First Kamchatka expedition facts for kids
The First Kamchatka Expedition was a big adventure by Russian explorers. They wanted to discover the eastern coast of Asia. Peter the Great, the Russian emperor, ordered this journey in 1724. Vitus Bering led the expedition. From 1725 to 1731, it was Russia's first scientific trip by sea.
The expedition proved that there was a strait, or narrow waterway, between Asia and America. This strait is now called the Bering Strait. After this first trip, a second one, the Second Kamchatka Expedition, followed in 1732.
The explorers spent their first two years traveling from Saint Petersburg to Okhotsk. They used horses, dog sleds, and river boats. After staying in Okhotsk for the winter, they moved to the mouth of the Kamchatka River. This river is on the east coast of the Kamchatka peninsula. In July and August of 1728, they sailed north and then northeast along the coast. They explored places like Karaginsky Gulf, Kresta Bay, and Providence Bay. They also saw Gulf of Anadyr, Cape Chukotsky, and St. Lawrence Island.
The expedition sailed through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea. They then returned, believing they had finished their mission. Even though they did not reach the North American coast, they found proof that Asia and North America were not connected by land. In 1729, they explored the southern parts of Kamchatka. They mapped the Gulf of Kamchatka and Avacha Bay. By February 28, 1730, they were back in St. Petersburg, after passing through Okhotsk.
The expedition was highly praised. Vitus Bering was promoted to captain-commander. This was his first noble rank. His helpers, Martin Spangberg and Aleksei Chirikov, became captains. It was a long and costly journey. Fifteen men died, and relations with local people became difficult. However, the expedition gave important information about Eastern Siberia's geography. They mapped over 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles) of the western coast of the sea. This sea was later named after Bering. Their maps were used by all European mapmakers.
Contents
Planning the Great Journey
On December 29, 1724, Emperor Peter the Great asked Vitus Bering to lead a trip to the east. Peter gave Bering clear instructions:
- Build one or two ships in Kamchatka or nearby.
- Use these ships to explore northern lands that seemed to be part of America.
- Find out where these lands connected to America. Also, see if any European cities were in the area. If they met European ships, they should ask about local names and map the coasts.
Preparations for the trip had started years before. But Peter's health was getting worse, so he sped things up. He chose Bering to lead, even though an experienced mapmaker named K. P. von Verd was also considered. Bering knew about the Indian Ocean and the eastern coast of North America. He was also good with people and had experience moving goods.
Bering's main helpers were Martin Spangberg, an experienced sailor from Denmark, and Aleksei Chirikov. Chirikov was a well-educated Russian naval instructor, though he was less experienced. Chirikov and Peter Chaplin wrote the expedition's daily journal. Bering was paid 480 roubles a year, while his assistants earned 180 roubles.
The usual way to Kamchatka was along the Lena River's branches. But after a treaty in 1689, this route seemed risky. So, Bering's group decided to travel over land and rivers from Saint Petersburg to Okhotsk. Okhotsk was a small port town on Russia's eastern coast. From there, they would sail to the Kamchatka peninsula to start their exploration.
Building Ships for the Expedition
In 1725, work began on a 20-meter (66-foot) long ship called Fortuna (meaning Fortune) in Okhotsk. It was built for the expedition. Peter Chaplin oversaw its completion in June 1727. By August, another ship of similar size, Vostok (meaning East), was brought from Kamchatka and repaired. By the end of August 1727, both ships reached Kamchatka.
In April and May of 1728, one more ship, Archangel Gabriel, was built on Kamchatka. It was made from local wood. The Fortuna and Vostok were used to carry goods between Okhotsk and Bolsheretsk. The Archangel Gabriel was Bering's main ship. It had four cannons.
The Long Journey to Okhotsk
On January 24, 1725, Chirikov left with 26 of the 34 expedition members. They traveled along known roads to Vologda, which was 661 kilometers (411 miles) to the east. Bering and the rest of the group followed on February 6, after paperwork was done. Bering had the few maps Peter had managed to get. Both groups used horse-drawn sledges and made good time at first.
On February 14, they met in Vologda. They then headed east across the Ural Mountains. They arrived in Tobolsk, a major stop, on March 16. They had already traveled over 2,816 kilometers (1,750 miles). In Tobolsk, Bering added more men to help with the harder journey ahead. He first asked for 24 soldiers, then 54. This was because the ship they needed in Okhotsk, the Vostok, would need many people to repair. The governor could only give 39 men, but it was still a big help. Bering also wanted 60 carpenters and 7 blacksmiths. The governor said half of these would have to be picked up later in Yeniseysk.
After some delays with equipment and money, the much larger group left Tobolsk on May 14. They traveled along the Irtysh River. The path to Yakutsk, their next big stop, was well-known. But it was rarely used by such a large group as Bering's. They also had to pick up more men as they went. Because of this, the group fell behind schedule. They reached Surgut on May 30 and Makovsk in late June. Then they entered Yeniseysk, where they could get more men. Bering later said "few were suitable."
The group left Yeniseysk on August 12, needing to catch up on lost time. On September 26, they arrived at Ilimsk, just three days before the river froze. After an 129-kilometer (80-mile) trek to Ust-Kut, a town on the Lena River where they could spend the winter, Bering traveled to Irkutsk. He wanted to check conditions and get advice on how to cross the mountains between Yakutsk and Okhotsk.
