. The 60-year-old captain-commander himself fell ill.

Vitus Bering and Alexey Chirikov in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky 1740

Death

In the end, the shore appeared, which was mistaken for Kamchatka. There the Saint Peter was wrecked. It turned out that this was an uninhabited island from a group later named the Commander Islands in honor of Commander Bering. We had to spend the winter there. 19 people died. Vitus Bering was one of the first to die on December 8, 1741, completing his 38-year track record for the benefit of Russia with the discovery and exploration of the coasts of Alaska and the extreme northeastern tip of Asia, never before seen by Europeans. The survivors dismantled the ship the following summer and built a small ship, on which they were able to reach Kamchatka in August 1742.

The expedition of Vitus Bering was caught in a storm near the Aleutian Islands - 1741

Heritage

The merits of the captain-commander were not soon recognized. Only in 1778, at the proposal of the commander who completed the work of the commander on the coast of Northeast Asia, the strait between Cape Dezhnev and Alaska was named the Bering Sea, and the marginal sea of ​​the Pacific Ocean located to the south was named the Bering Sea. Bering's ship's logs were published only in 1922 in New York (the materials of the expedition were considered secret).

And now fierce disputes over the assessment of Bering’s actions in both expeditions continue. Many scientists consider the discovery (secondary after Dezhnev) of the Bering Strait and the shores of America adjacent to Asia to be the merit of Chirikov. The commander is accused of being too cautious and calculating. But whatever the mistakes of the expedition leader, real or imaginary, he was, is and will be one of the most significant figures in the entire history of geographical discoveries.