When the river ice melted in the spring of 1726, the group left Ust-Kut. They quickly traveled down the Lena River, reaching Yakutsk in early June. Even though they needed to hurry, the governor was slow to give them resources. Bering had to threaten him. On July 7, Spangberg left with 209 men and most of the cargo. On July 27, Fyodor Kozlov, a shipbuilder, led a small group to Okhotsk ahead of Spangberg. Their job was to prepare food and start repairing the Vostok. They also began building a new ship, the Fortuna. This ship was needed to carry the group across the bay from Okhotsk to Kamchatka.
Bering himself left on August 16. Chirikov would follow the next spring with fresh flour. The journeys were as hard as Bering had feared. Men and horses died. Some men (46 from Bering's group alone) ran away with their horses and supplies. They struggled to build roads across difficult swamps and rivers. Bering's group, which reached Okhotsk in October, had a tough time. But Spangberg's group had it even worse. Their heavily loaded boats could only be pulled about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) a day. They had about 1,102 kilometers (685 miles) to cover. When the rivers froze, they moved the cargo to sleds. The expedition continued through blizzards and waist-high snow. Even food left by Bering at Yudoma Cross could not stop starvation.
On January 6, 1727, Spangberg and two others, who were carrying the most important items, reached Okhotsk. Ten days later, sixty more joined them, though many were sick. Groups sent by Bering back along the trail from Okhotsk rescued seven men and much of the left-behind cargo. The people of Okhotsk said it was the worst winter they could remember. Bering took flour from the local villagers to feed his group. This caused the whole village to face starvation. In June 1727, an advance group from Chirikov's division arrived with 27 tons of flour. This resupplied Bering's group, which had become much smaller.
From Okhotsk to Kamchatka and Beyond
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The Vostok was prepared, and the Fortuna was built quickly. The first group, 48 men led by Spangberg, left in June 1727. They were needed to start building ships in Kamchatka right away. Chirikov arrived in Okhotsk soon after, bringing more food. His trip had been easier. He lost no men and only 17 of his 140 horses.
On August 22, the rest of the group sailed for Kamchatka. If the route had been mapped, they would have sailed around the peninsula to its eastern coast. Instead, they landed on the west. They then made a very difficult trip from Bolsheretsk in the southwest. They went north to the Upper Kamchatka Post and then east along the Kamchatka River to the Lower Kamchatka Post. Spangberg's group did this before the river froze. Next, a group led by Bering completed this last 933-kilometer (580-mile) stretch over land without using the river. Finally, in the spring of 1728, the last group from Bolsheretsk, led by Chirikov, reached the Lower Kamchatka Post.
This outpost was about 9,656 kilometers (6,000 miles) from St. Petersburg. The journey itself had taken about three years. It was the first time "so many had gone so far." The lack of food for Spangberg's advance group slowed their progress. But it sped up a lot after Bering's and Chirikov's groups arrived with supplies. As a result, the ship they built, named the Archangel Gabriel, was ready to launch by June 9, 1728. It was built upriver at Ushka. It was fully ready with sails and supplies by July 9. On July 13, it sailed downstream, anchoring offshore that evening. On July 14, Bering's group began their first exploration. They sailed close to the coast, going northeast, not directly north as they had expected.
Sailing further north, Bering entered the strait that would later be named after him. On August 8, the expedition met the local people for the first time. A boat with eight Chukchi men came near the ship. They asked why the explorers were there. They refused to board the ship. But they sent one man who swam to the ship on a balloon made from animal skin. The man said there were islands nearby. Indeed, two days later, the expedition reached an island. Bering named it St. Lawrence Island. Chirikov, in turn, named the meeting place Cape Chukotsky.
After Cape Chukotsky, the land turned west. On August 13, 1728, Bering discussed with his lieutenants whether the land would continue turning west for good. In other words, had they proven that Asia and America were separate land masses? The fast-approaching ice made Bering make a difficult decision. He decided not to go beyond his orders. The ship would sail for a few more days, then turn back. The expedition was not at the most eastern point of Asia, as Bering had thought. Nor had they found the Alaskan coast of America, which would have been visible on a clear day.
As promised, on August 16, Bering turned the Archangel Gabriel around. They headed back towards Kamchatka. On August 31, a strong storm hit the ship. It barely avoided crashing into the shore. After quick repairs, on September 2, it reached the mouth of the Kamchatka River. This was fifty days after it had left. The mission was almost over. But the group still needed to get back to St. Petersburg to write down their journey. This would prevent their trip from being forgotten, unlike Semyon Dezhnyov's similar expedition 80 years earlier, which Bering did not know about.
In the spring of 1729, the Fortuna returned to Bolsheretsk. It had sailed around the Kamchatka Peninsula to bring supplies to the Lower Kamchatka Post. Soon after, the Archangel Gabriel also returned. The delay was because Bering had made a four-day trip east, looking for North America, but found nothing. By July 1729, both ships were back at Okhotsk. They were docked next to the Vostok. The group no longer needed to carry shipbuilding materials. They made good time on the return journey from Okhotsk. By February 28, 1730, Bering was back in the Russian capital.
In December 1731, he was given 1,000 roubles and promoted to captain-commander. This was his first noble rank. Spangberg and Chirikov became captains. It had been a long and expensive journey. Fifteen men died, and relations with local people became difficult. But it gave useful information about Eastern Siberia's geography. It also showed proof that Asia and North America were separated by sea.
